We received by birth the gift of free will: the inner urge, drive, or the inner desire, through faith, to have a communion with God. Humans are driven by many urges, but none stronger than the urge to love and to be loved. Hunger (as part of the survival instinct) and sexual cravings (survival of the species) are well developed in humanstwo instinctive urges that humans share with the animal world. Nature demands survival, but the art of civilization increases the pleasures of living and the satisfactions derived from family life. To find meaning in life is a valuable and ultimate endeavor.

An essential feature of religious experience across many cultures is the intuitive feeling of God's presence. More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion.Starting with a vivid narrative account of the life-threatening hike that triggered his own mystical experience, biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy. These insights shed new light on some of the most vexing puzzles of religion, like the popular belief in a god who is judgmental and punishing, yet also unconditionally loving; the extraordinary tenacity of faith; the greater religiosity of women relative to men; religious obsessions with sex; the mysterious compulsion to pray; the seemingly irrepressible feminine attributes of God, even in traditionally patriarchal religions; and the strange allure of cults. Finally, Dr. Wathey considers the hypothesis that religion evolved to foster reproductive success, arguing that, in an age of potentially ruinous overpopulation, magical thinking has become a luxury we can no longer afford, one that distracts us from urgent threats to our planet.Deeply researched yet elegantly written in a jargon-free and accessible style, this book presents a compelling interpretation of the evolutionary origins of spirituality and religion.

From the provocative author of Straw Dogs comes an incisive, surprising intervention in the political and scientific debate over religion and atheism When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your firmest convictions—secular or religious—are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought. For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood “science.” John Gray’s stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself. Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of “God-haters” like the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from Bertrand Russell’s search for truth in mathematics to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary light on what it is to be human.

Considers the role and significance of imagination and the myth-making processes that engage human beings in constructing a viable, living world of meaningful relations, beliefs and social interactions.

The Conquest of Illusion is an outstanding investigation of reality and how our perceptions shape it, by author, theosophist and yogi J. J. Van Der Leeuw. This edition contains his original illustrations. An eclectic work which cites relevant works of both Eastern and Western philosophy, The Conquest of Illusion aims to teach those in the modern world - an existence dominated by physical things and technological achievement - of a consciousness which has and will always exist. This essential mystery, scarcely penetrated by most human beings, is this book's central theme. Rather than be an intensive book of dense and philosophically rich arguments, Van Der Leeuw instead opts to inform the reader of his own experiences as a yoga practitioner. These intense experiences result in the book you hold in your hands, which aims to prove that what we outwardly perceive as real and tangible are quite different from the inner truths of time and space that underpin every moment of our existence.

In this title, the author argues that there is design in our universe and a deep intelligence behind life. Without defending organised religion, he debunks randomness as an explanation for how Nature evolves and shows how consciousness comes first and matter second.