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Reviewed By Stuart Nachbar A Guide to Evolution and SpiritualityWritten by a physician and scientist, David Coming’s Did Man Create God? is a highly detailed book that substantiates theories of evolution while also discussing how spirituality is important to evolution. That’s a challenging task for any physician or scientist, but Comings, who is a neuroscientist, behavioral and molecular geneticist, appears more than up to it. Comings work is the perfect read for people who share some of his expertise, or those who serve an academic or policy organization committed to evolution. But it’s too demanding and too detailed to be more than a reference book for the rest of us.
 Did Man Create God
Comings takes his science beyond evolution to prove that man created religion. As one example, he discusses the centers of the brain—temporal lobes—that cause man to have religious experiences, for instance hearing spiritual voices. He states, with scientific proof, that Temporal lobe epilepsy and its spiritual manifestations may have played a major role in the religious conversions of many historical figures and in the origin of several religions.
The author also presents extensive information on the neurological connections between spirituality and near-death experiences where a loss of oxygen to the brain begins a series of biochemical reactions that produce a state of peaceful bliss. He writes that spirituality is an intrinsic biological trait controlled by genes and unique environment and is not determined by cultural influences such as religious education. He sums up by saying: Spirituality comes from within, and that people are often spiritual without necessarily being religious. But he also adds that high levels of religiousness are positively associated with lower levels of abuse of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, as well as decreased levels of depression and a longer lifespan. This book also takes you through the historic origins of the major world religions, as well as spiritual arts such as mysticism, myth, ritual and psychedelics. The author also refutes the thought that a devine God plays favorites; that view is inconsistent with the existence of a fail and impartial God who loves all, and that a desire to be chosen or special is a human wish, not a Godly one. There was another interesting point related to fundamentalist beliefs: the difference between petitionary prayer, where an individual prays for him—or herself and intercessory prayer, where someone else prays for an individual who may not know he or she is being prayed. for. In petitionary prayer, prayer is a powerful coping mechanism for the afflicted; it is a placebo effect. This placebo effect does not exist in intercessory prayer. So, telling someone to fight for their life may be more effective than praying for divine intervention to save someone’s life.
In conclusion, this is a comprehensive, but overwhelming work. I’d send it to every politician who believes in intelligent design, but I would have to mark all of the key pages or make a Powerpoint to get their staff to read it first.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .
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