Index

Abraham 137, 156

Adam 2, 21, 120, 145

adaptations 47, 50–1, 71, 73, 82, 91, 94, 96, 111, 115

altruism 58–69, 115; on behalf of close kin 61, 68–9, 115; ­reciprocal 61–4, 68–9, 113, 115

Amos 117

anthropic principle 24–7, 29, 131

archetypes 111–14, 149

argument from design see design, argument from

Arp, Jean 74

Augustine, St 11, 32–3, 42

awareness 19, 40, 52–3, 96, 101, 104–5, 116, 121, 140, 162

awe, sense of 83–4, 101, 103–4, 107, 114–5, 119, 132–3

 

beauty, sense of 71–82, 104, 107, 115, 123, 133–4; as a by-­product 82–3; in art 74–7, 86, 119; in literature 77–8; in mathematics and science 81–2; in music 78–80, 116, 119; in nature 80–1; sexual 71–5, 115

behaviour see competitive behaviours; genetically ­determined behaviour; ­genetically influenced behaviour

belief, roots of 7, 17, 30, 34, 116–24, 171

Bible 2, 5, 14–16, 29, 45, 118, 129, 137, 142, 156, 165, 169

Big Bang 2, 24, 30, 32, 133, 138

Big Crunch 25

block universe 140–1, 161

brain, modular structure of 47, 85

Breuning, Wilhelm 161

Bruckner, Anton 80

 

causation 30–2, 52, 134, 138, 157–60

CERN laboratory 138

cheaters 62–3, 68, 91

co-creators 128–9

cognitive science of religion 89

commandment, greatest 38, 118; see also Ten Commandments

communication through the ­physical 143–5

competitive behaviour 18, 58–60, 63, 72–3, 87, 89, 113, 115

conscience 102, 105

consciousness 39–42, 45, 58, 60, 70, 104–5, 113–16, 120–4, 128, 133, 140, 145, 157, 160–2, 168–71; of God 6, 34, 38–9, 41–2, 45, 120–2, 124, 160; as an ­epiphenomenon 39, 52–5, 159

Constable, John 75

convergence 147

creation through evolution 145–8

creationism 21–2

creativity, sense of 84–7, 129–30

Crick, Francis 51

critical density 25

 

Daniel 157

Darwin, Charles 17, 22, 46, 79, 81, 131

Dawkins, Richard 2, 113, 171

death 5, 58, 118–19, 135, 146–7, 156, 159–68

Dennett, Dan 40

Descartes, René 11, 34

design: argument from 17–30, 131–2, 136, 144–7; Intelligent Design 21–3

determinism 53–6

devil 16, 149

DNA 18–19, 21, 65, 68, 100, 111, 122, 136

 

Earth 3, 22, 25–7, 31, 33, 43, 88, 131, 135, 147, 150, 156

ego 105, 114, 149

Einstein, Albert 32, 138–9, 161

Elijah 117

emergent properties 43

entropy 135

eternal life or afterlife 108, 156, 159–62

evil 70, 118, 123, 148–56; as absence of goodness 148–9

evolution, Darwin’s theory of 17–27, 44–5, 131, 145–7; of the eye 22–3

evolutionary psychology 45–52, 60, 66, 69, 73–82, 85–91, 94, 97, 102–5, 110–11, 115–16, 119

Ezekiel 156

 

feelings 53

Feuerbach, Ludwig 106

free will 54–8, 116, 119, 123, 130, 140, 146, 152–3; argument from 152–3; compatibilist approach to 57; as illusion 54, 57, 119

Freud, Sigmund 105–10, 156

 

genes 18, 20, 47, 53, 58, 61, 64–5, 69, 72, 75, 87, 94, 100, 112, 146–7

Genesis 2, 118, 120, 134, 145

genetically determined behaviour 19

genetically influenced behaviour 19, 47, 100, 111, 113

God: as all-powerful 101, 148, 150, 153; as Creator 32–3, 116–17, 128, 130, 133–4, 138, 141–6, 154; as father figure 106, 109–10, 118, 154–5; his kind of love 155; his foreknowledge 137, 140–1, 161; as an illusion 91, 99, 102, 110; of justice 4, 106, 146, 155–6; of love 4, 38, 90, 129, 142, 155–6; as Sustainer 33, 120–1; as ­unknowable 154; see also ­numinous presence of God

God of the gaps 13, 22–3, 98, 127

Golden Calf 98

goodness 4, 95, 123, 148–53

gossip 58–60

gravity, strength of 24–7

Ground of All Being 4, 30–4, 120–4

 

Hardy, Alister 103

Hawking, Stephen 30, 171

Heisenberg uncertainty principle 55

Hirst, Damien 77

Holocaust 60, 69–70, 123, 149

Hosea 117

Hume, David 70

‘hyperactive agent detector device’ 95

 

Ibsen, Henrik 78

id 105

inflation 25

Isaac 156

Isaiah 156

 

Jacob 156

Jeremiah 107, 118, 130, 137, 156

Jesus 11, 15–17, 29–30, 38, 69, 107, 118, 137, 142–3, 154, 157, 163–70

Jewish miracle stories, nature of 163–5

Jonah 107

Jung, Carl 38, 109–14, 149; see also self, Jungian; shadow, Jungian

 

Kant, Immanuel 4–5, 37–38, 127

Keats, John 160

Küng, Hans 4, 161

 

laws of nature 4,6, 13–14, 28, 30, 43, 51, 52–7, 88, 134–7, 141–5, 153, 163

Libet, Benjamin 54

language: acquisition of 49–50, 150; used to describe God 4, 6, 38–41, 49–50, 115, 158

Laplace, Pierre-Simon 14, 41

Large Hadron Collider 138

length contraction 138

life, nature of 20–1, 43–4

 

M-theory 30–2

Mary Magdalene 166

Maxwell, James Clerk 81

Messiah 166

Milky Way galaxy 133

mind see otherness of the mind; theory of mind (ToM)

Minkowski, Hermann 139

miracles, 14–17, 141–3, 163–5

Mondrian, Piet 77

Monet, Claude 76, 131

moral sense 4, 65, 69–71, 90–1, 104, 115, 118–19, 123, 149

Morris, Simon Conway 147

Moses 29, 107, 110, 130, 156

Mother Teresa 123

Muhammad 29–30

multiverse 28–9, 131–2

 

nature see laws of nature

near-death experiences 162–3

neurons 46, 159

Nocke, Franz-Josef 160

numinous presence of God 100–2, 107, 114, 123, 132–3

 

opposites, definition by means of 149–50

order and disorder 81, 134–7

original sin 123–4

otherness of the mind 114–16, 119, 123, 127–31, 168–9

 

pain 40–1, 53, 68, 118, 151–2

Palamas, St Gregory 42

Paley, William 17

Pascal, Blaise 42

Paul, St 15, 137, 167

personhood 106, 121

Peter, St 15–16, 137, 165, 170

Pleistocene hunter-gatherers 48–50, 59, 62, 72–3, 80, 84–5, 91, 94–5

Pollock, Jackson 77

prayer 17, 88–9, 101–4, 124, 132, 137

presidential height index 84

projection, psychological 106, 109

projections of spacetime 139, 161

promiscuity 64, 70–3

process theologians 137

psyche 60–2, 72, 99, 114, 123, 127

psychoanalysis 105–6

purpose, sense of 38, 87–9, 96, 99, 104, 115, 118, 129–30

 

quantum theory 55–7, 137

Qur’an 29, 169

 

relativity, Einstein’s theory of 32, 138–41, 161–2

religion as a commitment device 89–93

religious drive 88–100, 112–3

religious experiences 102–10, 113–6

Rembrandt van Rijn 76

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste 76

repression 59, 105, 109

resurrection 15, 137, 156–7, 160–9

Rossetti, Christina 12

 

self, Jungian 114

self-replicating survival machine 6, 51–2, 57, 102, 115–16, 127, 162

sexual selection 79

Shakespeare, William 78

shadow, Jungian 149

space, creation of 32, 138

spacetime 32, 138–40, 161–2; see also projections of spacetime

spandrels 49–50, 82, 94, 115

spatial dimensions, number of 27

standard social science model 45

stars: carbon formation in 26; ­formation and death of 24–7, 133

suffering 4, 38, 90, 107, 129, 146–56

Sun 3, 24–7, 31, 88, 97, 122, 133, 135, 148

superego 105, 107, 109

supernova explosions 27

 

Ten Commandments 65

Tennyson, Alfred Lord 63

theory-laden data 158–9

theory of mind (ToM) 96–9

Thomas, St 164

Tillich, Paul 4, 120

time: creation of 32–3, 138; dilation 138

timelessness or transcendence 33, 137–41

Tolstoy, Leo 78

 

unconscious 54, 59, 67, 104–7, 110–14, 122; collective 111, 122

universe 23–8, 30–3, 128–33, 136; observable 133

 

Van Gogh, Vincent 131

VMAT2 gene 100

 

Wilson, Edward O. 51

wish fulfilment 106–9, 156–7

world line 161–2

 

Yahweh 117