This book presents a consecutive story on the evolution of religions. It starts with an
analysis of evolution in biology and ends with a discussion of what a proper theory of
religious evolution should look like. It discusses such questions as whether it is humankind or
religion that evolves how religions evolve and what adaptation of religions means. Topics
examined include inheritance and heredity religio-speciation hybridization ontogenetics and
epigenetics phylogenetics and systematics. Calling attention to unsolved problems and
relating the evolutionary subject matter to appropriate material the book integrates and
interprets existing data. Based on the belief that an unequivocal stand is more likely to
produce constructive criticism than evasion of an issue the book chooses that interpretation
of a controversial matter which seems most consistent with the emerging picture of the
evolutionary process. ¿Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution ¿ the
evolutionary biologist and co-founder of the so-called New Synthesis in Evolutionary Biology
Theodosius Dobszhansky (1900-1975) wrote in his famous essay of 1973 opposing creationism in
American society. Today Dobszhansky¿s statement is not only fully accepted in biology but has
become the scientific paradigm in disciplines such as psychology archaeology and the study of
religions. Yet in spite of this growing interest in evolutionary processes in religion and
culture the term evolution and the capability of an evolutionary account have to date still
not been properly understood by scholars of the Humanities. This book closes that gap.
