''Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society'' () is a 2002 book by

David Sloan Wilson David Sloan Wilson (born 1949) is an American evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a son of author Sloan Wilson, and co-founder of the Evolution ...

which proposes that

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

is a multi-level adaptation—i.e., a product of

cultural evolution Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation a ...

developed through multi-level selection.Andrew Brown
"'I wanted to show how niceness evolves'"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', July 24, 2003.Natalie Angier
"A Conversation with David Sloan Wilson; The Origin of Religions, From a Distinctly Darwinian View"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', December 24, 2002.

Reception

The ''

Journal of the American Academy of Religion The ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'', formerly the ''Journal of Bible and Religion'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). The ''JAAR'' was e ...

'' called it "a welcome book because it unsettles everybody, evolutionary biologist and religious believer alike"."Review: Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society"
''

'' (2004) 72 (3): 800-802. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfh079

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books '' The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Priz ...

in the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

'' called it a "thought-provoking book" which "will stimulate each reader to examine his or her personal view of religion's future".

, "The Religious Success Story", ''The New York Review of Books'', November 7, 2002

References

2002 non-fiction books Books about Charles Darwin Moral psychology books Psychology of religion {{reli-book-stub