Why do "peace-loving" religions so often cause instability, conflict, and violence?
The Hopeful Heretic explores the history and evolution of western institutional religion, providing the context, language, and arguments free societies need to understand and inoculate themselves against resurgent religious fanaticism in the 21st Century.
Book I examines the invention of institutional religion as a social governance operating system built around the human need to understand our place in the Universe. From pre-historic nature-based religions to structured polytheism to the main western institutional monotheistic religions, The Hopeful Heretic charts the history, innovations, key features, and inherent defects of those systems, demonstrating each is man-made, inherently divisive, and prone to chronic instability and conflict.
Book II surveys the immense body of scientific knowledge accumulated since the questionable mythologies of our ancestors became generationally entrenched. From Newtonian Physics to Quantum Mechanics, Deep Field Astronomy, and Emergent Intelligence, the Hopeful Heretic argues that spirituality and meaning can be found without the need for "blind faith" by appreciating the scientific fact that life is a pre-programmed feature of a sublimely beautiful Universal Operating System and that we may all be part of and contributing to a living Universal Being.
A fascinating tour through history, religion, politics and science.