Surveys the treatment of gods, goddesses, the heavens, creation, death, and evil as expressed in various mythologies around the world.

The United States is one of the most religious societies, but it is also a nation of religious illiteracy. Only 10 percent of American teenagers can name all five major world religions and 15 percent cannot name any. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the Bible holds the answers to life's basic questions, yet only half of American adults can name even one of the four gospels. Politicians and pundits continue to root public policy arguments...

An expert on religion and the Middle East seeks to distinguish between "authentic" and "corrupt" forms of religious expression, identifying ways in which the major religious traditions are vulnerable to corruption and how they can be corrected.

In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science,...