Religion and its Origins in Human Psychology: A View through History

In an era of scientific dominance, why does religion still maintain an unshakeable grip over so many lives, dramatically impacting world events? Why did humanity first develop religious constructs and institutions? How has our relationship with the divine evolved over civilisation’s history? This book chronicles religion’s enduring role across millennia - its profound shaping of both individuals and societies. Reviewing psychological theories, it explores the evolution of our inherent need to interact with gods and the supernatural. Religion was our original “science” - humanity’s first response to the natural world and our place within it.Since then, two major transitions have revolutionised our religious approach. First, the emergence of teachers like Zoroaster, Jesus and Mohammed introduced personal and social accountability. Today, science and nationalism inherit many attributes once exclusive to faiths. Throughout history, religion also empowered rulers who claimed special divine sanction to exert authority and wage war. Despite an uneasy coexistence with science, religion perseveres because it continues answering profound human requirements at personal and collective levels.This is the innate legacy that ensures religion’s hold over life and world affairs is unlikely to ever diminish.

Michael Kay considers himself a polymath, with interests ranging from chemistry to history, psychology and politics. While studying at St Andrews University, Michael became a Christian, but a few years later rejected this religious affiliation. As a scientist and rationalist, he could no longer handle the personal mental dissonance between the world as he understood it and the irrational teachings of this religion. Michael is now agnostic. Inspired to explore this experience and the wider impact of religion through the ages, this is his first book.