An interview with anthropologist Barbara King.
I think we have evolved to believe in transcendent realities. What we're about as a group of humans on this earth is believing that there's something more than us. It takes many different forms. I don't know that I'd focus on a single transcendent reality. I would say that because we're made to relate, we think and feel that we're in relationship with something bigger.
King is exploring the evolutionary roots of religion by studying our sister species like apes and bonobos and chimps. Her research is looking into the "embodied" aspects of religion, rather than doctrine, per se. She's all about this sense of spiritual awe, of empathy, and of self-awareness as a speciesÄî"because we're made to relate, we think and feel that we're in relationship with something bigger." [via rebecca blood]