I'm Krista Tippett, today a public conversation with Robert Wright.

His book, The Evolution of God, charts an intellectual path beyond the faith versus reason debate.

Wright takes a relentlessly logical look at the history of religion, exposing its contradictions,

yet he also traces something revelatory moving through human history.

The basic direction in which social organization moved, that is, from hunter-gatherer village

to chiefdom, ancient state, empire, and now we're on the verge of a globalized society,

I'm arguing that the effect that that's had on our conception of God's compassion has

tended to be a good one.

That as the world grows, a social organization gets more complex, people get more interdependent,

you see an adaptation on the part of God, and it does become a god of broader compassion.

This is Speaking of Faith, Stay with us.

Speaking of Faith is supported by the Fetzer Institute, sponsor of Karen Armstrong's Charter

For Compassion.

You can learn more at Fetzer.org.

I'm Krista Tippett.

Robert Wright's book, The Evolution of God, has been much talked about in both religious

and secular circles.

In my mind, this is a bridge book.

It has opened new conversation points beyond the religion versus science, faith versus

atheism, debates that galvanized American publishing and politics in recent years.

Wright's relentlessly logical approach to the history of the three monotheistic religions,

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, has something in common with the new atheist literature.

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