AN ALMIGHTY ALPHA
How Our Primate Instincts Contribute to Belief in Gods

Foreword

Introduction

Academic Curiosity or an Ax to Grind?
The Ignorance of Human Instincts
A Hierarchy Enshrined
Domination (and Subordination) Out of the Closet
To Defer is Divine
Status, the Power of the Civilized
Testosterone and the Temperament of Gods

I: Preliminaries

1. Homo Narcissus – Just an Animal?

The Way of All Flesh
Boosting Self-Esteem Via the Supernatural
Misconduct – a Fall from Grace or Human Nature?

2. God: Gran Padre or El Presidente?

The Bible Deity: Your Father’s Father or Your Great Father?
From Family to Tribe, Father to Chief
Hierarchy: A Male Thing?
The Payoff for Dominance
God’s Love for His Own Children

3. Nurture and the Swiss-Army Knife of Human Nature

Gaps in the Brain and a Jack of Many Trades
The Creative Confines of Nature
Echoes of Ancient Needs
A Cerebral Confederacy

4. Bumpkins in the Night

Who Goes There?
The Projection of Intention
The Thunderbolts of the Gods
A Variety of Religious Agents and Experiences

5. Comparing Adams and Orangutans

Sex, Toys, and Neotenic Species
Sexual Pride & Reproductive Jealousy
No Primate is an Island
Strength in Numbers
God’s Violent Children
Status – Always on Our Mind

II: Traits of the Dominant

6. Size/Power

An Alpha Above Alphas
Why Godliness is Upward
A Thundering from the Clouds
By His Mighty Hand
Submissiveness and the Sacred
Bowing Down in Body and Spirit

7. Eye Contact

Vision, Information and Power
Threatening Eyes, Reassuring Eyes
Seeing and Being Seen by a God
Avert Thine Eyes from Your Lord

8. Threat Displays

A Primate’s Advertisement of Power
Friends in High Places
A Chest-Thumping God
Indirect Aggression and Dominance
The Shock and Awe of Mighty Deeds
Mike – Supernatural Master of Chimps
A Litany of Biblical Threats

9. Sexual Primacy

Sexual Primacy, Sexual Jealousy
Dominating Genes
God Wants to Know – Who’s Your Daddy?
Brute Sexuality
Male Seed and Sacred Wombs
The Spirit World’s Zealous Interest in Sex
Why Religions Strive to Clean Up Dirty Sex

10. First Fruits

Hungry Gods
The Best for the Highest
Some Real World Benefits of Religion

11. Soothed by Grooming

The Grooming of the Gods
Pleasing the Mighty
Upon a Throne of Praise
Grooming as a Social Tool
Grooming and Favors Owed
Soothing the Sky Gorilla
Vocal Kisses

III: But . . .

12. Will the Real Proto-Human Please Stand Up

The Chimpanzee – A Highly Social, Yet Non-Religious Primate
The Bonobo – Our Peace and Love Cousins?
More Civil than the Chimpanzee
The Bonobo’s Darker Side
The Human: Similar, But Different

13. The Egalitarian Ape: All for All and None for One

Democracy as Nair™: How Our Nature Appears Hairless
A More Civilized Power Structure
The Gearbox to a Revolutionary Rank and File
Less Visible Forms of Social Power
The Cart and Horse of Egalitarian Societies
The Varieties of Hierarchical Organizations
From Threatening God to Charismatic God

14. The Pacts Within a Pack

A Primate’s Proximity to Power
Status Via Allies
Strength in Numbers
Preventing Threats to the Social Order
Blood Brothers Without Shared Blood
The Rubber Bands of Alliances
Social Ledgers and the Supernatural
Religion and the Serious Matter of Group Membership
The Skyed Piper

IV: Benefits to Subordinates

15. Peace Among Us

The Cost of Chaos
Calming the Social Seas
Impulse Control, Biblical Style
Religion and Social Order
A Devine Referee
Decrees from an Absent Alpha

16. Protection from Them

The Protection of Powerful Agents
Xenophobia Runs Deep
The Five Star General in Heaven
All for One of Us and One for All of Us

17. Provisions

Keeper of the Garden
Manna From Heaven
Bounty and the Birth of Leaders

V: And?

18. Science and the Educated Guess

Science in a Nutshell
Is this Science?
The Importance of Specificity and Skepticism

19. Indirect Evidence and Possible Tests

The Hard Work of Science
Some Testable Links

20. The Roots of Religious Behavior

The Extension of Instinct
Dead But Not Gone
Chimpanzee Behavior, Superstition, and the Supernatural
Religion as a Social Toolkit
The Evolution of Religion

Appendices

The Varieties of Hierarchical Organizations

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