For the last 50,000 years, and probably much longer, human beings have practiced one or another religion. But little attention has been given to explaining the universality of religious behavior. How did it become hardwired into human nature? In his new book, supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, the acclaimed New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade traces how religion grew to be so essential to early societies in their struggle for survival.

As a force that binds people together and motivates individuals to put the interests of society above their own, religion encouraged moral behavior toward those within the group and aggression, when necessary, toward those outside it. Religion thus provided the earliest human societies with their equivalents of law and government. Wade describes how religion influences morality and trust, governs people’s reproductive practices and demography, motivates soldiers for warfare, and unites social organizations as small as parishes and as vast as civilizations. A compelling and original contribution to the scientific study of religion, The Faith Instinct examines both the weaknesses of modern religions and the strengths that account for their remarkable persistence.