In God's Image
The Natural History of Intelligence & Ethics

By Gerhard Meisenberg
July 2007
Distributed By Trans-Atlantic Publications
Book Guild
ISBN: 9781846240553
414 pages, Illustrated, 6 1/4" x 9 1/2"
$39.95 Hardcover

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We are seeing explosive advances in the science of human evolution, to a point where our genome can be compared in molecular detail with the genomes of other primates. At the same time, the neurobiology of the "higher cognitive functions" has reached a point where we can scan activity of the living brain to make thoughts and feelings visible.

In this book, the author explains the processes by which the brain creates intelligent reasoning and judgements about proper courses of action. He illuminates the big issues of "human nature" from the point of view of the neurobiologist, evolutionary biologist, and molecular geneticist in turn. The results are disturbing. The author describes humans as crudely programmed robots with fairly predictable behavior, unable to transcend the limitations that culture and genes impose on their thinking.

The author knows how to turn information into knowledge into wisdom. The book unifies the biological and social sciences, and shows how this powerful new science answers the big questions about human existence: the nature of reasoning and problem solving, the way ethical judgements are produced from a bundle of social instincts, the question why men rather than women rule the world, why countries fight wars, why Europe rose but the Middle East declined over the past millenium, and much more. This new science can predict the future: Will our present civilization survive, or will it self-destruct? And in what direction is our species evolving biologically.


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