Can We Be Good Without God?: Biology, Behavior, and the Need to Believe

Where do our beliefs come from? During prayer or meditation or in any spiritual experience, are we communicating with the mind of God? Or does the concept of God originate in our own minds?

These questions are crucial to understanding some of the most important characteristics of human behavior, and the major effects of our beliefs--particularly religious ones--on our history. In this wide-ranging book, Dr. Robert Buckman highlights recent research linking spiritual experience to a group of structures in the brain called the limbic system. Many recent discoveries show that these areas of the brain are implicated in the origin of spiritual experiences and beliefs, and that some of these structures in turn have deep and significant effects on how we act. Buckman shows how the limbic system may be the source of many important "hardwired" patterns of our behavior--both the good and constructive actions, and the bad and destructive ones.

Furthermore, we are a strongly collaborative species--we readily unite in groups and crowds. Buckman analyzes some of the mechanisms that form the basis for these traits--including pheromones--as well as psychological patterns of response and how these may also have large-scale and deep-seated effects on what we choose to do or not do. The structure and the function of our brains and bodies may partly explain our history.

Finally, there is the issue of the foundation of ethical behavior. For millennia, most of the codes of behavior in the world have been based on religion, and on a community's interpretation of what it believes about the wishes and commands of a god or its many gods. Buckman examines the various links between beliefs and ethics, and shows how codes of morality and constructive interactions can be based on criteria that do not depend on any supernatural force or beings.

This ambitious and thoughtful work brings together research from many disciplines and provides insight into the mechanisms of ordinary belief and religious fanaticism. Buckman highlights important ways in which we can counterbalance some of the destructive effects of "limbic" urges and reinforce some of the collaborative, cooperative, and constructive traits we all share.