Professor Carl Olson teaches at Allegheny College. Besides numerous essays in journals, books, and encyclopedias, he has published 20 books on subjects such as Hinduism, Buddhism, comparative philosophy, and method and theory in the study of religion.
“In this engaging book, Carl Olson presents a view of religion in terms of evolution and power that needs to be read. While not everyone will agree with it, this book expresses its view with clarity and conviction.” —Gavin Flood, Oxford University, UK. “The book makes an original, very provocative and useful contribution to the study of religion. At the core, the author uses an evolutionary model of the origin of Homo sapiens and religion, a story in which religion makes its appearance as a human creation at the beginning of evolutionary human history. This argument has been supported by a wide range of areas of scholarship, covering anthropology, history, evolutionary theory, studies of bodies and brains and cognition.” —Dr. Will Braun, University of Alberta, Canada.