REZA ASLAN. GOD. A HUMAN HISTORY. Reviewed by Reg Naulty.

REZA ASLAN. GOD. A HUMAN HISTORY. Reviewed by Reg Naulty.

Bantam Press. London. 2017. P. 298. $35. isbn. 9780593079836 [tpb] 

Here, according to Aslan, is the beginning of the religious impulse "It is the result of ... our ingrained, intuitive, and wholly experiential belief that
we are, whatever else we are, embodied souls. Our quest in the following chapters is neither to prove nor disprove the existence of the soul [there is no proof either way]. Rather it is to demonstrate how this universal belief in the existence of the soul led to the concept of an active, engaged, divine presence that underlies all of creation."[p. 47]
Somewhat surprisingly, numerous studies on the cognition of children have shown an instinctual propensity for "substance dualism" - the belief that the body and mind/soul are distinct in form and nature. One scientist, Paul Bloom, has argued that it is a natural by product of our possession of two distinct cognitive systems - one for dealing with material objects, the other for social entities [p.278] 

Aslan argues, persuasively, that humanity projected the soul onto nature, investing trees, winds, clouds and storms etc with spirits - hence animism, and religion was launched. 

Aslan started life as a Muslim, became a Christian, then a Muslim again. He is a Sufi, and an unorthodox one at that. He is a pantheist. He is quick to point out that some of the most influential Sufis were pantheists, as indeed they were, eg., Jalal ad - Din Rumi [d. 1273] and Ibn Arabi [d.1240] The thesis, championed by Feuerbach, that religion is a projection of human qualities on to external beings or being, is pursued so much in the book, that Aslan`s presentation and defence of pantheism towards the end is unexpected. 

He explains how pantheism arose in Islam:
"The issue is fairly straightforward: if God is indivisible, and God is Creator,
how could there be any division between Creator and Creation? Are they not necessarily the same? [p.158]"

To which the ready reply is "No. God creates a world distinct from himself. " Aslan`s re-phrasing provides no advance: "The only way to accept the proposition of a singular, eternal and indivisible God was to obliterate any distinction between Creator and Creation." The final sentence of the book is "You are God." 

Well, if the Pope and Richard Dawkins are also God, there are contradictions in God. Aslan writes "I pray to God not to ask for things but to become one with God." If he is God, there is no need to do that. 

Aslan`s final difficulties with pantheism do not negate the book as a whole. His account of the development of the idea of God from pre-historic times to Judaism is masterful. He turns up all kinds of interesting things. For example, the Sumerians, in, roughly, Iraq, around 50000 BC, drained marshes, built canals and irrigation systems, and invented the wheel and the sailboat. Sometime in the 4th century BC, they invented writing. One of their stories, about a great flood, is remarkably like the biblical story, which was written much later. The first monotheist in recorded history was Akhenaten, a young pharaoh from the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom in Egypt, about 1353BC. He was followed, about 200 years later by Zarathustra in Persia, who called God Ahura Mazda, which means Wise Lord, although He had no name and was known through six "evocations" which God had brought forth from his own being: wisdom, truth, power, love, unity and immortality. 

Ahura Mazda made the heavens and earth, the night and the day, separated light from darkness, and determined the path of the sun and stars. Then there is, in Hinduism, the God Shiva, who made its way up from being a minor God in the Hindu pantheon, through the ranks of the superior Gods, absorbing their attributes on the way, until, at the top at last, Shiva became creator and destroyer, healer and afflicter, ascetic and hedonist, the god of storms, and the lord of the dance. The origins of Judaism and Christianity are done well. It is important to note that Muhammad`s God is the God of Judaism. He made no bones about it. When he first received his revelations [the Koran] he told his followers that if they doubted his words, the people of the book would corroborate them. 

At a different place in the Koran, it is written of the Jews "of your prophet they have made a jest and a pastime." What an endless tragedy that turned out to be. Aslan tells the story very well. Even someone who has read a lot about religion will enjoy and profit from this book. 

• Reg Naulty is a member of Canberra Regional Meeting and a former senior lecturer in philosophy and religion at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.