Reading list

In general these are texts I’d recommend educated religiously inclined H to study texts of heathen cultures comparable to ours:

    1. the yasht-s of the old Iranians; then others in order:
    1. The Homeric hymns & thereafter the Orphic hymns & the hymns of Proclus.
    1. The Iguvine tablets, Vergil Herculean hymn, Carmen Arvale.
    1. Aspects of the Poetic Edda.
    1. Papyri Graecae Magicae
    1. Hittite incantation texts.
    1. Egyptian Book of Dead & temple texts;
    1. Hymn to Enlil etc Mesopotamian material.

Evolution

Source: TW

While I’d not endorse everything in them: Darwin’s Cathedral by DS Wilson and How Religion Evolved by Dunbar provide a reasonable foundation for evolutionary argument for why religion/religiosity might have been selected for under the frame work of natural selection. Wilson’s group selectionism has been opposed by many evolutionists but I personally find value in his arguments. I think H are a genuine example of it.