CONTENTS

Introduction

Academic Curiosity or an Axe to Grind?
The Ignorance of Human Instincts
From Threat To Dominance
A Hierarchy Enshrined
Dominance (and Submission) Out of the Closet
To Defer is Divine?
Status: The Power of the Civilized
The Benevolent Alpha
God's "R" Us
Testosterone and the Temperament of Gods


PART I: PRELIMINARIES

1.  Homo Narcissus - Our Inflated Species-Esteem

The Way of All Flesh
Boosting Self-Esteem Via the Supernatural
Human Violance: Animal Nature or a Fall From Grace?

2.  God: Uber-Pater or El Presidente?

Father Dictates Best?
The Bible Deity: Your Great Father or Your Father's God?
From Family to Tribe, Father to Chief
Heirarchy: A Male Thing?
Testosterone: Cocktail of the Mightyt?
The Payoff for Dominance 
A God's Love of His Own Children (Part I) 
A God's Love of His Own Children (Part II)

3.  Nurture and the Swiss-Army Knife of Human Nature

Gaps in the Brain and a Jack of Many Trades
The Creative Confines of Nature
A Cerebral Confederacy

4.  Bumpkins in the Night

Who Goes There?
Perceiving Intention Behind Events
Hurricane Hugo Sent by a God
The Variety of Religious Agents and Experiences

5.  Comparing Adams and Orangutans

Comparing Adams and Orangutans
Sex, Toys, and Neotenic Species
There is Reproduction, and There is Sex
Sexual Pride & Reproductive Jealousy
Me and My Peeps
The Days of Our Troop
No Primate is an Island
Religion and Strength in Numbers
Throwing Stones at What Threatens Us
God's Violent Children
If You Aren't With Me/Us, You're Against Me/Us
Status on Our Minds (at Least Unconsciously)
Primate Females and Status
What Comes Naturally

PART II: DYNAMICS OF THE DOMINANT

6.  Power/Size

The Most Alpha of Alphas
My Leader is Bigger than Your Leader
God's Thundering Voice
Why Godliness is Up
Even in the Supernatural Realm, Size Matters
Submissiveness and the Sacred
By His Mighty Hand - I
By His Mighty Hand - II
By His Mighty Hand - III
Showing Submission to the Supernatural: Background
Showing Submission to the Supernatural: Bowing Down in Body and Spirit

7.  Eye Contact

The Eyes Have It
Vision, Information and Power
Threatening Eyes, Reassuring Eyes
Seeing and Being Seen by a God
Avert Thine Eyes from Your Lord

8.  Threat Displays

God Commands: Stay in Line
The Dance of Dominance
A Primate's Advertisement of Power
A Genuinely Powerful Deity
Friends in High Places
A Supernatural Ability to Divide the Opposition
Supernatural Calamities as a God’s Advertisements
A Chest-Thumping God: the Drumming and Trumpeting of Threat
Indirect Aggression and Dominance
The Shock and Awe of Supernatural Feats
Mike - Supernatural Master of Chimps
A Threatening God - I
A Threatening God - II
A Threatening God - III

9.  Sexual Primacy, Sexual Jealousy

Sexual Primacy, Sexual Jealousy
Dominating Genes
God Wants to Know: Who's Your Daddy?
Brute Sexuality
Male Seed and Sacred Wombs
The Spirit World's Interest in Sex
Sexual Rivalries and a God Taking Sides
The Devilish Penis and Curbing Desire
Why Religion Strives to Clean Up Dirty Sex

10.  First Fruits

The Payoff for Spiritual Superstition
Hungry Gods
First Fruits for the Head Honcho
Real World Benefits of Religion

11.  A Throne of Grooming

The Grooming of Gods
A Groom to God
Pleasing the Mighty
Upon a Throne of Praise
Grooming as a Social Tool
Grooming as a Social Glue, Within and Without Religion
Grooming and Favors Owed
Grooming to Mollify the Great Gorilla
God and Grooming the Greater with Our Tongue
Religious Praise and Grooming at a Distance


PART III:  BUT . . .

12.  Will the Real Proto-Human Please Stand Up

Will the Real Proto-Human Please Stand Up
The Chimpanzee – A Pre-Religious, Highly Social Species
The Bonobo: A Peace and Love Primate
More Civilized Than The Chimpanzee
The Bonobos’ Darker Side
More than a Chimpanzee
The Human Primate: Similar, but Different

13.  The Egalitarian Ape

Democracy as Nair: How Our Nature Appears Hairless
A More Civilized Power Structure
The Gearbox to a Revolutionary Rank and File
Less Visible Forms of Social Power

14.  Pacts Within a Pack

PART IV:  BENEFITS TO SUBORDINATES

15.  Peace Among Us
16.  Protection from Them
17.  A Provider of Bounty

PART V: AND?

18.  Science and the Educated Guess
19.  Indirect Evidence and Possible Tests
20.  The Buds of Religious Behavior