While reading Evolving God, I had described the book to some of my friends as King's view on how Religion was formed, not why. Although, she does address a popular opinion on 'why' in the last chapter of the book.

If you've ever listened to her lectures from the Teaching Company, then you'll feel right at home with this book. Barbara J. King is a Biological Anthropologist which really shines through with this book. I would say any person interested in Anthropology would enjoy those sections of the book.

The premise of Evolving God is that religion was formed through humans yearning for belongingness, which creates an emotion base behind religion. King discusses emotions within animals and even belongingness. She travels past Homo Sapiens and delves into the possibility of hominids like Neanderthal feeling emotion or even belongingness.

I think people who believe solely in Intelligent Design or Creationism might not be comfortable with the book especially if they are against the theory that hominids are Homo Sapiens evolutionary ancestors.

One thing in the book, made me realize how dated the material is. King addresses (at the time, keep in mind her book was published in '07) the possibility of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens interbreeding. Although, she doesn't state her opinion. She references a source that states that Neanderthal DNA and Human DNA are so different that it is unlikely for them to have interbred.

Now, what makes this dated? In 2010, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published an article about their Neanderthal Genome Project and that non-African Humans contain Neanderthal DNA.

I thought it would be interesting if she updated that section to see what her opinion on the matter. Also, her thoughts on the interactions of early Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. Since they had to interact in some way for this to have occurred. Unless one species were the precursor of the Vikings.