God is becoming more angelic -- more patient, tolerant, and compassionate. Just ask Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God, a dazzlingly well-researched new book that traces how social transformations are reflected in popular conceptions of the divine. His core argument is that as civilizations grow more prosperous, they also become more open-minded. Wright is often wrongly lumped with the so-called New Atheists, a group of provocateurs that includes Richard Dawkins (No. 18) and Christopher Hitchens (No. 47) and has grabbed headlines in recent years for arguing that religion is inevitably and forever a force for ill. Wright, himself an agnostic, argues that the future will bring not a grand clash of civilizations, but a dynamic and relatively happy marriage between modernity and religion. As Wright explains, "People are capable of expanding tolerance and understanding in response to facts on the ground; and even mandates from heaven can change in response." ... Original Article