ABSTRACT
(with brief definitions of technical terms for reference)
The possibility of scientific endeavour places conditions on the evolution of intelligence, summed up in the phrase, Science-Fostering Intelligence. SFI enables people to make sense out of fragmentary perspectives on phenomena that are not directly observed and to intuit laws and principles that often differ from those exhibited in the everyday environment. Inquiry into the origin of SFI, based on the ideas of evolutionary anthropology, suggests that the cognitive demands of soul journey by paleoshamans played an important role in the survival and genetic formation of early Homo sapiens. This spirit-niche hypothesis could be corroborated with cross-cultural aptitude tests. One reasonable way to account for SFI, consistent with evolutionary biology, is to suppose that our space-time world coexists with a spirit world so that both together constitute a single psychophysical metaverse presided over by a unique Spirit. Further theological implications can be developed for a ‘thick cosmology’ and vestiges of the divine image in humanity.
