A belief in the primacy of mind is a ubiquitous element in the history of ideas. In this view the mind or soul is not only primary as an explanation of human nature, but is the only conceivable explanation, as nothing so subtle and sublime as reason and morality could possibly emerge from matter and motion, the primary elements of scientific explanation. In his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995) Daniel Dennett explains that Judeo-Christian and Islamic cosmogony

Cosmogony

Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...

are established on the assumption that the genesis of all creation is dependent on the action of a "cogitative being".