A review by culuriel
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett

4.0

an extremely detailed look at the cognitive processes and social phenomena that could have led to the development of the world's folk practices and religions. dennett spends a great deal of time just justifying his attempt to explain religion's origins. while speaking of this book to someone in a diner, i mentioned dennett's linking of religion to a parasite- it doesn't exist for our own good, but for itself. he was very hostile to the idea, and stated that people should stop making out that religion is the problem. i say that when you have a belief that can only be believed in by the desire to do so, you better put up with people evaluating it critically. religious people will really scoff at this, and for reason- dennett's thesis is that religion grew out of cognitive processes to evaluate another entity's intentions, as well as our own inability to forget those who die, and our own desire to help make decisions that could go either way. dennett is honest that experiments have not been devised to test his theories, but invites people to do so, which is more than the theists have offered.