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A review by rodhilton
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer
5.0
The Believing Brain is Michael Shermer's magnum opus. I've read nearly every one of his books since the first of his I read, Why People Believe Weird Things, and I found most of them after the first somewhat disappointing.
But The Believing Brain is easily the best book he's ever written. In fact, I'll go ahead and predict now it's the best one he ever will write.
The Believing Brain deals with the core of what Shermer's books have been about: science, skepticism, and the tendency of people to believe in things without evidence. But this book, rather than Shermer's other, largely anecdote-filled stories, is absolutely packed to the point of exploding with scientific studies, case studies, statistics, and hard facts. The Believing Brain does not merely point out some odd behaviors of people, it tries to get to a deep, rich understanding of those behaviors. He absolutely exhausts resources, making sure to include every relevant piece of data in each chapter that helps explain people's beliefs.
Though the book starts off a little rocky, with a very long chapter about a friend of Shermer's who believes he has had an alien encounter, followed by a chapter on the religious conversion of Francis Collins, it's not long before Shermer gets into the real meat of his book.
In Part II, he talks about Patternicity and Agenticity, the tendency of human beings to find patterns in noise and ascribe those patterns to conscious forces (respectively). Then he gets into the biological basis for belief, with some of the most fascinating studies mentioned I've ever read.
Part III is a deep-dive into the weird things people believe, almost like Shermer went back to Why People Believe Weird Things and decided to reinforce it with a metric ton of hard science. He deals with the afterlife, gods, aliens, conspiracies, and provides a great deal of insight into why people believe these strange things, explained in part by the material from the previous part.
Part IV is a bit of a grab bag. A somewhat interesting chapter about politics (that feels only somewhat related to the rest of the book, but is interesting nonetheless), as well as a bizarrely long chapter about astronomy that barely seems like it belongs in the book, and the book's over, after a personal Shermer record of 400 pages.
It's like a delicious sandwich with stale bread. The first and last parts are tolerable but not terribly interesting, but the inner two layers are delicious meaty goodness. So good that I'm completely overlooking the lackluster first and fourth sections and giving the book 5 stars, the first such rating I've ever given one of his books.
This is one of the best pop-sci books on the brain, belief, and superstition I've read since The Demon-Haunted World. I highly recommend it.
But The Believing Brain is easily the best book he's ever written. In fact, I'll go ahead and predict now it's the best one he ever will write.
The Believing Brain deals with the core of what Shermer's books have been about: science, skepticism, and the tendency of people to believe in things without evidence. But this book, rather than Shermer's other, largely anecdote-filled stories, is absolutely packed to the point of exploding with scientific studies, case studies, statistics, and hard facts. The Believing Brain does not merely point out some odd behaviors of people, it tries to get to a deep, rich understanding of those behaviors. He absolutely exhausts resources, making sure to include every relevant piece of data in each chapter that helps explain people's beliefs.
Though the book starts off a little rocky, with a very long chapter about a friend of Shermer's who believes he has had an alien encounter, followed by a chapter on the religious conversion of Francis Collins, it's not long before Shermer gets into the real meat of his book.
In Part II, he talks about Patternicity and Agenticity, the tendency of human beings to find patterns in noise and ascribe those patterns to conscious forces (respectively). Then he gets into the biological basis for belief, with some of the most fascinating studies mentioned I've ever read.
Part III is a deep-dive into the weird things people believe, almost like Shermer went back to Why People Believe Weird Things and decided to reinforce it with a metric ton of hard science. He deals with the afterlife, gods, aliens, conspiracies, and provides a great deal of insight into why people believe these strange things, explained in part by the material from the previous part.
Part IV is a bit of a grab bag. A somewhat interesting chapter about politics (that feels only somewhat related to the rest of the book, but is interesting nonetheless), as well as a bizarrely long chapter about astronomy that barely seems like it belongs in the book, and the book's over, after a personal Shermer record of 400 pages.
It's like a delicious sandwich with stale bread. The first and last parts are tolerable but not terribly interesting, but the inner two layers are delicious meaty goodness. So good that I'm completely overlooking the lackluster first and fourth sections and giving the book 5 stars, the first such rating I've ever given one of his books.
This is one of the best pop-sci books on the brain, belief, and superstition I've read since The Demon-Haunted World. I highly recommend it.