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A review by caitlin_89
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer
2.0
The title of this book is way more fun than the actual book. I understand the premise of this book is The Scientific Method Above All, but let's be honest: belief in something hitherto unexplained is how a lot of scientific discoveries have been made. Given that, the condescending tone in much of this book surprised me.
It's tediously long, as well. The systematic dissertations get old somewhere in chapter two.
It was cool to learn about the neurological functions related to belief, and the evolutionary and psychosocial constructs around belief. The science of belief, if you will. But geez, this book was long and dry.
There are some illustrations in here that feel an awful lot like giant stretches or logical fallacies (you don't want to wear the sweater of a murderer because of "transference" - you believe that the object "holds" the murderer's evil and "is capable of transfering it to you." I'm serious. This is supposedly an experiment someone did to prove humans believe this theory of transference. Feels like a pretty big leap of logic to me, but whatever. I'm no hardened skeptical sciencemaster.
I should be after all 344 pages of this, but... what can ya do. "In the end, all of us are trying to make sense of the world, and nature has gifted us with a double-edged sword that cuts for and against." (P 344)
It's tediously long, as well. The systematic dissertations get old somewhere in chapter two.
It was cool to learn about the neurological functions related to belief, and the evolutionary and psychosocial constructs around belief. The science of belief, if you will. But geez, this book was long and dry.
There are some illustrations in here that feel an awful lot like giant stretches or logical fallacies (you don't want to wear the sweater of a murderer because of "transference" - you believe that the object "holds" the murderer's evil and "is capable of transfering it to you." I'm serious. This is supposedly an experiment someone did to prove humans believe this theory of transference. Feels like a pretty big leap of logic to me, but whatever. I'm no hardened skeptical sciencemaster.
I should be after all 344 pages of this, but... what can ya do. "In the end, all of us are trying to make sense of the world, and nature has gifted us with a double-edged sword that cuts for and against." (P 344)