Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer qu...
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Jun 24, 2011
Jorge
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Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer
Religion Explained is about providing scientific explanations for why people believe. The author combines multiple scientific disciplines such as: evolutionary biology, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, archaeology and psychology to show how humans in general believe in the supernatural. It's a very frustrating book on many levels. In general, I agreed with many of the assertions that the author makes but the overall approach of the book lef More...
Religion Explained is about providing scientific explanations for why people believe. The author combines multiple scientific disciplines such as: evolutionary biology, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, archaeology and psychology to show how humans in general believe in the supernatural. It's a very frustrating book on many levels. In general, I agreed with many of the assertions that the author makes but the overall approach of the book lef More...
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May 13, 2010
Daniel
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I thought Sam Harris’ The End of Faith examined religious beliefs under a microscope but that was before I read Pascal Boyer’s deceptively titled Religion Explained. I was drawn by the subtitle: “The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought” for obvious reasons; I like reading critical texts about religion and also enjoy the topics of evolution and psychology. One would guess that this book unifies all three. Then how is it possible that I have never read a more boring book on religion? May
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Jun 21, 2011
Bob
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Boyer's theme is that humans have been designed by evolution to be group-oriented and they are prone to experience the world in "we" versus "they" terms. Religion is a major vehicle to develop and reinforce a group's identity and, thereby, to clearly mark outsiders as outsiders. We've evolved this way because our group is essential to the individual's survival and religion (right belief systems - morality, worldview, rituals, etc.) reflects and in some form institutionalizes
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Jun 01, 2009
Alec
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If you can understand this book then you will find it to be one of the most informative books about what happens in the human mind (and brain) when religion is involved. The operative words there are "If you can understand this book" as it was not written for those who are easily lost. If your someone who is pessimistic about how people act when they are we'll say "under the influence" of religion, then this will offer some objective analysis into the issue and you might be a
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May 27, 2008
Robert
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Why do all peoples (but not all persons) have religion? Why are there many religions? Boyers says it's because of minds shaped by evolution. Goes way beyond arguments for atheism by showing how irrational beliefs have apparent warrant; a very useful perspective.
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Jul 04, 2010
George
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This book gives a convincing explanation on the origins of religious beliefs. However, it misses an important aspect of contemporary religions, which is an unconditional allegiance to a doctrine, usually personified in the figure of a leader, which may be dead or alive, and who is distinguished from all the others in the sense that he/she has a closer relation with the divine. I think this character of modern religion is stronger than the original search for an explanation on the world's mysteri
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Jul 05, 2009
Willowwind
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E.O Wilson and Steve Pinker plug this book so you know the true believers won't like it. Boyer, an anthropologist, leads us through the cognitive reasons for the many diverse things that humans attribute to religious belief. His style is wry and gentle but no less learned for that. He loves to build what sounds like and plausible explanation and then jerk the wrong out from under the reader's feet by explaining just why it is incorrect. A great book for those who want to understand the why and h
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Nov 13, 2009
Lyndon
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General
This book was a tough read for me. Pretty slow and repetitive in places, he takes many tangents and tends to (IMO) over-analyze, perhaps wantonly discarding the simpler explanations in favor of more torturous ones. But many of his theories and observations I found noteworthy, enough so to warrant a book report.
Summary
First, a summary quote from Boyer:
“For eons, people naturally have talked about [numerous:] things that are not directly observable. It More...
This book was a tough read for me. Pretty slow and repetitive in places, he takes many tangents and tends to (IMO) over-analyze, perhaps wantonly discarding the simpler explanations in favor of more torturous ones. But many of his theories and observations I found noteworthy, enough so to warrant a book report.
Summary
First, a summary quote from Boyer:
“For eons, people naturally have talked about [numerous:] things that are not directly observable. It More...
Feb 15, 2008
Don
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This is a useful, but challenging book. Boyer's ideas are complex and subtle. Along with folks like Scott Atran, author of, "In Gods We Trust", Boyer advocates a religion-as-by-product approach. If I understand his message correctly, he argues that religion, defined as public displays of belief in supernatural agents, is a spontaneous result of the way our brains have been designed by evolution.
In one example, Boyer argues that the tendancy to ascribe goodwill or malice More...
In one example, Boyer argues that the tendancy to ascribe goodwill or malice More...
Aug 11, 2011
Why bother with the anthropology of religion anymore after this masterpiece? A great and interesting way to introduce cognitive anthropology and epidemiology of mental representations. At first we like to think that the essential ingredients of religions are morals, the afterlife, etc, which turns out to be a biased western-centric definition of religion. This book definitely broadens the concept for religion and gives a new perspective of how to think of religion without all that meme nonsense
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Jul 02, 2011
Claudine
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This is a review in progress. As a person struggling to define her own faith, this book comes at a very auspicious time in my life. A friend and I had a discussion about religion in general and my pov fits in nicely so far with Pascal Boyer's view. Put simply, going into this book, I believed that religion is a concept that early hominids developed over time to explain the unexplainable every day things they encountered, like thunder, volcanic eruptions, a black cloud on the horizon... His p
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Dec 23, 2010
Zbigniew
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I have to agree that it is a really good explanation. The only deficiency I find in it is the insistence on being the only explanation - the reasoning does not exclude other factors collaborating in the evolutionary process and so does not exclude other explanations adding to this one.
May 22, 2011
Sammyk
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Provides a lot of insight into how the brain works and why religion fits so well into it. I learned a lot from it, but Boyer repeats himself a lot and is quite wordy throughout the book. It was harder to read due to these factors and it took me twice as long to read the second half.
Other than that, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to know why religion is so prevalent around the world.
Other than that, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to know why religion is so prevalent around the world.
Sep 04, 2011
Amanda
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If you can get past the writing style, there are some very intriguing ideas presented in this book. Sadly, that is a big IF. It was sheer determination and stubbornness that allowed me to get through the book in its entirety. I found the information worthwhile, but the presentation to be seriously lacking.
Aug 13, 2011
Derek
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Boyer explains the persistence of religious belief. He exposes the trite, looking beyond to the real reasons why religious ideas find human minds to be such willing habitats. A far from easy read, but enlightening.
Nov 24, 2009
Nancy
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Interesting -- especially about the nature of religious rituals. It taught me that the human mind craves religion (except for me, that is).
Dec 17, 2009
Sabio
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One of the best books I have read on this subject.
"So we can better understand what gods and spirits are doing in rituals, so to speak, once we realize that they are added to the mental representation of the cermeonies. This way of seeing the situation is of course less inspiring than the notion of a human urge to worship the divine, but it is more faithful to what actually occurs in minds acquiring cultural knowledge." (pg 249)
This book is best understood with More...
"So we can better understand what gods and spirits are doing in rituals, so to speak, once we realize that they are added to the mental representation of the cermeonies. This way of seeing the situation is of course less inspiring than the notion of a human urge to worship the divine, but it is more faithful to what actually occurs in minds acquiring cultural knowledge." (pg 249)
This book is best understood with More...
Jul 29, 2010
Charles
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An examination of religion and it's evolution - or rather ours. Very insightful, scientific approach to an emotional subject.
Apr 18, 2007
Christina
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Religious concepts invariably recruit the resources of mental systems that would be there, religion or no. This is why religion is a likely thing. That is, given our minds' evolved dispositions, the way we live in groups, the way we communicate with other people, and the way we produce inferences, it is very likely that we will find in any human group some religious representations, whose surface details are specific to a particular group.
Religious concepts are influenced by the way More...
Religious concepts are influenced by the way More...
Nov 28, 2009
Eric
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The ideas in this book are persuasive. It can get a bit technical. Book book.
Jun 02, 2010
Alexandre
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It is the most comprehensive and interesting book on religion that I ever read.
Caterogy: ANTHROPOLOGY / NEUROSCIENCE
Caterogy: ANTHROPOLOGY / NEUROSCIENCE
Apr 02, 2009
Yama
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This is not another of those Dawkins/Religulous things. Not that there's anything wrong with those things, but I thought it would be, and it wasn't. This is a different thing: a very thorough, very academic explanation of how the human brain's inference systems make it possible, and likely, for people to believe nonsense. And not just any nonsense, but a very specific kind.
Dec 06, 2007
Katrina
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A great exploration of cognitive theory and psychology in relation to the evolution of belief and religious thought. controversial in that not every of Boyer's theories is completely fleshed out in the detail the work deserves(in fact, some make the argument that he uses too many sweeping generalizations), it is nonetheless a riveting and thought provoking work.
Oct 11, 2008
Becky
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An interesting view of religion, and how the human brain works
There is no real explaination of religion, just that the way our brains work makes it very likely that we will believe whatever our parents or our community believes, and that we will not be bothered too much with any contradictions in doctrine.
There is no real explaination of religion, just that the way our brains work makes it very likely that we will believe whatever our parents or our community believes, and that we will not be bothered too much with any contradictions in doctrine.
Dec 17, 2009
Brian
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this is a great book. very revealing about human nature and where we get our patterns, rituals, beliefs and how they're possibly instinctly ingrained in us from the land before time. i would recommend it if you like learning about science, human nature and have an open mind.
Jul 19, 2007
Jrobertus
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boyer is an anthropologist asking what evolutionary forces predispose people to supernatural beliefs. he makes a convincing case for modules, evolved for intuitive inference, being stimulated and creating the sense of 'others' watching over us. worth while scholarly book.
Jan 15, 2008
Shelley
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I liked this book quite a bit. It was written by an anthropologist who guides the reader in a deliberate and logical way - it was a pleasure to read and held together better than the Quantum Theology book that I just finished.
