The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths in Atheists and Skeptics

Sep 08, 2011 Kaylana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, 2011-read, neuroscience

Excellent book on why our brains have evolved to believe stuff in general without any or little evidence. The first half of the book is the best stuff with his information on the brain. The last half of the book is more about why people believe in their certain ideologies. But all is still worth the read.

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Aug 20, 2011 Tracy Black rated it it was amazing

Good book! I especially enjoyed Part II on the "Biology of Belief". It went into great detail on how beliefs are formed in the brain. It could have been very dry, but Shermer managed to make it come alive. Chapter 12 on "Confirmations of Belief" was also very interesting. ...more

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Dec 15, 2013 Daphne rated it really liked it

Great first book for anyone at all interested in skeptical thinking.

The audio book is read by the author, and he did a great job. I would recommend this in both written and audio versions.

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Jan 21, 2014 Joshua rated it liked it

It's not that I didn't enjoy this book; it had its entertaining bits and some personal history for Shermer (which, as a long-time Michael Shermer fan, I appreciated), but it was a lot of the same old same old, both within the genre and within Shermer's own literary corpus. There wasn't much in this book that I hadn't read 5 times already in other places. It may seem unfair to hold this book responsible, but Shermer ought to be aware that Carl Sagan already wrote this book several decades ago. If ...more

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