Breaking the spell
For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why—and how—it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion's evolution from "wild" folk belief to "domesticated" dogma. Not an antireligious screed but an unblinking look beneath the veil of orthodoxy, Breaking the Spell will be read and debated by believers and skeptics alike.
Stats for nerds
7recommend
11mentions
11people
2008–2024years
64% recommend36% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Some of Denett's works have been very influential in shaping my ideas about the world. Being a physicist by training, I did not (could not because of lack of exposure?) appreciate the concept of natural selection till I read his Darwin's Dangerous Idea. That book completely transformed my way of looking at principle of natural selection. The Mind's I anthology was another one which blew me away as a youngster. Finally his ideas on religion/atheism as presented in Breaking the Spell contributed to making sense of unorganised thoughts I had.
- Breaking the Spell is a book I still recommend to friends today. Sad to hear.
- My background is in Analytic Philosophy, so I'm fairly familiar with Dennett. His rise to prominence during the early 2000's seemed appropriate given the huge shift in American religious belief. Though, I still certainly understand that folks can be exasperated by that movement, I just don't think that you can experience a 30% drop in religious affiliation, in a single generation, without annoying people.[1]
I read his book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, which I found really interesting in that I'd never thought about religion as a concept being an evolutionary adaptive (or "hijacking") feature. I found it fascinating, though not profound. That said, I think some of the best philosophical work is just that. Really insightful ideas that make perfect sense once you think about them, you just probably wouldn't take the time to think about them.
1. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-reli...
- This may be the best book to read on the topic: Breaking the Spell by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. In short: religion is a meme (that has evolved over centuries). Crudely put, one can draw some parallels between religion "infecting" a human and a virus that makes an ant crawl to the top of a blade of grass (as the virus needs a sheep's stomach to reproduce).
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Pheno...
- Well, let me recommend another book that directly addresses your interest in the anthropology of religion: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Dan Dennett.
- Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell" is worth your time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Spell:_Religion...
Related
The fallacy of fine-tuning
3 recommend · 3
Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking
8 recommend · 20
From Bacteria to Bach and Back
6 recommend · 11
Consciousness explained
35 recommend · 106
The God Delusion
41 recommend · 111
The End of Faith
11 recommend · 21
