Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - Softcover

Dennett, Daniel C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141017775 ISBN 13: 9780141017778

Publisher: Penguin, 2007

Synopsis

In Breaking the Spell Daniel C. Dennett explores how the great ideas of religion have enthralled us for thousands of years - and whether we could (or should) break free.

What is religion and how did it evolve? Is it the product of blind evolutionary instinct or of rational choice? Is the only way to live a good life through religion?

Few forces in the world are as potent as religion: it comforts people in their suffering and inspires them to both magnificent and terrible deeds. In this provocative and timely book, Daniel C. Dennett seeks to uncover the origins of religion and discusses how and why different faiths have shaped so many lives, whether religion is an addiction or a genuine human need, and even whether it is good for our health. Arguing passionately for the need to understand this multifaceted phenomenon, Breaking the Spell offers a truly original - and comprehensive - explanation for faith.

'Packed with a mass of intriguing detail and anecdote ... witty and clear prose'
  Observer

'He's the "good cop" among religion's critics (Richard Dawkins is the "bad cop"), but he still makes people angry'
  New Statesman

'Dennett writes with brio and humour'
  Telegraph

'Elegant, sharp-minded ... clear-eyed but courteous'
  Economist

Daniel Dennett is one of the most original and provocative thinkers in the world. A brilliant polemicist and philosopher, he is famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies, and an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. His books include Brainstorms, Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Consciousness Explained, Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Freedom Evolves.

About this title

Review:

"Ambitious . . . an accessible account of what might be called the natural history of religion."
--The New Yorker

"How would a visitor from Mars dispassionately explain human religion? . . . My guess is that the result would be something like this crystal-clear, constantly engaging, and enjoyable new book."
--Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse

"Rich and rewarding . . . the main business of the book is to give a scientific account of how religion may have developed among creatures such as us. . . . The product of an extremely bright mind."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"An elegant, sharp-minded essay on the need to study religion in a dispassionate way."
--The Economist

"Penetrating . . . a sharp synthesis of a library of evolutionary, anthropological and psychological research on the origin and spread of religion."
--Scientific American

Synopsis:

Few forces in the world are as potent as religion: it comforts people in their suffering and inspires them to both magnificent and terrible deeds. In this provocative and timely book, Daniel C. Dennett seeks to uncover the origins of religion and discusses how and why different faiths have shaped so many lives, whether religion is an addiction or a genuine human need, and even whether it is good for our health. Arguing passionately for the need to understand this multifaceted phenomenon, "Breaking the Spell" offers a truly original - and comprehensive - explanation for faith.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0141017775
• ISBN 13: 9780141017778
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464