The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
The Believing Brain is bestselling author Michael Shermer s comprehensive and provocative theory on how beliefs are born, formed, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.In this work synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist, historian of science, and the world s best known skeptic Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine From sensory data flowing in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning Our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen, and these patterns become beliefs Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive feedback loop of belief confirmation Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths.Interlaced with his theory of belief, Shermer provides countless real world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal Ultimately, he demonstrates why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not a belief matches reality. New Read The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths author Michael Shermer For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I decided to buy this book after watching a short Ted Talk featuring Michael Shermer in which he discussed the origins of belief A natural born skeptic with two science based degrees who often finds herself wanting to believe a huge X files fan , I am fascinated by how people come to hold certain beliefs that on the surface appear flawed or irrational So that said, this book appealed to me on many levels.On a personal level, I have a special interest in religious belief Raised a Christian, I I decided to buy this book after watching a short Ted Talk featuring Michael Shermer in which he discussed the origins of belief A natural born skeptic with two science bas...Here s the tl dr review If you re looking for the ways that we tend to trick ourselves and how to deal with that reality, see Predictably Irrational or The Power of Habit Shermer s book is definitely not the book for that.Now the full review I was really excited about this book I was hoping that it would update and extend Consciousness Explained with contemporary neuroscience about belief That was, after all, exactly how the book billed itself through the marketing coverage and through the Here s the tl dr review If you re looking for the ways that we tend to trick ourselves and how to deal with that reality, see Predictably Irrational or The Power of Habit Shermer s book is definitely not the book for that.Now the full review I was really excited about this book I was hoping that it would update and extend Consciousness Explained with contemporary neuroscience about belief That was, after all, exactly how the...One of the most exciting books I have ever read The author is a science historian, and writes monthly articles for The Scientific American What I am going to describe here sounds cold and formal, but the book is written with spirit and vigour, with lots of the author s personal experiences and views included It pulsates with amazing ideas and I really relished every word Basically, it showed that on the upside we humans are amazing thinking animals, capable of using logic and conducting One of the most exciting books I have ever read The author is a science historian, and writes monthly articles for The Scientific American What I am going to describe here sounds cold and formal, but the book is written with spirit and vigour, with lots of the author s personal experiences and views included It pulsates with amazing ideas and I really relished every word Basically, it showed that on the upside we humans are amazing thinking animals, capable of us...This is an excellent, comprehensive examination of the things we believe, and why It is a very well written, well organized book with a unifying theme we form our beliefs, and then we rationalize them with explanations We initially formulate our beliefs through two processes patternicity and agenticity Patternicity allows us to form all sorts of weird beliefs, including the whole gamut of superstitions For example, if something bad happens when a black cat crosses your path, and at a later This is an excellent, comprehensive examination of the things we believe, and why It is a very well written, well organized book with a unifying theme we form our beliefs, and then we rationalize them with explanations We initially formulate our beliefs through two processes patternicity and agenticity Patternicity allows us to form all sorts of weird beliefs, including the whole gamut of superstitions For example, if something bad happens when a black cat crosses your path, and at a later time something else bad happens in the presence of a black cat, it is natural fo... 1 From sensory data flowing in through the senses the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning The first process I call patternicity the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless data The second process I call agenticity the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency We can t help it Our brains evolved to connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen These meaningful patterns become beliefs, and these beliefs shape our understanding of reality.Once beliefs are formed, the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which adds an emotional boost of further confidence in the beliefs and thereby accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive feedback loop of belief confirmation.Belief dependant realism 2 The law of large numbers, where million to one odds happen three hundred times a day in America 3003 we see what we believe .What you believe is what you see The label is the behavior Theory molds data Concepts determine percepts Belief dependent realism 4 Risk and control were tested in a 1977 study that found that if you show parachute jumpers about to leap out of a plane a photographic representation of noise such as the ...Shermar makes an impressive and convincing argument against belief Not only religious and political beliefs but also scientific beliefs which makes this book evenspecial Any believer may find this book p...This book bills itself as why people believe weird things, but it s reallyof why you shouldn t believe weird things It should be noted that I don t actually believe in any of the things discussed in the book God, heaven, hell, and other religious things UFOs and alien abductions conspiracy theories, esp 9 11 conspiracy theories , so the arguments against were tedious at best, and I gained no insight into why other people do believe them.Shermer s tone comes across as defensive This book bills itself as why people believe weird things, but it s reallyof why you shouldn t believe weird things It should be noted that I don t actually believe in any of the things discussed in the book God, heaven, hell, and other religious things UFOs and alien abductions conspiracy theories, esp 9 11 conspiracy theories , so the arguments against were tedious at best, and I gained no insight into why other people do believe...I have to admit at the beginning that I have a significantly pro skeptic bias I love skeptics, so it is hard for me not to like the book An interesting book that belongs on my shelf between my books on psychology and science The Drunkard s Walk How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions and my books on agnosticism, skepticism, neo atheism and the evolution of I have to...I have been following Michael Shermer s column in Scientific American for years It s the first thing in the magazine that I read This book definitely did not dissapoint Shermer starts off with anecdotes and then goes into the very specific Oft repeated throughout the book is that belief comes first, rationalization of the beliefs afterward First we decide to believe, then the evidence collected tends to support what we believe This is regardless if the subject is religion, paranormal, I have been following Michael Shermer s column in Scientific American for years It s the first thing in the magazine that I read This book definitely did not dissapoint Shermer starts off with anecdotes and then goes into the very specific Oft repeated throughout the book is that belief comes first, rationalization of the beliefs afterward First we decide to believe, then the evidence collected tends to support what we believe This is regardless if the subject is religion, paranormal, UFO s or politics Shermer explains that our brains are pattern seeking and some people are disposed toward connecting dots even ...Audio book 2 30 hours approx from 13 35 hours total Read by Michael Shermer 2 stars provisional I have read previous works by Michael Shermer, but these days I have to listen to audio books to satisfy my reading needs Generally, authors do not make good narrators and Shermer is no exception His delivery is stilted and where he thinks he has written something amusing, he uses a strange vocal characterisation which does not sound funny, but does sound most annoying.So...
- English
- 27 August 2019 Michael Shermer
- Hardcover
- 400 pages
- 0805091254
- Michael Shermer
- The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths