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Reddit mentions of Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith
Sentiment score: 6
Reddit mentions: 13
We found 13 Reddit mentions of Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith. Here are the top ones.
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- Pitchstone Publishing
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Perhaps this might suffice: "Why we believe in god(s): A concise guide to the science of Faith, by J. Anderson Thomson.
While it doesn't address particular examples of religious experiences, it addresses "religiosity" as a whole, and gives plenty of explanations for why we tend to be religious.
There definitely is a book by Lawrence Krauss the details this exact subject. It covers everything in that video but with a lot more detail. I enjoy his humor, although his writing style can be a little difficult to understand if you're not already familiar with Cosmology or Astro-Physics (my passion, so I found it fascinating).
There is the book for Why We Believe In Gods by Andy Thomson, although I have not read it so I can't comment.
Sam Harris receives a lot more flack for his comments than I think other atheist thinkers, primarily for his unabashed opinions on Islam, a subject that most others shy away from. He does not align with many progressives in this viewpoint, but tends to "attack" any and every religious belief. Personally, of those more famous atheists, he's probably my favorite because of that logical and scientific basis for lack of faith. However, I fully understand why many people want to distance themselves from him. I would highly recommend the Moral Landscape, but particularly The End of Faith.
Religion enhances tribalism, through its use as a costly signaling mechanism.
This tribalism enhancement is responsible for (most of) both the good and the evil of religion through the years.
The "best" religions feature teachings that start to move us to a post-tribal world. Those are the good part of Jesus's teaching, and the other moral philosophers. They try to get us to act in the one-shot prisoner's dilema the way we evolved to act in the iterated prisoner's dilemma. This is one of the most likely reasons we have evolved the desires we call morality, as they match up with the most successful strategy.
If you prefer teh funniez over math and philosophy(weirdo ;-), I present the skycake hypothesis.
He's right on the basic idea, but got the causation backwards. First we evolved morality and a number of other cognative functions, which then gave rise to religion later. Religion is basically the meme version of our biological imperatives, often codified in a social contract.
If any of this is interesting to you, I highly recommend the Atheist's Guide to Reality and "Why We Believe in Gods" in either book or video form.
Have you read "Why We Believe in God(s)" by Andy Thompson? The foreward is by Dawk. You would really appreciate it. Brilliant hypothesis. Am just now reading Greatest Show.
You are probably going down the same route I did. I grew up in a very conservative Baptist home. Bed time stories were from the bible, went to youth camps every year, went as a missionary all over Europe, played piano in worship teams and so on. But over time I got more questions than answers.
God never answers my prayers, what am I doing wrong? How can all the people around me speak in tongues? Is evolution actually right? Gays getting married doesn't seem very wrong. And so on. It's a journey ultimately only you can go on and discover what's at the end. Maybe you go back to faith, maybe you don't. I became an atheist last year and haven't looked back since.
However, if you want some good resources I'd recommend the Skeptics Annotated Bible to cover the bible and if you haven't definitively watch Evid3nc3 Why I am no longer a Christian. As for creation, Richard Dawkins' books are usually good introductions if you can stand him, otherwise I'd recommend Why Evolution is True.
My two favorite books are Why We Believe in God(s) and 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian. The first was what made me really question everything I believed in and the second was the nail in the coffin, the question he asks are good and his tone is very nice. Highly recommended reading if that's you thing.
If you need anything more feel free to ask, we're here to help.
A friend lent me these three books which opened me up to atheism:
"God: Hit or Myth?" by Rober Ingersoll
"Why I am Not a Christian" by Richard Carrier
["Why We Believe in God"] (http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Believe-God-Concise/dp/0984493212/ref=pd_sim_b_21) by J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer
As a new atheist, there was a book that helped me tremendously with EXACTLY what you described. It is called, "Why We Believe in god(s)" by Dr. J. Anderson Thomson.
You said you FEEL lost. You said you FEEL overwhelmed.
Religion is more emotional than anything else. We need to be taught why our emotions craved a "higher power" in the first place, and how those emotions can be satisfied in other ways.
Here's the link for the book at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Believe-God-Concise/dp/0984493212/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418022174&sr=8-1&keywords=Why+We+Believe+in+god%28s%29
The best parts of this book is that it's a very quick read, and deals with the psychology of religion. It speaks to the brain chemicals that are released during worship services, as well as the reasons why we even seek to worship a higher being at all.
Once you see WHY... it's so much easier to say, "I am enough. I am all I need. And the emotional and community needs that church met, can be now met in HEALTHY ways." :)
It's been a long journey to happiness and healing for me, and I finally broke free off every last vestige, every last residual of fear and guilt.
I have never been happier. Freedom is intoxicating and invigorating.
Feel free to compare notes or ask me any questions on your journey.
I wish you the best. Live out your freedom EVERY day. Rock on.
I recommend reading the "Why Do We Believe in Gods" by J.A Thompson, a professor at the University of Virginia. [https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Believe-God-Concise/dp/0984493212].
According to his research, this being the reason I fully embraced atheism, people, regardless of intelligence and education, are prone to have beliefs in the supernatural and religion due to our own human evolution. I.e, the survival of those individuals who imagined predators in the wilderness, procreated as members of a community, took satisfaction in collective rituals and dances as members of a community, harbored positive feelings toward fatherly figures, were able to anticipate and imagine all sorts of potential conversations or outcomes to their interactions with others, found relief in self suggestion and survived because of fear to the unknown. It is a super fascinating read that cast light on human nature and why being religious is natural.
The book list just keeps growing in so many different directions that it's hard to identify which I want to tackle next (I also have a tendency to take meticulous notes while I read and that slows the process down even further!). Some of the topics I intend to read about once I'm done with the books mentioned:
Plus a bunch of books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Sagan, and others. There are way too many. And all the fiction books I want to read too! It's not that I didn't read books before, but my faith transition has sparked an intense desire to study and learn far greater than I ever experienced before.
This book discusses the issue frankly, IMO. Essentially it concludes that man created god in his image - that we are driven emaotionally towards such creation. Not exactly groundbreaking but it presents a large body of evidence in support of our species' proclivity towards creating god/gods.
There was a book I read on why we have religion. It was very interesting and informative and a good resource. You should check it out!
Religon is an innate byproduct of human evolution, specifically brain structures that arose to navigate complex social groups and intent of predators. People believe in God because that is, essentially, their default setting.
This book goes into great detail about how various parts of the brain evolved and why religious thinking is a byproduct of those evolutionary changes.
Why we believe in God
Basically, you have evolved to believe that at first when you hear a rustle in the grass it's a predator and not the wind, even though the wind is a more likely answer. You readily assume that something with intelligence causes that sound. Extrapolating that you believe things happen for a reason.
Furthermore, the concept of a soul is a byproduct of two parts of your brain providing conflicting information. Your brain, at it's basic level cannot understand mental death but can understand physical death. Tell a kid that a mouse is eaten by an alligator. Now ask this kid if the mouse is still breathing they will say no. Ask them if the mouse is sad, or misses it's mom or any other question that deals with a mental state and they will say yes. It's an evolutionary advantage to know when something is physically dead, and thus no longer a threat (bear isn't breathing so he can't eat me). It's also an evolutionary advantage to be able to think about someone's mental state after they die (what would my grandpa do in this situation?).
any other purported reason is really just rationalization.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Believe-God-Concise/dp/0984493212/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1462181393&sr=8-1