Breaking the Spell
Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
Ranked #10 in Atheism, Ranked #26 in History Of Religion — see more rankings.
For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. In this daring new book, distinguished philosopher Daniel C. Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks why. Where does our devotion to God come from and what purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? In "Breaking the Spell," Dennett argues that... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Breaking the Spell from the world's leading experts.
Julian Baggini If people want to read a New Atheist book, they should read this one. (Source)
Jerry Coyne He calls it Breaking the Spell for a reason. He thinks there is this sanctity about religion which prevents people from asking, “Where did it come from in the first place?” It’s a human construct, after all, it wasn’t given to humanity by God. It couldn’t have been, because we have thousands of different religions. So even religious people recognize the human contribution to religion. At the beginning of the book he says it could be real. We could be worshipping a real divine being. But we still want to know where this system of beliefs and practices and ceremonies came from — and it’s not... (Source)
Rankings by Category
Breaking the Spell is ranked in the following categories:
- #43 in Evolutionary Psychology
- #80 in God
- #56 in Reasoning
- #71 in Religion
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