This is a super-lead title to be supported with marketing spend. Contentious subject matter guarantees widespread publicity. This is an intelligent response to anti-God Dawkins debate. This is a new perspective on this incendiary issue. It comes from a popular, well-respected scientist and psychologist based in the UK, and from an award-winning columnist. There will be a comprehensive PR campaign to follow. Does god really exist or is he just a way of thinking? Is there really a God who cares about you? Is there really a special reason that you are here? Will your soul live on after you die? Or, alternatively, are God, souls and destiny simply a set of seductive cognitive illusions, one that can be accounted for by the unusual evolution of the human brain? "The God Instinct" explores how people's everyday thoughts, behaviours and emotions betray an innate tendency to reason as though God were deeply invested in their public lives and secret affairs. In this entertaining and thought-provoking book, Jesse Bering unravels the evolutionary mystery of why we grapple for meaning, purpose and destiny in life. He argues that God is not merely an idea to be entertained or discarded based on the evidence. Nor is God a cultural invention, an existential band-aid, an opiate of the masses. Instead, Bering proposes, God is a way of thinking - one that evolved through our ancestors, millions of years ago, to keep us in check and give us the edge on our competitors. While a belief in higher forces may seem ridiculous to some, "The God Instinct" shows that it is hardwired into our genetic make-up, and carries with it massive evolutionary benefits.
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"There's a place in our minds where God goes. This spellbinding book explains how: We humans find the idea of God inviting because we evolved to perceive minds all around us. Bering's own clever research on children's perceptions of the supernatural is the centerpiece in his rich potrayal of the newly unfolding science of belief in God." (Daniel M. Wegner, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Illusion of Conscious Will) "Jesse Bering is a brilliant young psychologist, a gifted storyteller, and a very funny man. And his first book, The God Instinct, is atriumph-a moving, provocative, and entertaining exploration of the human search for meaning." (Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, Yale University, and author of How Pleasure Works) "Scintillating" (Nicholas Humphrey, Emeritus Professor London School of Economics)"
About the Author
Jesse Bering is Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast. The Institute's research focuses primarily on human social behaviour and current topics range from people's belief in the afterlife to moral disgust over social offences. Jesse writes a weekly column for Scientific American, 'Bering in Mind'. he now lives in the UK.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found the "The God Instinct" to be a wonderfully written, provocative, and intellectually stimulating book. Bering brings the latest research and theory from several areas of psychology (cognitive, developmental, evolutionary, and the psychology of religion) to explain how human's evolved tendencies to "read the minds" of others leads inexorably to a belief in the supernatural and all that entails. The scholarship is first rate (I loved reading the more detailed notes that accompany the text), the arguments clean and clear, and the book can be appreciated by the professional and layperson alike. It is written with great wit, and there was barely a page in which I didn't crack a smile.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Ross
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book. I am somebody who takes a fair bit of interest in psychology of religion discussions and found Bering's book extremely accessible. It is written with humour, humility and intelligence. His conclusions may not be pleasing or make comfortable reading for theists; however his argument does not make necessarily comfortable reading for agnostics or atheists either! Significantly, Bering distances himself from the Dawkins-type argument that sees religion as some sort of erroneous misfiring. Rather, Bering proposes an interesting theory about religion which places it firmly within the epic narrative of evolution. I particularly enjoyed reading the empirical work which he and others have engaged in with respect to theory of mind research. As a student of pyschology I was especially intrigued by the 'Princess Alice' experiments which are discussed within these pages.
This book is easy to read, entertaining and one of the better books of its type out there on the market. Enjoy!
This book is easy to read, entertaining and one of the better books of its type out there on the market. Enjoy!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Thomas Lanz
Format:Hardcover
I was simply blown away by this book. The title makes it sound like another dud but do not be put off by that -- this is an engaging (addictive!) read that will completely flip your worldview and have you questioning things that you did not even know needed questioning. I have been around a long time and have seen it all. This book is special: beautifully written and as much a work of literature as it is pop science. I do not define myself either as religious or atheist and care little for such discussions. Theology bores me to tears. You won't find any of that in The God Instinct. However, if you are a fan of existential philosophy (as I am) in the spirit of Camus, Sartre, Dostoyevsky and their ilk, you will love, love, love Bering. It is not an uplifting book by any stretch of the imagination but if you want reality informed by science this is a MUST READ.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By UberNooBee
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I wanted to find out about why religion (established or new age) is so important to some people and what compels a person to believe so wholeheartedly in something that seems so strange and distant to me. I'm not coming from an academic background, simply curious and in need of a good read and found this book really thought provoking, well constructed and highly accessible to the layman, certainly plenty for me to chew on while I go walking! The writing is engaging and a delight to read. Definitely worth reading.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Sphex
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Given their apparent ubiquity, minds can be very elusive. Each one of us has firsthand experience of our own mind, of course, but by definition we cannot similarly experience other people's minds. In fact, we can't see these other minds, or feel or weigh them in any literal sense. Instead, we must infer their existence by observing the behaviour of other people. We "reason about what others see, know, feel, believe, or intend" and arrive at our own beliefs about their mental states. Such beliefs about beliefs are an example of second-order intentionality, or theory of mind, which comes into play naturally and effortlessly whenever we think of friends and family. We can also assume the intentional stance toward strangers we have never met or fictional characters who don't even exist. Throughout this absorbing book, Jesse Bering shows how this aspect of human psychology underpins the diversity of religion and accounts for the tenacity of superstitious belief. He concludes that "God was born of theory of mind" and explores the possibility that God evolved in human minds as an "adaptive illusion", one that directly helped our ancestors solve the unique problem of human gossip.
This capacity to think about minds is very likely the one big difference between humans and other animals. There is no question that many other species have sophisticated minds capable of all sorts of marvellous cognitive feats, but we should resist the temptation to imagine the only differences are of degree and not of kind. There is an ongoing scientific debate over whether the human species is "unique in being able to conceptualize unobservable mental states" but what is not in doubt is "that we're uniquely good at it": human beings "are exquisitely attuned to the unseen psychological world".... Read more ›
This capacity to think about minds is very likely the one big difference between humans and other animals. There is no question that many other species have sophisticated minds capable of all sorts of marvellous cognitive feats, but we should resist the temptation to imagine the only differences are of degree and not of kind. There is an ongoing scientific debate over whether the human species is "unique in being able to conceptualize unobservable mental states" but what is not in doubt is "that we're uniquely good at it": human beings "are exquisitely attuned to the unseen psychological world".... Read more ›
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By L. Farrell
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is brilliant and challenging. Personally it through light on and turned upside down alot of my own preconceptions, assumptions and cognitive illusions and for anyone interested in evolutionary psychology and the cognitive architecture of the human species this is a must. Jesse Bering pulls no punches but boy he strikes with a humble, humorous and witty intelligence and a sophisticated penmanship that makes this the most enjoyable psychological science book I have read. I am not going to comment on the content of this book as another reviewer has concisely provided an excellent over-view of Jesse Bering's fascinating and powerful psychological proposal based on empirical evidence derived from some brilliant creative research (including his own) in the fields of 'theory of mind' and related cognitive processes.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lamentably bad
I very rarely give up on a book, especially one on this sort of topic. I am happy if someone makes an argument I think is wrong, provided they do it validly, and preverably... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dr. C. Jeynes
3.0 out of 5 stars
Close, but no cigar
This is an interesting book, but the author's reasons for concluding that we have a "God instinct" don't ring wholly true for me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Hilary Shearer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful and incisive
A very thought provoking and intelligent analysis of human behaviour. The explanations of why humans have been and are still attracted to religion, should make you question any... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard F. R. Baker
2.0 out of 5 stars
What about those old gods and goddesses?
When I reached page 190 of Jesse Bering's attempt to show belief in God as evolutionary, I knew I'd been sold down the river, not that the journey hadn't been interesting. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2011 by Chris Bowman
5.0 out of 5 stars
God, for the non-believer.
An insightful, and indeed humorous, look at why we necessarily invent/need/depend on God and his cohorts. Theory of mind is everything to humankind, but is it a good thing? Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2011 by G. Blackburn
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, informative but ....
I've just finished "The God Instinct". It's something I've had all my adult life, although I don't now have a strong belief in a personal god. Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2011 by David Carter
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