Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Evolution, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief by Lewis Wolpert, W. W. Norton & Company
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Author: Lewis Wolpert ISBN: 9780393292688
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: July 17, 2008
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Lewis Wolpert
ISBN: 9780393292688
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: July 17, 2008
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

"Marvelously funny and provocative."—Publishers Weekly

Why do 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, while others are convinced that they were abducted by aliens? What makes people believe in improbable things when all the evidence points to the contrary? And don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking?In Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, evolutionary biologist Lewis Wolpert delves into the important and timely debate over the nature of belief, looking at its psychological foundations to discover just what evolutionary purpose it could serve. Wolpert takes us through all that science can tell us about the beliefs we feel are instinctive. He deftly explores different types of belief—those of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders—and he asks whether it is possible to live without belief, or whether it is a necessary component of a functioning society.

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"Marvelously funny and provocative."—Publishers Weekly

Why do 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, while others are convinced that they were abducted by aliens? What makes people believe in improbable things when all the evidence points to the contrary? And don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking?In Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, evolutionary biologist Lewis Wolpert delves into the important and timely debate over the nature of belief, looking at its psychological foundations to discover just what evolutionary purpose it could serve. Wolpert takes us through all that science can tell us about the beliefs we feel are instinctive. He deftly explores different types of belief—those of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders—and he asks whether it is possible to live without belief, or whether it is a necessary component of a functioning society.

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