Reddit Reddit reviews Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

We found 23 Reddit comments about Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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23 Reddit comments about Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon:

u/YourFurryFriend1 · 10 pointsr/samharris

> Atheism now has a strong foothold in western society.

Blatantly false, unless you consider approximately 3-7% of the population explicitly identifying as atheist as a "strong foothold":

  • In Canada: "Christians, representing 67.3% of the population, are followed by people having no religion with 23.9% of the total population." Those explicitly identifying as "atheist" were a tiny fraction of the 23.9% identifying as having no religion, which can be found in the statscan data.
  • In the United States: "According to the Pew Research Center, in 2014, 22.8% of the American population does not identify with a religion, including atheists (3.1%)".
  • In Europe, numbers are slightly larger: "According to another poll about religiosity in the European Union from 2012 by Eurobarometer, 16% are Non believer/Agnostic, and 7% are Atheist".

    ---

    > (Peterson on Belief) It’s not in dispute that human beings are a biological product of an evolutionary history.

    Although Peterson incorporates evolutionary arguments in his work, he also clearly has pretensions to a dualist position on the nature of being and consciousness: From an interview with Peterson https://youtu.be/07Ys4tQPRis?t=814

    > You can say consciousness is an epiphenomenon of the material world, and you can make a perfectly coherent set of tools out of those presuppositions, but those set of tools do not cover everything that you need, and it's no more viable as an explanation than the explanation that, no, consciousness is somehow fundamental to being, and of course being is different than material reality.

    ---

    > The new atheists, the four horsemen (Harris, Hitch, Dawkins, Dennett) that think the belief in god is false, and religion corrupt and outdated.

    Although they all share the common belief that God does not exist, there are some actual differences in their positions. Dennett, for example, argues we should teach religion in schools, but he wants it presented as objectively as possible. That is, by providing the facts about all religions without any spin or bias to any one particular religion. https://youtu.be/DTepA-WV_oE?t=233 . Also see is book Breaking The Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
u/RPrevolution · 8 pointsr/DeepIntoYouTube

Yeah, maybe he said the reverse of what he had to say. But for anyone interested in God being a meme, check out Breaking the Spell

u/[deleted] · 7 pointsr/atheism

I agree with what you're saying, but if you want to find good arguments against a god or gods then you should read some books on the subject. Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, these are all great authors that I would imagine that most of us consider them as somewhat heroes.

Also, you have to realize that everyone that is subscribed to /r/atheism is more than likely an atheist. We don't need to explain our arguments to one another because they are already known. There is no reason to debate about religion, a god, or gods because we all feel the same way, which is why the saying, "preaching to the choir" is quite appropriate for a counter-argument to this thread.

If you want a thoughtful discussion, then ask us a great question and you will find more than enough people that will be willing to argue their position. But I beg of you, please, be open-minded and don't just regurgitate scriptures, because a majority of us will probably consider you a lost cause.

u/MarcoVincenzo · 7 pointsr/atheism

I'd suggest Dan Dennett's Breaking the Spell. He's got a very smooth presentation and is unlikely to offend, which means the book may even get read.

u/djtullox · 6 pointsr/atheism

I don't think that there's a one word, simple answer for this question. A very thought provoking (and perhaps apologetic to a fault) read is Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Its long. Its dry. But its terribly interesting.
Watch some of Dan Dennett's TED Talks to get a brief idea of his approach.

u/NukeThePope · 5 pointsr/TrueAtheism
u/scottklarr · 4 pointsr/books
u/Quadell · 3 pointsr/AskAnthropology

Here are some books that may help.

u/mycleverusername · 3 pointsr/InsightfulQuestions

If you haven't read it; I highly suggest Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett. It's an entire book dedicated to this question.

u/Angry__Engineer · 2 pointsr/atheism

Recommended Reading


A History of God

Check that out.

EDIT: More broader then these are probably what you're looking for:

Religion is Natural

Religion is A Nautral Phenomenom

Since there have been tons of religions, it's kind of hard to fit them all into one book.

u/xmashamm · 2 pointsr/atheism

Book suggestion. Check out Breaking The Spell

It's a brilliant examination as religion as natural human evolution and really assisted me with better articulating some problems I have with religion.

u/ForMePlease · 2 pointsr/tabc

God is Not Great. Getting it out there, I think it's probably one of the more inevitable ones.

Losing Faith in Faith and Godless each by Dan Barker.

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett.

First ones that come to mind. I think a few theologians may be worth reading as well. Not sure what ones though. If Kent Hovind wrote a book, we could keep a facepalm count.

u/0x7fff5fbff690 · 2 pointsr/atheistvids

It's mind-boggling isn't. Daniel Dennett wrote a book into his investigation into this question, from the perspective that religions are memes that act like evolved viral organisms, perfectly adapted to lodge themselves into the minds of those who are without the inoculation of critical thinking ability. Contained in this idea, is that many religions hijack our brains' mechanism to fall in love, meaning that religious believers are in love with their religion and are blinded to the reality of it. Pretty interesting read; http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/0143038338

u/AlSweigart · 2 pointsr/atheism

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins doesn't really go into anything new or original, but the strength of the book is that is a great, concise summary of all the beginning arguments for atheism.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618680004

I'd follow it with Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell", also a good recommendation. Same goes for Carl Sagan's "A Demon Haunted World"

http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/0143038338

http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/

Christopher Hitchens is a bit vitriolic for some, but "God is not Great" has some nuggets in it.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446579807/

I personally didn't like Sam Harris' "End of Faith" but I did like his "Letter to a Christian Nation".

http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Christian-Nation-Vintage-Harris/dp/0307278778/

For the topic of evolution, Talk Origins is great (and free) http://toarchive.org/
Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" is also a good read (and short). Not so short but also good are Dawkins' "Blind Watchmaker", "Climbing Mount Improbable" and "Unweaving the Rainbow"

http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Introduction/dp/0199291152/

http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Watchmaker-Evidence-Evolution-Universe/dp/0393315703/

http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Mount-Improbable-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0393316823/

http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734/

u/whiskeybridge · 2 pointsr/exchristian
u/ShakaUVM · 1 pointr/DebateReligion

>>Maybe you should read Dennett’s Breaking the Spell

I said, what part in particular? Waving at a book is unhelpful. I'm trying to understand what point you're trying to make.

u/scatshot · 1 pointr/DebateReligion

>Maybe you should read Dennett’s Breaking the Spell

HTH

u/AmazingSteve · 1 pointr/atheism

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel Dennett

Dennett is incredibly pleasant (like, the Mr. Rogers of atheistic philosophy), and the main point of the book is to get the reader to a place where they are comfortable thinking critically about religion. Once that initial barrier has been breached, people tend to be much more comfortable with something a bit harsher, like The God Delusion, or just more open to conversation.

u/areReady · 1 pointr/atheism

Dawkins was merely speculating on possible mechanisms, not absolutely claiming truth to that mechanism. It is clear that children are credulous and gullible...Dawkins looks at both why that would be and how religion would affect such credulous minds.

But if you want a better examination of where religion comes from, read Breaking The Spell by Daniel Dennett.

u/roontish12 · 1 pointr/atheism

Several good books, God Delusion I like. Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan is also a very good one. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon is another good one.