Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

Download or read book Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief written by Lewis Wolpert and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008-07-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.