Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs

Interesting

Wonderful information. Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Waldman have done many years of in depth research discovering the neural processes and growth the brain goes through with beliefs and meditation. I highly recommend all of their books for healing information and brain health, and memory health. They make the information about the brain easy, acceptable and very user friendly.

I love spiritual books that give you perspective. I love even more books that show you the science behind it. This is a fascinating read.

This is a well-written neuropsychological study. Dr. Newberg is both a neurosurgeon and a scientifiic researcher. The information is well documented. His philosphical contributions are approbiate and stimulating.

A scientific primer for skeptics.

Again, fast delivery, love the book. Anything written by Dr. Newberg is worth the read.

I believe that this review is unbelievable. Unicorns, aliens, conspiracies, bigfoot, abdominable snowman, loch ness monster, Jesus etc. are all real.

great product and fast service

This is a thought provoking book that is really interesting. I have no idea how I got onto the page advertising this (you should see where I end up on Youtube when I ask a perfectly normal search question hah!) but I am glad I bought it. It's a book that is better read twice - but I need to do that with most interesting books - either that or doodle little diagrams at the side of the page so I can understand it.I had never considered that our brains could be hard-wired to believe in something other than ourselves. I had always taught Blaise Pascal's "We all have a God shaped vacuum in our hearts" but never considered 'belief' to be something our brains prompted us to search.Worth a read simply for the 'stretch your brain' exercises at the back. Too many Christians hear something said, it becomes a concrete fact and when that 'fact' is aired it sounds stupid to an un-believing world. E.g. Nasa has proved the sun stood still thousands of years ago. Christians are far too quick to super-spiritualise nonsense too. His Word should be able to withstand any amount of criticism and still stand without having to invent nonsense. We need a generation of thinking Christians, supplied with all the information they can hold, to debate and exchange information intelligently. "The Bible says it, I believe it, that ends it" is what A. Newburg would assign to the 'Confirmation Bias' section.CHristians, it's time to equip ourselves and have answers for commonly asked questions and this book will be a 'tool' in your 'apologetics toolbox.'

My first impression of this book was a negative one. Hear the preface: "Many theories try to explain the psychological and sociological reasons why people nurture spiritual beliefs, but the answer is found in neuroscience - indeed, in the very synapses of our brain." Sounds like the personal bias of a scientist all too excited by his subject - and taken literally it is nothing more. Stick to the book nevertheless, it's worthwhile. You'll get a fine overview on what today's brain research is able to establish about the cerebral representation of different kinds of religious and spiritual experiences - including the rare case of an atheist seriously meditating on God. All these findings are presented in a well readable often even fascinating manner. The problems lie in the authors philosophical framework. On one side there is a solid piece of criticism in the book. In the chapter "Becoming a Better Believer" Bacon's teaching of the idols blurring our view of the world is extended to a list of twenty-seven biases by which we may be seduced to distort reality. Good reading for everybody. But where to does it lead the authors? They adopt a nearly constructivist theory of knowledge where everything might be biased and so everything might be wrong (or true). "Therefore, our subjective experience becomes the sole arbiter of what we consider real." (P. 278) So why list all the possible biases? It does only make half sense if we just do it to become aware of our limitations. If everything is incurably biased why do science? Getting aware of biases makes real sense only if we want to use this knowledge to avoid them as good as possible. In the line of the authors argument religious beliefs are first mixed up with any other concepts about the world and then judged exclusively according to their personal and social usefulness and wholesomeness. Truth is just unimportant because it can't be established. The Dalai Lama is hailed once more as a tolerant and open-minded model of a personality. (P. 212/213) Well - tolerant and open-minded religious leaders are by far preferable to fanatic and dogmatic ones who may seduce people to violence. But is there the slightest evidence or good reason that Buddhist ideas of for example rebirth and karma do represent reality adequately?. In the search of truth it doesn't count that various religious experiences are represented similarly in the brain and appear to have equal justification under this aspect. The question is whether any of these ideas might be true in correspondence to reality under an overall judgement as impartial as possible. There is as little probability for rebirth and karma as for a Christian God supposed to be benevolent and almighty as well. Newberg and Waldman correctly acknowledge that most leading contemporary scientists don't believe in God (P. 242). Why? For lack of good reason to do so. Unfortunately the authors themselves don't reach an adequate naturalistic point of view. Perhaps psychological and sociological explanations for religious beliefs aren't that superfluous and readily replaceable by neuroscience after all?

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