Religion Explained

by Pascal Boyer

May 1, 2002
Paperback
US $18.00
CAN $22.95
ISBN: 9780465006960
ISBN-10: 0465006965
Published by Basic Books

 

Description

Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Religion Explained shows how this aspect of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. This brilliant and controversial book gives readers the first scientific explanation for what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and where it comes from.

Reviews

"A penetrating scientific analysis of religion."
— Washington Post

"In forty years of teaching I have not encountered a text addressed to those questions that impressed me as even coming close to Boyer's in comprehensiveness and persuasiveness. A brilliant achievement!"
— Benson Saler, Brandeis University

"The most important treatment of the psychological bases of religious belief...since William James."
— Steven Pinker, author of Words and Rules and The Language Instinct

"An excellent book in the spirit of the French Enlightenment, which I am eager to see revived."
— E. O. Wilson, author of Consilience

Selling Territory

World Excluding UK & Commonwealth