An expert on the psychology of belief examines how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believeit to be. This book explores the psychology of belief - how beliefs are formed, how they are influenced both by internal factors, such as perception, memory, reason, emotion, and prior beliefs, as well as external factors, such as experience, identification with a group, social pressure, and manipulation. It also reveals how vulnerable beliefs are to error, and how they can be held with great confidence even when factually false. The author, a social psychologist who specializes in the psychology of belief, elucidates how the brain and nervous system function to create the perceptions, memories, and emotions that shape belief. He explains how and why distorted perceptions, false memories, and inappropriate emotional reactions that sometimes lead us to embrace false beliefs are natural products of mental functioning. He also shows why it is so difficult to change our beliefs when they collide with contradictions. Covering a wide range -- from self-perception and the perceived validity of everyday experience to paranormal, religious, and even fatal beliefs--the book demonstrates how crucial beliefs are to molding our experience and why they have such a powerful hold on our behavior.
A book about "religions and gods and beliefs in general, [which] also [examines] something called The Scientific Method, which is how we learn new things about the world.
We have the freedom to choose our beliefs, so we have the freedom to choose our purpose. The goal of this book is to help the reader think deeply about this process and explore the meaning of this freedom.
This new, revised edition of Beliefs That Changed the World tells the story of the major faiths from their earliest beginnings to their present day impact.
The Transformation of Archaic Beliefs into Updated Consciousness of the Future Lloyd E. McIlveen ... The right to believe in “any” type manner, shape or form is a reservation of choosing for every single one of us.
Defenders of religion find atheists equally unwilling to cede ground. Noting that religion is not what atheists think it is, Tim Crane offers a way out of this stalemate.
Evidence and Religious Belief features eleven new essays on the question of whether religious belief must be based on evidence in order to be rational.
Robert Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being, oxford: oxford university press, 2004. collins, francis, “dr francis S. collins and Barbara Bradley Hagerty at the May 2009 faith Angle forum,” EPPC, ...
What is the basis for belief in an era when globalization, multiculturalism and big business is the new religion? This book probes beneath the surface of the way we normally think about belief, in particular Judaism and Christianity.
Philosophy of Religion is marked by controversy over which philosophical accounts do justice to core religious beliefs. Many Wittgenstinian philosophers are accused by analytic philosophers of religion of distorting these beliefs.
Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion.