One hundred years ago social scientists predicted that belief in God would decrease by the year 2000. "In fact ... the opposite is has occurred," Shermer writes in his introduction. "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."

Why do so many believe in the existence of something so inexplicable? That's exactly what Shermer answers in this comprehensive, intelligent, and highly readable discussion about the nature of faith. "People believe in God because the evidence of their senses tell them so," claims Shermer, who is the publisher of Skeptics magazine. Having been a believer and a student of the history of science, Shermer (now an agnostic) is more interested in knowing why and how people believe in God rather than trying to prove who's right or wrong. As a result, this book is not only even-handed and thorough, it is also destined to become a timeless contribution to spirituality as well as science. --Gail Hudson


From Publishers Weekly
Shermer, who teaches critical thinking at Occidental College and is perhaps best known as the director of the Skeptics Society and publisher of Skeptic magazine, approaches religion not primarily as a delusion to be debunked but as a phenomenon to be explained. Shermer wonders why religious belief, traditional theistic belief in particular, remains widespread in contemporary America, confounding expectations that progress in science and technology should bring a corresponding decline in faith. One way to discover why people believe is to ask them, and Shermer has compiled original survey data to support his analysis. One noteworthy finding is that, although theists tend to explain their own faith in rational terms (e.g., observing design in nature or a pattern of God's activity in daily life), they explain the theistic beliefs of "most other people" primarily in emotional or pragmatic terms (e.g., faith brings comfort and hope). Shermer maintains that while believers' first-person awareness is misleading, their third-person perspective gets it right: religion can be explained quite adequately in functional terms. He reviews a range of theories from anthropology, evolutionary psychology and cognitive science that analyze religion as a means to social harmony or psychological stability. Although Shermer's arguments will probably not be decisive for debates between nonbelievers and believers (who generally agree that religion has strong pragmatic benefits), both will be able to appreciate this readable and generally fair-minded treatment of a subject that often provokes contentious dispute. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Scientific American
Shermer marches bravely into the arena where theists, atheists and agnostics argue their views, usually without convincing anyone not on their side. As editor of Skeptic and director of the Skeptics Society and a man (trained in psychology) who has been successively a theist, an atheist and an agnostic, he might seem to the religious to have a bias against their convictions. But he says his "primary focus in addressing readers is not whether they believe or disbelieve, but how and why they have made their particular belief choice." He has asked the question of many people, and he summarizes their reasoning. His discussion ranges eloquently and learnedly over broad areas of philosophy, theology and science. In the end, whatever the reader's own thinking, she will probably discover that she has learned a lot about the opinions other people have on "the God Question" and why they hold those opinions.


From AudioFile
Shermer's book about religious belief patterns is a brilliant analysis of evolutionary functions and mechanisms of faith. Despite the author's claim that he is "not trying to convert believers into nonbelievers," he lapses into simplistic refutations of both theism and atheism and often sounds like an apologist for his own brand of agnosticism and skepticism. Never-theless, his analysis of how and why we believe is compelling and eye-opening. While the author's stodgily nasal speech is annoying at first, his voice quickly grows on the listener, thanks to his confident and enthusiastic reading. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER