Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - Wikipedia Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Breaking the Spell Author Daniel C. Dennett Country United States Language English Subject Psychology of religion Publisher Viking (Penguin) Publication date 2006 Media type Print ISBN 978-0-14-303833-7 Dewey Decimal 200 22 LC Class BL2775.3 .D46 2006 Preceded by Sweet Dreams  Part of a series on Irreligion Irreligion Secular humanism Freethought Post-theism Nontheism Anti-clericalism Antireligion Criticism of religion Parody religion Atheism History Demographics Discrimination/Persecution Criticism Lists of atheists Forms and variations Implicit and explicit Negative and positive New State Christian India Hindu Jewish Aspects Anti-clericalism Antireligion Antitheism Relationship between atheism and religion Existence of God Agnosticism Strong Weak Atheistic Theistic (Christian) Apatheism Ancient India Secular Buddhism List of agnostics Deism Christian Deism Ietsism Pandeism Natural Theology Spinozism Theophilanthropy Deus otiosus Deistic evolution List of deists Nontheism Criticism of religion Secular humanism Freethought Flying Spaghetti Monster Ignosticism Inconsistent revelations Invisible Pink Unicorn Nontheistic religions Pantheism Parody religion Post-theism Russell's teapot Theological noncognitivism Transtheism Naturalism Humanistic Metaphysical Methodological Religious Spiritual People Lists of  agnostics atheists deists humanists pantheists Books Breaking the Spell Ethics The End of Faith The God Delusion God Is Not Great The System of Nature Letter to a Christian Nation Why I Am Not a Christian Why I Am Not a Muslim Secularist organizations Atheist Alliance International Freedom From Religion Foundation Reason Rally World Pantheist Movement Related topics Secularism Laïcité Parody religion Irreligion by country v t e Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon is a 2006 book by the philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, in which the author argues that religion is in need of scientific analysis so that its nature and future may be better understood. The "spell" that requires "breaking" is not religious belief itself but the belief that it is off-limits to or beyond scientific inquiry.[1] Contents 1 Synopsis 1.1 Part I 1.2 Part II 1.3 Part III 2 Critical reception 2.1 The Guardian 2.2 Scientific American 2.3 New Yorker 2.4 From the religious community 2.4.1 The New York Times 2.4.2 The New Atlantis 2.5 Philosophical reception 3 Translations 4 See also 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews Synopsis[edit] The book is divided into three parts. Dennett's working definition of religions is: "social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought". He notes that this definition is "a place to start, not something carved in stone". Part I[edit] Part I discusses the motivation and justification for the entire project: Can science study religion? Should science study religion? Part II[edit] After answering in the affirmative, Part II proceeds to use the tools of evolutionary biology and memetics to suggest possible theories regarding the origin of religion and subsequent evolution of modern religions from ancient folk beliefs. Part III[edit] Part III analyzes religion and its effects in today's world: Does religion make us moral? Is religion what gives meaning to life? What should we teach the children? Dennett bases much of his analysis on empirical evidence, though he often points out that much more research in this field is needed. Critical reception[edit] The book has received differing reviews from various consumer, mass media outlets. The Guardian[edit] The Guardian's Andrew Brown describes it as giving "a very forceful and lucid account of the reasons why we need to study religious behaviour as a human phenomenon".[2] Scientific American[edit] In Scientific American, George Johnson describes the book's main draw as being "a sharp synthesis of a library of evolutionary, anthropological and psychological research on the origin and spread of religion".[3] New Yorker[edit] In The New Yorker, evolutionary biologist H. Allen Orr described the book as "an accessible account of what might be called the natural history of religion".[4] From the religious community[edit] The New York Times[edit] Leon Wieseltier, former member of the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books, called the book, in The New York Times, "a sorry instance of present-day scientism" and alleged it to be "a merry anthology of contemporary superstitions".[5] The New Atlantis[edit] A professor of a private, Catholic university and outspoken critic of the environmentalist movement, Charles T. Rubin, likened Dennett in The New Atlantis to "a tone-deaf music scholar", criticized his "unwillingness to admit the limits of scientific rationality" and accused him of "deploying the same old Enlightenment tropes that didn't work all that well the first time around".[6] Philosophical reception[edit] Thomas Nagel said that Dennett's book was 'beneath him' and Edward Feser has extensively critiqued his book, criticising his interpretation of theistic arguments, whilst maintaining praise for his passages on cognitive neuroscience.[7] Roger Scruton both praised and criticised Dennett's book in his book On Human Nature, endorsing his intellectual bravery and imaginative writing, yet criticising his reliance on the meme theory, and remaining sceptical of his view that all areas of human consciousness can be accessible through the neo-Darwinian human model alone. Translations[edit] Breaking the Spell has been translated into several other languages, including: Dutch De betovering van het geloof: religie als een natuurlijk fenomeen Hans Bosman Amsterdam: Contact 2006 ISBN 9025426875 Finnish Lumous murtuu: uskonto luonnonilmiönä Kimmo Pietiläinen Helsinki: Terra Cognita 2007 ISBN 978-952-5202-96-0 German Den Bann brechen. Religion als natürliches Phänomen Frank Born Frankfurt a. M.: Verlag der Weltreligionen im Insel Verlag 2008 ISBN 978-3-458-71011-0 Greek Απομυθοποίηση Dimitris Xygalatas Nikolas Roubekas Thessaloniki: Vanias 2007 ISBN 978-960-288-198-9 Italian Rompere l'incantesimo. La religione come fenomeno naturale S. Levi Milano: Cortina Raffaello 2007 ISBN 978-88-6030-097-3 Polish Odczarowanie. Religia jako zjawisko naturalne Barbara Stanosz Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy 2008 ISBN 978-83-06-03138-6 Portuguese Quebrando O Encanto. A Religião Como Fenômeno Natural Helena Londres Rio de Janeiro: Globo 2006 ISBN 978-85-250-4288-0 Serbian Razbijanje čarolije: religija kao prirodna pojava Milan Perić Belgrade: McMillan 2015 ISBN 978-86-80328-01-0 Spanish Romper el hechizo: la religión como un fenómeno natural Felipe de Brigard Madrid: Katz 2007 ISBN 978-84-96859-00-5 Persian شکستن طلسم: دین به عنوان پدیده ای طبیعی Amir Maniee Published online, 2019 See also[edit] Religious studies Evolutionary psychology of religion Similar / related books: Religion Explained Darwin's Cathedral The End of Faith The God Delusion God is Not Great References[edit] ^ The University of Edinburgh (2009-02-10), Daniel Dennett: Breaking the Spell - Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, retrieved 2018-04-24 ^ Brown, A. (2006). "Beyond Belief". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2016-12-18. ^ "Getting a Rational Grip on Religion" Archived June 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Scientific American, December 25, 2005. ^ "The God Project" Archived December 25, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, The New Yorker, April 3, 2006. ^ "The God Genome" Archived August 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, February 19, 2006. ^ "The God Meme" Archived March 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, The New Atlantis 12 (Spring 2006). ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2019-01-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: Breaking the Spell "Breaking the Spell" panel, an audio recording and transcript of a discussion involving Daniel Dennett and Alister McGrath organized by the Royal Society of Arts. at Archive.today (archived April 16, 2013) Reviews[edit] David B. Hart, "Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark" in First Things. George Johnson, "Getting a Rational Grip on Religion" in Scientific American. Leon Wieseltier, "The God Genome" in The New York Times. Dennett's letter to The New York Times editor and Wieseltier's reply at the Wayback Machine (archived November 14, 2012) Adam Kirsch, "If Men Are From Mars, What's God" in The New York Sun. James Brookfield, "Dennett’s dangerous idea", World Socialist Website. Armin W. Geertz, "How Not to Do the Cognitive Science of Religion Today" (University of Aarhus seminar paper). Charles T. Rubin, "The God Meme" in The New Atlantis. v t e Daniel Dennett Concepts Cartesian theater Greedy reductionism Heterophenomenology Intentional stance Intuition pump Memetics Multiple drafts model Selected works Brainstorms (1981) The Mind's I (1981) Elbow Room (1984) Consciousness Explained (1991) Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995) Freedom Evolves (2003) Sweet Dreams (2005) Breaking the Spell (2006) From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017) Other The Philosophical Lexicon New Atheism Universal Darwinism v t e Irreligion Irreligion Nontheism Antireligion Post-theism Anti-clericalism Criticism of religion Parody religion Secular humanism Freethought Atheism Lists of atheists Demographics Religion History Anti-clericalism State New Criticism Discrimination/Persecution Implicit and explicit Negative and positive Existence of God Antitheism Christian atheism Hindu atheism Jewish atheism Agnosticism List of agnostics Strong Weak Agnostic atheism Agnostic theism Christian Apatheism Ignosticism Secular Buddhism Nontheism Criticism of religion Secular humanism Freethought Flying Spaghetti Monster Inconsistent revelations Invisible Pink Unicorn Nontheistic religions Parody religion Post-theism Russell's teapot Theological noncognitivism Transtheism Naturalism Humanistic Metaphysical Methodological Religious Spiritual People Atheists Agnostics Humanists Pantheists Deists Books Breaking the Spell The End of Faith The God Delusion God Is Not Great Letter to a Christian Nation The System of Nature Why I Am Not a Christian Why I Am Not a Muslim Organizations American Atheists American Humanist Association Atheist Alliance International British Humanist Association Center for Inquiry Freedom From Religion Foundation International Humanist and Ethical Union Rational Response Squad Reason Rally Recovering from Religion World Pantheist Movement Brazilian Association of Atheists and Agnostics Related topics Countries by irreligion Secularism Parody or mock religions v t e Philosophy of religion Concepts in religion Afterlife Euthyphro dilemma Faith Intelligent design Miracle Problem of evil Religious belief Soul Spirit Theodicy Theological veto Conceptions of God Aristotelian view Brahman Demiurge Divine simplicity Egoism Holy Spirit Misotheism Pandeism Personal god Process theology Supreme Being Unmoved mover God in Abrahamic religions Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism Mormonism Sikhism Baháʼí Faith Wicca Existence of God For Beauty Christological Consciousness Cosmological Kalam Contingency Degree Desire Experience Fine-tuning of the universe Love Miracles Morality Necessary existent Ontological Pascal's wager Proper basis Reason Teleological Natural law Watchmaker analogy Transcendental Against 747 gambit Atheist's Wager Evil Free will Hell Inconsistent revelations Nonbelief Noncognitivism Occam's razor Omnipotence Poor design Russell's teapot Theology Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Demonology Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism Christian Agnostic Atheistic Feminist theology Thealogy Womanist theology Fideism Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Religious Secular Christian Inclusivism Theories about religions Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism Metaphysical Religious Humanistic New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Possibilianism Process theology Religious skepticism Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism more... Religious language Eschatological verification Language game Logical positivism Apophatic theology Verificationism Problem of evil Augustinian theodicy Best of all possible worlds Euthyphro dilemma Inconsistent triad Irenaean theodicy Natural evil Theodicy Philosophers of religion (by date active) Ancient and medieval Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Averroes Boethius Erasmus Gaunilo of Marmoutiers Pico della Mirandola Heraclitus King James VI and I Marcion of Sinope Thomas Aquinas Maimonides Early modern Augustin Calmet René Descartes Blaise Pascal Baruch Spinoza Nicolas Malebranche Gottfried W Leibniz William Wollaston Thomas Chubb David Hume Baron d'Holbach Immanuel Kant Johann G Herder 1800 1850 Friedrich Schleiermacher Karl C F Krause Georg W F Hegel William Whewell Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard Karl Marx Albrecht Ritschl Afrikan Spir 1880 1900 Ernst Haeckel W K Clifford Friedrich Nietzsche Harald Høffding William James Vladimir Solovyov Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Otto Lev Shestov Sergei Bulgakov Pavel Florensky Ernst Cassirer Joseph Maréchal 1920 postwar George Santayana Bertrand Russell Martin Buber René Guénon Paul Tillich Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Gabriel Marcel Reinhold Niebuhr Charles Hartshorne Mircea Eliade Frithjof Schuon J L Mackie Walter Kaufmann Martin Lings Peter Geach George I Mavrodes William Alston Antony Flew 1970 1990 2010 William L Rowe Dewi Z Phillips Alvin Plantinga Anthony Kenny Nicholas Wolterstorff Richard Swinburne Robert Merrihew Adams Ravi Zacharias Peter van Inwagen Daniel Dennett Loyal Rue Jean-Luc Marion William Lane Craig Ali Akbar Rashad Alexander Pruss Related topics Criticism of religion Desacralization of knowledge Ethics in religion Exegesis History of religion Religion Religious language Religious philosophy Relationship between religion and science Faith and rationality more... Portal Category Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breaking_the_Spell:_Religion_as_a_Natural_Phenomenon&oldid=997364051" Categories: 2006 non-fiction books Analytic philosophy literature Books by Daniel Dennett Books critical of religion Cognitive science literature English-language books Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links CS1 maint: archived copy as title Articles lacking in-text citations from July 2009 All articles lacking in-text citations Webarchive template archiveis links Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages العربية Español فارسی Français Italiano 日本語 Polski Português Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 31 December 2020, at 04:12 (UTC). 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