Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't know if a review of this book can really do it justice. It was SO GOOD: well-written, comprehensive and loaded to the brim with fascinating facts, thoughts and ideas. What are our beliefs, and how do we form them? Newberg and Waldman believe that there are "four interacting spheres of influence"--perception, cognition, emotional value and social consensus. The book really digs deep into each of these spheres, explaining how they work and describing which are most prevalent during the different stages of development. The fine line between perception and illusion is discussed in depth. How does our brain form our reality? The book culminates in an exploration of spiritual beliefs and the brain, discussing some of Newberg's brain scans of Catholic nuns, Buddhist monks, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and an atheist who meditated on the image of God. He is continuing to research the neurobiological effects of meditation on the brain, which is why I originally picked up the book. The most fascinating sections for me, though, were the ones on different forms of bias, and and on the gap between belief and moral behavior. The moral dilemmas discussed got my brain all twisted up in knots--in a good way! Heavily researched with tons of footnotes, this book was thoughtful and engaging but not a quick read. I loved it.

This review, and many others, was first published on http://www.dirttime.org

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?

Admittedly, I'm somewhat biased about this book. Why? Because I'm Dr. Newberg's co-author! Now,you can read other reviews of this book if you go to the hardback version, called Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth, but I thought you'd might enjoy a brief authorial commentary. First, it is the only book that definitively describes what a belief is, and how those beliefs take on a sense of reality. The more you reflect on a personal belief-be it religious, political, or romantic-the neural circuits that generate our perception of reality become stronger. If you meditate long enough-on God, or peace, or monetary success-the structure of your thalamus will permanently change. This is what makes the human brain so fascinating-it doesn't clearly distinguish between inner subjective experiences and the objective reality that exists outside. We are given a set of beliefs by parents, teachers, and friends, and for the most part, that becomes our world-view for life. In fact, it's very difficult to neurologically eliminate old beliefs, which goes a long way to explain why personal change is slow. But it is possible, and the book will show you how to identify and change the natural biases we have.

Our research demonstrates that optimistic beliefs (even those that have no realistic basis) are extraordinarily healthy for your body and your brain. They neurologically interrupt anxiety, depression, anger, and fear; they stimulate your immune system; and they motivate you to succeed in obtaining your goals, no matter how wild they may appear to others. You can use this book to understand why people have problems tolerating others who hold different beliefs, and you can use it to become a better "believer" by recognizing the dozens of cognitive errors that a normal human brain generates in day-to-day life.

The core of the book revolves around Newberg's brain-scan studies of Buddhists, Nuns, Pentecostals, and atheists, and it demonstrates why nearly all spiritual practices are physically, emotionally, and neurologically healthy. And it doesn't matter if you believe or disbelieve in God. Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and National Geographic have done specials on Newberg's research, so enjoy! -- Mark Waldman, Associate Fellow, Center for Spirituality and the Mind, University of Pennsylvania. (PS: check out our new book, How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist, which summarizes the current state of meditation research in the world, plus our new research on how meditation may slow down the aging processes in the brain.

I was looking for a book that explains why ordinary people have a penchant for irrational beliefs - most notably why so many maintain a belief in God despite a lack of proof and contrary to huge amounts of data that contradicts their faith. In my opinion, it must be because "having faith" is ingrained in our brains; it's natural to us and it takes quite an effort to liberate yourself from all sorts of false beliefs.

So I thought that a book called "Born to Believe" written by Andrew Newberg (a medical doctor and assistant professor) and some other guy (with undisclosed credentials) would help explain this paradox. Boy was I wrong.

The two authors literally call themselves scientists and speak with one voice throughout the book, even tough only one of them seem to have a scientific degree. Mark Waldman calls himself therapist and is affiliated with "Center for Spirituality and the Mind" but this info is not divulged in the book. This doesn't really matter anyway, because the work is very far removed from scientific rationale and cannot under any stretch of definitions be called a work of science.

The book is a compilation of more or less well founded ideas, comments and postulations presented in a random order.

The authors refer widely to highly unique medical cases - such as a guy whose cancer allegedly were directly linked to his mindset - and let such freak cases give rise to speculations that supernatural powers are at work. Not surprisingly, this is the only well-documented case in medical history, and a more statistically valid interpretation would be to subscribe this to chance and focus on the millions of cases where patients are not able to mentally heal themselves.

But it gets worse still: hypothesising that the brains of atheists must be biologically different from brains of non-atheists(!), the authors (or is it only Andrew Newberg?) perform a few very silly and totally inadequate experiments on to few subjects to make any statistical significance. They perform two brain scans ("meditating" and "not thinking about anything") on 5 nuns and one (1) atheist and predictably come up with no valid conclusions at all.

The "hypothesis" is just as outrageous as the "study" is lacking in scientific valour. Surely, this is putting the cart before the horse; the authors have a hidden agenda (that a spiritual realm exists and religiosity is beneficial to us) and not wanting to risk contradicting this agenda, they perform statistically invalid experiments. Truth becomes irrelevant to well being: If a belief "feels good" then by all means maintain it, even though it is false, the authors state. This attitude sucks big time, in my opinion, and it encourages sloppy thinking.

This is NOT SCIENCE; it wishful thinking, the authors are so open minded that all critical thinking has evaporated. It is sad - and dangerous - that such non-scientific, faith-biased drivel is being marketed and sold as science. This book belongs in the self-help department with other new age and religious pamphlets.

This is an outstanding global study of how we arrive at our beliefs and where science and religion play such an important part. After reading Newbert's "Why God Won't Go Away," and Matthew Alper's "God Part of the Brain," this book helps to provide more anwers to the questions about sprituality, science, philosophy, and our beliefs without putting any one of these positions down. Basically it says that each individual has his or her own concept of god and develops corresponding beliegs that govern to conduct of their lives.

The Writing; Mediocre. The Conclusions; derivative of authors such as Newberg and others. This book is a "Johny come lately" that borrows its ideas from every other author writing in Neurotheology and offered absolutely nothing new or innovative. Don't waste your time.