Despite the continued and growing popularity of such phenom- ena as angels, witches, extra-sensory perception, psychics, astrology, foretelling the future, living past lives, ghosts, and communicating with the dead, such beliefs have received little scrutiny from sociologists. Who believes in them? Why? And with what consequences? A paranormal belief system is generated as a result of cultural, social, and social-psychological forces; it is linked with social institutions in identifiable ways and has identifiable consequences. According to the author, the explication of how paranormal beliefs are accepted or rejected yields richer understanding of social structures and dynamics. Accepting one or more of the beliefs--or accepting a cosmology that rules them out of the realm of the possible--tells us a great deal about the believers and disbelievers as well as the society in which they live. This compelling, well-documented work presents a much-needed sociological examination of the role paranormal beliefs play in our society.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Miller, Introduction to Collective Behavior, Second Edition (ISBN 9781577661054); and Robinson, The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692 (ISBN 9781577661764).
From the Inside Flap
"Sociologist Erich Goode's book should be read by anoyone who wonders why so many people believe in paranormal phenomena. He presents fundamental epistemological assumptions about how and why people believe what they believe in an easily readable manner." --Skeptical Inquirer (January/February 2001)
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insights for people interested in culture,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction (Paperback)
This book is not for everyone, but I liked it very much. It points out that 72% of Americans believe in angels, nearly half believe that the world was created by god in its present form 6000 years ago. Since I am trained as a scientist, read Science each week and other similar periodicals I feel a compelling need to believe in evolution to make sense of the world I live in. I am guessing that people who believe in angels may not like the book.Hopefully, I am wrong about that. Mr. Goode makes a scrupulous effort to not be judgemental. He carefully tracks the kind of reasoning that it takes to reach various conclusions and points out that many scientific conclustions are remote from human experience. A scientist might immediately tend to discount the claim that "UFO's must be real because I met someone who was actaully kidnapped by one and they told me their story." The scientist might be weighing in his or her mind the likelyhood that modern physics is totally incorrect vs. the likelyhood that the victim of the kidnapping might have been dreaming and mentally vote that it was a dream, while someone else might think of all the times scientists have been wrong and prefer the eyewitness account. The book delves into the philosophy of science, various studies that have been done and other methods of showing the way various ways of thinking can lead to different conclusions. It is not a fluffy book and demands thought. I found myself reading it and thinking about it all day at work just waiting to get home to finish it.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original, Compelling and Entertaining,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction (Paperback)
Goode has done a remarkable job assembling information from a wide range of sources and developing a unique and convincing analysis of the relationship between mainstream science and paranormal beliefs. The author takes a comprehensive look at the interplay between scientists, who set the standards for evidence and proof, and paranormalists, who constitute the "deviants" by breaking the scientists rules. I particularly enjoyed his framework for organizing popular beliefs about the weakness of science; his willingness to treat astrology, UFOs, parapsychology and creation "science" as different rather than identical; and his explanation of why simple admonitions to increase scientific literacy through improved science education are unlikely to change anyone's beliefs. "True believers" and "skeptics" will benefit from this book, as will fence-sitters and social scientists who are interested in philosophy of science, collective behavior, deviance, and popular culture, but nobody will find everything to their taste. There is a tremendous amount of worthwhile information in this amazing inexpensive volume and despite high interest value I spent a long time reading it because the material provoked so much thought.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
