Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief [Paperback]

Lewis Wolpert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2008

"Marvelously funny and provocative."—Publishers Weekly

Why do 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, while others are convinced that they were abducted by aliens? What makes people believe in improbable things when all the evidence points to the contrary? And don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking?

In Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, evolutionary biologist Lewis Wolpert delves into the important and timely debate over the nature of belief, looking at its psychological foundations to discover just what evolutionary purpose it could serve. Wolpert takes us through all that science can tell us about the beliefs we feel are instinctive. He deftly explores different types of belief—those of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders—and he asks whether it is possible to live without belief, or whether it is a necessary component of a functioning society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why do we avoid walking under ladders or breaking mirrors? Why do many people believe that illness is related to wrongdoing? Wolpert, a professor of biology as applied to medicine at University College, London, attempts to answer these and other questions in his marvelously funny and provocative study of the nature of belief. He argues that our beliefs—whether everyday ones or religious ones—offer fundamental explanations of the causes and effects of events. Our beliefs thus become a way of guiding our actions as well as a means of judging others' actions. Taking a page from evolutionary psychology, the author contends that belief has its origin in the human development of language and of tools and their uses. Once our early ancestors made the connection between certain causes and effects—such as a flint causing fire—their discoveries led to other cause-and-effect beliefs. Wolpert also discusses how brain abnormalities, hypnosis and psychedelic drugs can lead to false beliefs, and he concludes that religious belief sometimes falls into this category. While he doesn't discount religious belief, Wolpert says that science offers the most reliable beliefs about how the world works. Wolpert's reflections ask us to reconsider how we look at the world every day. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"'Brilliant and persuasive search for the source of our need to believe.' Sunday Times" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (July 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393332039
• ISBN-13: 978-0393332032
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.6 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Causation is the cement of society (D. Hume) February 6, 2007

By Luc REYNAERT

Format:Hardcover

The basic concept of Lewis Wolpert's book is Darwinism: chance events lead to variation followed by selection. Its key notion is causality, the necessary connections among things and actions.

The understanding of causality was a crucial breakthrough for mankind in the struggle for survival. It made complex tool manufacturing, conceptual thinking and language possible.

Technology drives human evolution: there are only 20.000 years between the first bow and arrow and the International Space Station. Language requires causal thinking, because verbs like `go, hit, throw' don't have any meaning without belief in cause and effect.

Experiencing the efficiency of causality in tool making, people sought to apply this principle for the understanding of the causes of all events, and certainly of life, death and disease. Through experience (tool making), cognition, intuition and also emotion (which helped already animals to make appropriate motor movements for survival), together with cultural transmission, people arrived at certain `beliefs', which became part of our genes.

The belief engine in our brain created religious, moral, ethical and scientific beliefs.

Religion is a belief in spiritual things. Its importance for survival could lay in its promotion of hope and optimism. Until recently, the whole world population was constantly confronted with war, death, disease, hunger, bad hygiene. The average lifespan was not more than 30 years.

Moral and ethical beliefs can have devastating effects because they are often imposed by those in power on its population (religious and ideological oppression).

Scientific beliefs have no moral or ethical content and are in conflict with religion, because there is no scientific evidence of God.... However, science is the most reliable method for determining which beliefs are valid.

But, why is religion still so popular today?

For many people the scientific evidence of Darwinism that man is not created by God is unacceptable. Into the bargain, the real (scientific) world (relativity, quantum mechanics, the history of the universe) is not a commonsense reality. But, on the other hand, our brain operates on commonsense (quick decisions, illusory patterns, bad with numbers, influenced by authority and likes mysticism).

The author is not optimistic for mankind in the near future: religion and irrational beliefs will continue to flourish. This book shows astonishingly how irrational beliefs still dominate the behavior of the vast majority of mankind.

Lewis Wolpert's hypothesis of the origin of belief and language could constitute a new starting point for research in these difficult fields.

As a reductionist materialist atheist, he has written an extremely tolerant book, which is a must read for all those interested in the future of mankind.

I highly recommend his other book `The unnatural nature of science.' Read more ›

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What and why we believe October 10, 2006

By Stephen A. Haines HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

It seems quirky, claiming to "imagine six impossible things" as Alice's White Queen did. Before breakfast or at any time. Wolpert shows, however, that most of us are firmly convinced of many things that aren't so: gods, unlikely events, strange medical practices - the list seems almost endless. The lack of tangible evidence supporting or even evidence countering, those things we have faith in seems to have little impact on our credulity. In a dozen illuminating chapters, this award-winning biologist examines this almost inexplicable facet of our lives. Written with precision and deep insight, Wolpert demonstrates his command of how belief is a fundamental aspect of our society. Why do we believe the things we do?

As a biologist, Wolpert naturally turns to our evolutionary roots for clues to the origins of belief. That which sets us apart from the other animals - our oversized brain, our use of tools, and our ability to use language - as the indicators. The brain's capacity to store, retrieve and assemble information is tied to our abilities in technology and language. For Wolpert, the prime element is the making of tools. Making tools means envisioning the final product, and devising how to bring it about. Put more simply, understanding cause and effect - something even other primates have trouble with. From this beginning, he argues, come social relationships and a sense of values. Along the way, we also developed the idea of agency which we assigned to events or circumstances that were out of ordinary, everyday experience. If the process of flaking stone went wrong, why did that happen. The best-laid plans, etc.

From this beginning, Wolpert shows how the panoply of modern beliefs has come into our lives.... The onset of conceiving an agency either began or enhanced the mind's "belief engine". The belief engine demands an identifiable cause for circumstances. When that's not readily apparent, we extend our belief to things we must imagine. These explanations can, and are, passed around the community, establishing both a bond among its members and reinforcing the interpretation. Once the idea gains prominence, it resists challenge and is difficult to overturn. Religion, of course, is the ultimate organised form of belief, often touted as society's best glue. Wolpert accepts this situation without rancour, even admitting his disturbed son's conversion to a fundamentalist Christian sect has improved the boy's behaviour. That given, Wolpert cannot excuse rigid adherence to dogmas that have no basis in reality. Science has disproven so many religious and other belief systems that he insists the wider society examine their beliefs more critically. There are other facets than family relations to consider.

Recent claims that religious folk, or even those with faith in such things as homeopathy or "crystal healing", actually feel or live better may have statistical substance. Wolpert wants these claims investigated fully, since the early results have little validity. Part of how these practices seem effective lies within the brain's dealings with the rest of the body. It is this aspect that suggests paths of study, since it 's clear the objects or methods have no curative power in themselves. Many of the methods are accompanied by common-sense recommendations regarding diet and abandonment of harmful habits such as smoking or lack of exercise. Although Wolpert is even-handed in his approach to the many common delusions of our times, he clearly wishes their validity be openly investigated and the results aired.

Such an investigation, Wolpert concedes, will be [and has been] difficult to launch and sustain. Clearly, our minds, however powerful in certain talents, have a tendency to seek immediate answers. The validity of the cause need not be certain if an acceptable origin can be declared. We are willing to believe in ghosts or other paranormal phenomena simply because somebody forcefully declares them to be true. Similar views are firmly held about medical practices. As with other views of agency, we are uncomfortable with illness that we cannot understand. Any explanation, forcefully given with a promise of relief, finds easy acceptance. Hence, "alternative", or in Wolpert's Britain "complementary", healing methods are widespread. Whether they are a form of "placebo" medicine, which appears to cure remains to be determined.

Wolpert's book comes at a time when examining our beliefs seems more crucial than ever. We maintain ideas about ourselves, but it becomes too easy to project them to others. When more reasonable ideas are put forward, we must not be too ready to reject them. This book should provide a basis for people willing to apply reason and science to accepted dogmas. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] Read more ›

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Exposition January 27, 2007

By Charles D. Hayes VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A very thoughtful examination of belief. I read it in one sitting. I was delighted to see that Wolpert referenced the work of John F. Schumaker. Long before Harris, Dennett, Dawkins, and Shermer began writing about the dangers of irrational beliefs Schumaker wrote two books on the subject that remain unsurpassed: "Wings of Illusion" and "The Corruption of Reality." It's ironic that these two timeless books were before their time.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Evolution of the belief engine March 6, 2007

By Bernard Zeigler

Format:Hardcover

In a kind of free-association but readable style, this book discusses a variety of aspects of the evolution of belief. The key technical aspect is a hypothesis about how the ability to create beliefs arose in humans which is developed in tantalizingly sketchy fashion. What distinguishes humans from some animals and other primates is not tool use per se, but the deliberate manufacture of tools. The origin of the "belief engine" is traceable to the binding of a rock and a stick to create the first axe. This required insight into the cause/effect nature of such construction (giving the rock a greater pounding force by extending its leverage) and foresight that it would work (securing a stick to a rock would prove effective). Once established, the belief engine became a primary cognitive module that allowed our ancestors to create beliefs that explained the vagaries of the uncertain environment with which they had to cope. Indeed, it became so useful that the predisposition to create beliefs acquired a genetic basis.

However, unlike the controllable world of technology, the wider world of daily living does not conform to easily perceived regularities. So the belief engine works in a fast and frugal way, shunning reliable beliefs for quickly developed and applicable, albeit error prone, ones. As a consequence, we are genetically predisposed to be suggestible (e.g. hypnosis) and susceptible (e.g. jumping to conclusions) to factually unsupported beliefs, such as belief in the paranormal. Wolport concludes that children today are genetically programmed to accept religious beliefs from authority figures and this programming may be an evolutionary adaptive mechanism.... Rather than in their last throes, strongly held beliefs, such as offered by religions and politics, will continue to prevail since they provide easily accepted and comforting explanations that science, an "unnatural" belief system, cannot provide for many.

Wolpert is vague on how the critical transition took place from tool use to tool manufacture that he strongly links to the ability to generate causal beliefs. Likewise, there is little in depth discussion of the cognitive science behind the belief engine. But by leading us on an exploration of the evolutionary psychology of belief, and offering for consideration that religious beliefs originate in tool-derived causal beliefs, Wolpert has opened up a line of investigation that Daniel Dennett advocates in "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon." Indeed it may be critical to our survival in the future. Read more ›