Overview

Believers is a scientist’s answer to attacks on faith by some well-meaning scientists and philosophers— a firm rebuke of the “Four Horsemen”: Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, known for writing about religion as something irrational and ultimately harmful. Konner, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew but has lived his adult life without such faith, explores the psychology, development, brain science, evolution, and even genetics of the varied religious impulses we as a species experience. Conceding that faith is not for everyone, he views religious people with a sympathetic eye; his own upbringing, his apprenticeship in the trancedance religion of the African Bushmen, and his friends in Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and other faiths have all shaped his perspective. He concludes that religion does much good as well as undoubted harm, and that for at least a large minority of humanity, the belief in things unseen neither can nor should go away.

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9780393651867

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An atheistic scientist has written a book that comprehends the color, variety, depth, and value of faith. An exhilarating and inspiring work. -- Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple, author of David: The Divided Heart

An atheistic scientist has written a book that comprehends the color, variety, depth, and value of faith. An exhilarating and inspiring work.--Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple, author of David: The Divided Heart

An atheistic scientist has written a book that comprehends the color, variety, depth, and value of faith. An exhilarating and inspiring work.--Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple, author of David: The Divided Heart A humane, appropriately qualified argument that provides aid and comfort for believers--and that should also interest fair-minded nonbelievers.

Author Information

Melvin Konner, MD, is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University. He is the author of Believers, Women After All, Becoming a Doctor, and The Tangled Wing, among other books.

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