Breaking the Spell cover art

Breaking the Spell

Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

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Breaking the Spell

By: Daniel C. Dennett
Narrated by: Dennis Holland
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About this listen

For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life?

Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma. Not an antireligious creed but an unblinking look beneath the veil of orthodoxy, Breaking the Spell will be read and debated by believers and skeptics alike.

©2006 Daniel C. Dennett (P)2013 Audible, Inc. History & Philosophy Philosophy Religious Studies Science Social Sciences Genetics

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All stars
Most relevant  
This is such a well researched and well written book. It would have been infinitely better if the author had read it.

Great book, robotic narration

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Struggled to finish.Ifound the narrator incredibly boring. Didn't make it interesting at all. Shame Dennett doesn't do it

Interesting Let down by narrator

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Phenomenal book, wonderfully written by the amazing Daniel C. Dennett, beautifully narrated by Dennis Holland, was hard to put the book down, I loved every moment!!!

Phenomenal book, stunning narrator!!!

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Interesting substance lost in style meltdown. Dennett would do well to read Pinker's The Sense of Style.

Style guide needed

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Although I respect Dennett’s live & let live attitude I’m not sure the Christian nationalist right is singing from the same hymn sheet. Well written tho.

Time has outrun this.

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I am open minded. I listen to books by authors from all walks of life on a variety of subjects. I am interested in humanity and what makes the species tick. I particularly enjoy books on religion by philosophers because they ask questions which open my mind to new possibilities, make me think and expand my world. This book assumes too much. The author spends too much time at the beginning of the book telling me what I would not be willing to do and trying to justify the way he writes without telling me a damn thing. This author claims to be open minded and yet is more pious about his standpoint than most religious advocates. Worse still, the narrator has chosen a condescending tone to voice the authors ideas. Disappointing and hard to listen to.

I just can't get past the condescending tone

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page 222
"In general, the world would be a better place if people shared more truths and believed fewer falsehoods. That's why we have education and public-information campaigns and newspapers and so forth. There are exceptions—strategic secrets, for instance, cases where I believe something and am grateful that nobody else shares my belief."

page 202
"The physicist Paul Davies (2004) has recently defended the view that belief in free will is so important that it may be "a fiction worth maintaining." It is interesting that he doesn't seem to think that his own discovery of the awful truth (what he takes to be the awful truth) incapacitates him morally, but believes that others, more fragile than he, will need to be protected from it."

meh

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