The Biology of Belief: How Our Biology Biases Our Beliefs and Perceptions

by Joseph Giovannoli

Book Overview

“The Biology of Belief” examines how our less than perfectly adapted brains cope with today’s world. Among the things considered are how our brain biology biases our perceptions, organizes ignorance... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970813716
• ISBN13: 9780970813718
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Rosetta Press, Inc.
• Length: 390 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Powerful Examination of Mankind, Society and Belief

I can think of no greater recommendation than to say this book has changed the way I think about myself and about life. Mr. Giovanneli treks a rigid path - strictly bounded by science and proof - in his recounting of the history and development of religious beliefs and how mankind and societies have developed around these beliefs. At the outset, this book throws down the gauntlet of dismissal: Any religious, afterlife or "higher power" faiths of any kind are categorized as "myth-based beliefs," and are summarily rejected in substance. Instead, borrowing from Darwin, Giovannoli tracks mankind through the history of societal changes - influenced for good and bad by myth-based beliefs - by tracking "psychogenes," the social parallel to individual genetic inheritance. This unique slicing of man's history and culture offers up such fascinating capsules as: "From about 750 [BC] to 1600 [AD], Italian beliefs experienced many fundamental changes as Italy evolved from a republic to an empire; from the Roman state under Julius Caesar ... the consequences of conquering Greece and assimilating its culture, the psychogenetic influence of the rise of Christianity, and the influence of Greco-Roman beliefs on Italian psychogenes during the Renaissance." The author pointedly and sometimes brilliantly ties together the structure and function of man's brain - specifically the primitive amygdala vs. the more evolved prefontal lobes and how these structures act in opposition - with a panoply of historical sources, including quotes and analyses from Plato and Aristotle to Nietszche and Stephen Hawking. But in adhering to the outright dismissal of anything faith-based, the author perhaps falls into the same trap of over-certainty he dismisses in believers. As anyone familiar with the confounding mysteries of quantum mechanics can tell you, the only thing we can be certain about is that there is no such thing as certainty. Accordingly, Giovannoli's rigid dismissal of any beliefs (even dismissal of advanced meditative states) was at times mildly irritating to me. And if this reader was mildly irritated, I can promise you any reader who fancies himself a believer should brace for this categorical rejection. But if you are secure enough in your own mind to probe the individual and societal causes and effects of beliefs, this book should move you. Most impressive was the author's application of the history of psychogenes and belief on the futire of mankind. The effects of beliefs on society, and how they might be utilized to stem overpopulation and the depletion of the Earth's resources, was a powerful final chapter. The author carefully lays out how the effects of belief systems can change mankind, and on how mankind might need that changing in the 21st century.

Impressed reader

This book was recommended by a friend, but after reading a review that described the author as a "gifted amateur" I must admit I had reservations. However, on reading the book I found that it explained the process of belief formation through an extraordinary synthesis of diverse knowledge disciplines. The author, apparently a generalist with encyclopedic comprehension, described how the human brain evolved and the significance of that evolution on the biological and social influences affecting how we form beliefs. I found the description of the evolution of life on earth, and specifically the events that directly influenced brain evolution to be enlightening. The book's use of historical examples of belief evolution and manipulation caused me to think twice about what I had been taught to believe. The current science-religion debates were given a neuro-historical perspective through a description of the parallel histories of both ways of thinking, beginning with Plato and Aristotle. The book posits that the brain's emotional limbic structures might account for the thinking of Plato and subsequent religious thinkers, while the frontal portion of the brain's neocortex might explain Aristotle's reasoned, more scientific approach to the world. In this regard, the book painfully reminded me of the injustices experienced by scientists and others in the name of religion. The rise of religious fundamentalism in our time might explain the author's concern about the possible negative influences of mythological belief systems on the future of humanity. I have a special interest in the ongoing debate over Richard Dawkins' meme theory. The author's view that memes are an oversimplification of the method by which beliefs move from person to person was supported by a number of academics in a Scientific American article in Oct. of 2000. I found compelling the author's observation that meme theory falls short by failing to predict who will "be acquired" by a meme, and that meme theory fails to account for the capacity of thought and self-direction to intervene in the process of belief transmission from person to person. In short, I liked the book. It contained many original concepts and perspectives, was well documented and was very readable. I'm not surprised at the publisher's listing of universities in Europe and North America that use the book as a reference or text.

An enlightening view of myself.

There are very few books that can truly alter the way one views the world. The Biology of Belief is one of those very few. The author's comment, that the original motivation of the book was to see "why rational minds are capable of believing in myth" and "its capacity to alter our view of reality", took me on my own "journey". An understanding of the extent of brainwashing that exists in our culture was very enlightening. In fact, I can only describe my experience in the following manner: in borrowing the phase "I once was blind but now I see.." I think the book should be require reading at EVERY liberal arts university. The tough part would be supplying the professors to teach it!

Biology of Belief

Throughout this book, Mr. Giovannoli has tried to stay close to the science while giving the reader an intuitive understatnding, often through analogy and metaphor of how scientists and philosophers have reached the current perception of beliefs. Even though he avoids burdensome technical language and equations, because of the radically new concepts invloved, the reader may need to pause now and then, to mull over a section here or ponder an explanation there, in order to follow the progression of ideas fully.Despite an acceptable "Western" perspective, "The Biology of Belief" does more than just augment the fragments of understanding we have about our belief system..It arranges biological and historical benchmarks into a sometimes thrilling intellectual jaunt that belies Mr. Giovannoli's belief that the whole is much greater than the sum of it's parts. A common evolutionary thread pierces the book and illustrates our dependence on our reptilian ancestors brain functions, and ties it to the world's current dealings with zealots and fundalmentalism. A quantum leap, presented with conviction and compassion.Never in my years of associated reading, have I been so anxious to read a book for the third time.