''Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon'' is a 2006 book by American philosopher and cognitive scientist

Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (March 28, 1942 – April 19, 2024) was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. His research centered on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of biology, particularly as those ...

, in which the author argues that

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

is in need of

scientific analysis Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

so that its nature and future may be better understood. The "spell" that requires "breaking" is not

religious belief A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief ...

itself but the belief that it is off-limits to or beyond scientific inquiry.

Synopsis

The book is divided into three parts. Dennett's working definition of religions is: "social systems whose participants avow belief in a

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

agent or agents whose approval is to be sought". He notes that this definition is "a place to start, not something carved in stone". Part I discusses the motivation and justification for the entire project: ''Can'' science study religion? ''Should'' science study religion? Dennett addresses the proposal by

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...

that science and religion represent

non-overlapping magisteria Non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA) is the view, advocated by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, that science and religion each represent different areas of inquiry, fact vs. values, so there is a difference between the "nets" over which they have "a ...

(NOMA); science dealing with facts while religion deals with values, morality, and personal meanings. Noting that NOMA drew few adherents from either side, and that Gould's thesis is itself based upon a scientific view of the issues, Dennett concludes that religion must be open to scientific investigation. Part II proceeds to use the tools of

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

and

memetics Memetics is a theory of the evolution of culture based on Darwinian principles with the meme as the unit of culture. The term "meme" was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book '' The Selfish Gene'', to illustrate the principle that h ...

to suggest possible

theories A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

regarding the

origin of religion The evolutionary origin of religion and religious behavior is a field of study related to evolutionary psychology, the origin of language and mythology, and cross-cultural comparison of the anthropology of religion. Some subjects of interest ...

and subsequent evolution of modern religions from ancient

folk beliefs In folkloristics, folk belief or folk-belief is a broad genre of folklore that is often expressed in narratives, customs, rituals, foodways, proverbs, and rhymes. It also includes a wide variety of behaviors, expressions, and beliefs. Examples of ...

. Part III analyzes religion and its effects in today's world: Does religion make us

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

? Is religion what gives meaning to life? What should we teach the children? Dennett bases much of his analysis on

empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...

evidence, though he often points out that much more research in this field is needed.

Critical reception

Mass media

''The Guardian''s Andrew Brown describes it as giving "a very forceful and lucid account of the reasons why we need to study religious behaviour as a human phenomenon". In ''Scientific American'', George Johnson describes the book's main draw as being "a sharp synthesis of a library of evolutionary, anthropological and psychological research on the origin and spread of religion".

Biological sciences

In ''The New Yorker'', evolutionary biologist

H. Allen Orr H. Allen Orr (born 1960) is the Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. Education and career Orr earned his bachelor's degree in Biology and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in Biolog ...

described the book as "an accessible account of what might be called the natural history of religion".

Religious community

Leon Wieseltier Leon Wieseltier ( ; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until 2017, when the magazine fi ...

, former member of the editorial board of the ''

Jewish Review of Books The ''Jewish Review of Books'' is a quarterly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs from a Jewish perspective. It is published in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The magazine was launched in 2010 with an editorial board that ...

'', called the book, in ''The New York Times'', "a sorry instance of present-day

scientism Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...

" which he labels a superstition. Charles T. Rubin, professor emeritus of political science at Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit, likened Dennett to "a tone-deaf music scholar", criticized his "unwillingness to admit the limits of scientific rationality" and accused him of "deploying the same old Enlightenment tropes that didn't work all that well the first time around".

Philosophical

Edward Feser Edward Charles Feser (; born April 16, 1968) is an American Catholic philosopher. He is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Education Feser holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Ca ...

and

Karlyn Bowman Karlyn H. Bowman, formerly known as Karlyn H. Keene, is a politically conservative American editor and public opinion analyst. She is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She was the managing editor of ''Public Opinion'' ...

criticize his interpretation of theistic arguments, whilst maintaining praise for his passages on cognitive neuroscience.

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...

both praised and criticised Dennett's book in his book ''On Human Nature'', endorsing his intellectual bravery and imaginative writing, yet criticising his reliance on the

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

theory, and remaining sceptical of his view that all areas of human consciousness can be accessible through the neo-Darwinian human model alone. Philosopher and theologian David B. Hart finds Dennett to be dogmatic, a "Darwinian fundimentalist".

Social sciences

Sociologist Penny Edgell (U. of Minnesota), who specializes in morals and religion, find the book frustrating in its combination of worthy scholarship and polemics.

Other disciplines

In ''The New York Review of Books'',

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...

wrote:

Translations

''Breaking the Spell'' has been translated into several other languages, including:

References

External links

Interview with Dennett on ''Breaking the Spell'', February 14, 2006

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

Other reviews

* Adam Kirsch,
If Men Are From Mars, What's God
in ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...

''. * James Brookfield,
Dennett’s dangerous idea
,

World Socialist Website The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is the website of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). It describes itself as an "online newspaper of the international Trotskyist movement". About The WSWS was established on Fe ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Breaking The Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon 2006 non-fiction books Analytic philosophy literature Books by Daniel Dennett Books critical of religion Cognitive science literature English-language non-fiction books New Atheism