How We Believe
The Search for God in an Age of Science
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Narrated by:
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Michael Shermer
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By:
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Michael Shermer
About this listen
These provocative questions lie at the heart of How We Believe, an illuminating study of God, faith, and religion. Best-selling author Michael Shermer offers fresh and often startling insights into age-old questions, including how and why humans put their faith in a higher power, even in the face of scientific skepticism. Shermer has updated the book to explore the latest research and theories of psychiatrists, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, and philosophers, as well as the role of faith in our increasingly diverse modern world. Whether believers or nonbelievers, we are all driven by the need to understand the universe and our place in it. How We Believe is a brilliant scientific tour of this ancient and mysterious desire.
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- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
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Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By David T. on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Atheism for Dummies
- By: Dale McGowan PhD
- Narrated by: Paul Mantell
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Atheism For Dummies offers a brief history of atheist philosophy and its evolution, explores it as a historical and cultural movement, covers important historical writings on the subject, and discusses the nature of ethics and morality in the absence of religion. A simple, yet intelligent exploration of an often misunderstood philosophy.
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Great topic...irritating narrator
- By Duke Playbent on 10-26-14
By: Dale McGowan PhD
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Evolution
- The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Edward J. Larson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and eminent science historian. This marvelously readable, yet sumptuously erudite work traces the development of the scientific theory of evolution. From Darwin's essential trip to the Galápagos, to the most contemporary studies in sociobiology, this work takes listeners both into the field and laboratories of the world's greatest evolutionary scientists, and shows how the theory of evolution has itself evolved.
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An Excellent History!
- By Bradly D. Elder on 08-13-07
By: Edward J. Larson
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2084
- Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity
- By: John C. Lennox
- Narrated by: Justin Brierley
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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What will the year 2084 hold for you - for your friends, for your family, and for our society? Are we doomed to the grim dystopia imagined in George Orwell's 1984? In 2084, scientist and philosopher John Lennox will introduce you to a kaleidoscope of ideas: the key developments in technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence. You will discover the current capacity of AI, its advantages and disadvantages, the facts and the fiction, as well as potential future implications.
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another stellar work from Lennox!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-03-20
By: John C. Lennox
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50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True
- By: Guy P. Harrison
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you're trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? Longtime skeptic Guy P. Harrison shows you how in this down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims.
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Skepticism, so Dull & Condescending
- By Mr Conway on 03-11-13
By: Guy P. Harrison
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The Case for God
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable?
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Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
- By John Doyle on 02-18-11
By: Karen Armstrong
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When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
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Big Gods
- How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict
- By: Ara Norenzayan
- Narrated by: Paul Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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How did human societies scale up from small, tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today - even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation? How did organized religions with "Big Gods" - the great monotheistic and polytheistic faiths - spread to colonize most minds in the world? In Big Gods, Ara Norenzayan makes the surprising and provocative argument that these fundamental puzzles about the origins of civilization are one and the same, and answer each other.
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Great read
- By paro on 02-27-24
By: Ara Norenzayan
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There Is a God
- How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
- By: Antony Flew, Roy Abraham Varghese - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
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In There Is a God, one of the world's preeminent atheists discloses how his commitment to "follow the argument wherever it leads" led him to a belief in God as Creator. This is a compelling and refreshingly open-minded argument that will forever change the atheism debate.
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Disappointing
- By Rebekah Hull on 08-03-21
By: Antony Flew, and others
What listeners say about How We Believe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-11-23
Eye opener excellent narrative
Excellent for deep thinkers and excellent arguments and very convincing. Easy to understand especially for someone from a religious background. And it makes a lot of sense.
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- Longtom
- 04-23-16
Great book and value
Where does How We Believe rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I am interested in why people believe things, so it was right on.
What was one of the most memorable moments of How We Believe?
Shermer's talk of pattern-seeking and myth was organized well. I also enjoyed his tolerance toward faith systems, only saying that it is when these pretend to be fact-based that they can become problematic.
Any additional comments?
Some reviewers have said Shermer's narration detracts from the book. I am of the opposite view. He sounds like Michael Shermer, not like a professional narrator. But his narration adds a personal element to the book, and his real voice is fits his writing voice just fine.
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- jeremy
- 10-14-16
Partly brilliant partly boring.
Author is clearly brilliant. Parts of the book were inspired but other parts boring. On the whole pretty good but too short
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- Vishu
- 06-24-16
How Much Michael Shermer doesn't believe
Shermer starts out assuring us that he and his society of skeptics are not all atheists, not even agnostics but a collection of both kinds and even some believers. However, one famous lady signed off in a furious huff when she 'discovered' that they were all report live atheists. This should have been expected. From long before Jesus to long after George Bush, the religionists have always believed that if you are not with them you are against them, and deserving of contempt and burning in eternal hell.
Once he sets out with those polite sentiments of friendly discussion, Shermen comes into his elements, tearing off every fabric of faith and putting scientific edifices in their place. It is a great spectacle as you close in towards the climax when Shermen unfetters himself from satans and demons, gods and wizards and ' disenfranchises' himself from the thoughts and commands from another time, another place. Thus he enjoys, he proclaims, the pleasures of life in full with no regrets, marvels at the vastness of the multitude of universes in which he is a product of a contingent evolution, prides in the sanctity of his wedding with his soulmate, Learns from thoughts of others in scientific thinking and makes his own small contribution.
A great read. Listen to the audible version with a Bluetooth set of earphones and enjoy the logic he rolls out.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rick
- 02-08-15
excellent
excellent it hits the nail on the head. we believe only to fill a god shaped void, which can be filled other more practical and realistic ways
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4 people found this helpful