Belief: How Our Minds Work (and How They Don't)

Do you know why you believe what you believe?In order to make sense of the world human beings search for patterns and make assumptions.But our need to make sense of things does not guarantee that we will make reasonable sense or that our beliefs will be truthful. Do we develop our religious beliefs and our political beliefs using the same processes? Should we?How do we know whether one of our beliefs is wrong?People generally prefer their own beliefs to the beliefs of others not because they are more solid beliefs but simply because they are their beliefs and that feels good.In a conversational style this book discusses how we come to belief today and how our minds can actually get in the way of our search for truth by leading us into various cognitive biases and logical fallacies.Using insightful quotations of scientists such as Galileo Galilei Francis Bacon and Carl Sagan and philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard Bertrand Russell David Hume and Karl Popper this book addresses questions like: How does a conspiracy work? (with special attention paid to the 2020 Presidential election fraud allegations.)How did the modern process of constructing beliefs develop?How do we scrutinize our beliefs to make sure that they have a solid foundation?How did skepticism come to play such an important role in discovering truth?How did the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution both play into the modern scientific attitude toward belief?