by Jesse Bering
The Belief Instinct is a compelling look at the biological origins of such things as belief in God, the afterlife, and divine punishment. Many of these things, the author argues, are due to our evolution of a "theory of mind," which allows us to assume that others think and feel as we do and put our...
The Belief Instinct is pleasurable in that it's wholly unlike books by the sort of atheists who doggedly pursue the conversion of their readers to their way of thinking. Bering is methodical and scientific in building his argument. He's also very personable and quite funny. [full review]