CFI Freethinker’s Book Club: The Believing Brain

CFI Vancouver’s Book Club meets every second Saturday of the month at The Grind Coffee Shop on Main Street at King Edward. Most of the books we discuss are available through the Vancouver Public Libraries – http://www.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/, can be found for sale at Chapters or online at Amazon.ca

April’s book is: ‘The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths’ by Michael Shermer

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From Amazon.ca:

Synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist and science historian Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine. Using sensory data that flow in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning, forming beliefs. Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, accelerating the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive-feedback loop.
In The Believing Brain, Shermer provides countless real-world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal. And ultimately, he demonstrates why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not our beliefs match reality.

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The book is available from the Vancouver Public Library; as well as from online sellers such as Amazon.ca and Chapters.indigo.ca . Please make sure to read the book before the meeting!

Please bring your ideas for future books to the next meeting, or email them to us.

CFI Vancouver’s Book Club meets every second Saturday of the month at The Grind Coffee Shop on Main Street at King Edward.

Admission is free, however please consider becoming a member of CFI and/or making a donation to help keep this and other programs running.

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