Book Group Discussion - The Belief Instinct: The psychology of souls, destiny, and the meaning of life (2011) by Jesse Bering

Jesse Bering (2011) provides secular, science-based examinations of questions often raised in religious contexts, but that tend to persist even for those of us who have rejected supernatural explanations.

Bering asks, "what accounts for our beliefs about souls, immortality, a moral 'eye in the sky' that judges us, and so forth?" He grounds his answers in the way our brains have been structured (by evolution) with a "theory of mind," showing how this capacity leads to humans imagining gods. He goes on to examine other questions such as life after death, referencing literature and popular culture as well as science. [sc]