Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

BREAKING THE SPELL

ALSO BY DANIEL C. DENNETT

Content and Consciousness

Brainstorms

The Mind’s I

(with Douglas Hofstadter)

Elbow Room

The Intentional Stance

Consciousness Explained

Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

Kinds of Minds

Brainchildren

Freedom Evolves

Sweet Dreams

VIKING

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India • Penguin Books (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in 2006 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © Daniel C. Dennett, 2006

All rights reserved

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Dennett, Daniel Clement.

Breaking the spell: religion as a natural phenomenon / Daniel C. Dennett.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-1012-1886-0

Religion—Controversial literature. I. Title.

BL2775.3.D46 2006

200—dc22 2005042415

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FOR SUSAN

Contents

Preface

PART I OPENING PANDORA’S BOX

1 Breaking Which Spell?

1 What’s going on?

2 A working definition of religion

3 To break or not to break

4 Peering into the abyss

5 Religion as a natural phenomenon

2 Some Questions About Science

1 Can science study religion?

2 Should science study religion?

3 Might music be bad for you?

4 Would neglect be more benign?

3 Why Good Things Happen

1 Bringing out the best

2 Cui bono?

3 Asking what pays for religion

4 A Martian’s list of theories

PART II THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION

4 The Roots of Religion

1 The births of religions

2 The raw materials of religion

3 How Nature deals with the problem of other minds

5 Religion, the Early Days

1 Too many agents: competition for rehearsal space

2 Gods as interested parties

3 Getting the gods to speak to us

4 Shamans as hypnotists

5 Memory-engineering devices in oral cultures

6 The Evolution of Stewardship

1 The music of religion

2 Folk religion as practical know-how

3 Creeping reflection and the birth of secrecy in religion

4 The domestication of religions

7 The Invention of Team Spirit

1 A path paved with good intentions

2 The ant colony and the corporation

3 The growth market in religion

4 A God you can talk to

8 Belief in Belief

1 You better believe it

2 God as intentional object

3 The division of doxastic labor

4 The lowest common denominator?

5 Beliefs designed to be professed

6 Lessons from Lebanon: the strange cases of the Druze and Kim Philby

7 Does God exist?

PART III RELIGION TODAY

9 Toward a Buyer’s Guide to Religions

1 For the love of God

2 The academic smoke screen

3 Why does it matter what you believe?

4 What can your religion do for you?

10 Morality and Religion

1 Does religion make us moral?

2 Is religion what gives meaning to your life?

3 What can we say about sacred values?

4 Bless my soul: spirituality and selfishness

11 Now What Do We Do?

1 Just a theory

2 Some avenues to explore: how can we home in on religious conviction?

3 What shall we tell the children?

4 Toxic memes

5 Patience and politics

Appendixes

A The New Replicators

B Some More Questions About Science

C The Bellboy and the Lady Named Tuck

D Kim Philby as a Real Case of Indeterminacy of Radical Interpretation

Notes

Bibliography

Preface