I found this relatively short book (126 pages) to be an excellent explanation of the psychological reasons why the concept of religion was created. It was not a harsh condemnation of religious belief, but was simply an explanation of why early man found religion to be the easiest way to explain the phenomenon he saw. The book was very interesting and logical, but was, by no means, a quick and easy read; I found this book required some careful reading and time to digest the material. This is not to say that this was something to technical for the lay reader, but some background in science, psychology, and philosophy would make the reading easier.I would highly recommend this especially to the more thoughtful and informed readers among us; it was a wonderful read and fully deserving the five stars I rated it! It has long seemed to me to be a central question whenever we discuss religion and their central beliefs: were we created in the image of whichever god we worship, OR was that god actually a deity that was formed by us, in our image? Drake takes a look at this question in psychological terms as a thesis for how most religions formed.It is a simple approach that is neat in its simplicity. He does a good job of explaining how we might form beliefs and ascribe seemingly random and unconnected events to particular things and ultimately to the often capricious whiles of a fickle deity, such as the weather, harvests etc.It all sounds completely logical and he goes on to explain how matters such as morality come about, and how beliefs tend to evolve but also how they become set and very difficult to shake. This is all done via explanations of psychological devices and theories such as cognitive dissonance and how we tend to give added weight to things that seem to confirm our beliefs and ignore things that don't.I like the fact that this book provides an explanation of religions in general and is not an attack on a particular religion or indeed religions in general but is just a common sense approach to how they came about.
Do You like book The Invention Of Religion (2012)?
This book is brilliant. A real eye-opener. I think I'm gonna read it again.
—yulya
Excellent! Really gets down to the nuts and bolts of why religions exist.
—Sara
An absolute favourite, worth a six-star rating.
—AmaanRahil
