The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer 2011

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The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer 2011 This book arrived yesterday. I'm up to page 46 (of 371) and it has a good 11page index taking the page count up to 385. I orded this book because BLUELINE976 mentioned it in post #258 of this thread: *** http://www.dreamviews.com/extended-d...ml#post2066857 *** and I reply: Thanx Blueline *I looked up "The Believing Brain" I might buy it too since watching this Youtube: *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAw...e_gdata_player ***(1:19:37) 68,250 views Thanx. The "show more" reads June 9, 2011, the Center for Inquiry-New York City and NYC Skeptics hosted noted skeptic and bestselling author Michael Shermer for a talk about his new book, "The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths." The event was held at the Auditorium on Broadway. This is the full video, including both the talk and question-and-answer session. Correction: Michael Shermer is not executive director of NYC Skeptics, but of the Skeptics Society. Our apologies. *** Thanx*QUOTE=BLUELINE976;2062160] Here is BLUELINE'S photo of book: *** Fully related: I got this in the mail today. *** Yesterday, I posted this: **** Page 5 paragraph 3: The brain itself is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing through the senses the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning. The first process I call patternicity: the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaninglessness data. The second process I call agenticity: the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention and agency. We can't help it. Our brains evolved to connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen. These meaningful patterns become beliefs, and these beliefs shape our understanding of reality I got a phone call today from a bookstore to let me know that my copy of "The Believing Brain" had arrived. I'm into it now. It is riveting. Thanx for recommending it ***