Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

By Daniel C. Dennett. 2006

514 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The thesis that Dennett argues for in Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon has a double aspect. First, religion being but one natural phenomenon among many should be subject to scientific investigation (p. 17). Resistance to this notion constitutes the first spell or taboo and is in complicity with the second “master” spell, that of the phenomenon of religion itself (pp. 18, 322).

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5b08725f0dc3e3f95223048491a13ce2adab5c2c

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Citations in the corpus

Who Benefits from Religion? (2011, background): “…extend beyond the individual, such as lower crime rates and increased civic involvement (Putnam 2000; Sherkat and Ellison 1999), though religious affiliation also can have costs in the form of intergroup conflict (Dawkins 2006; Dennett 2006; Hunsberger and Jackson 2005; Pargament 2002; Stern 2003).”
The science of religious beliefs (2008, background): “5 5 Perhaps worth noting, because of the attention these findings have been receiving in controversial trade books and in the popular media (for example, Bloom, 2005; Dawkins, 2006; Dennett, 2006), is how the scientific explanation of religious belief bears upon the justification of such beliefs.”
The Stereotyping of Nonreligious People by Religious Students: Contents and Subtypes (2007, background): “The authors of two recent books on religion in the popular market (Dawkins 2006; Dennet 2006) have both made anecdotal claims that nonbelievers are often discriminated against in predominantly religious societies.”