Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Rating:
Category: Religion
From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture
Robert Park, the best-selling author of Voodoo Science, argues that it has. In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims. He examines recent controversies and concludes that science is the only way we have of understanding the world.
Park sides with the forces of reason in a world of continuing and, he fears, increasing superstition. Chapter by chapter, he explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for science. He discusses parapsychology, homeopathy, and acupuncture; he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design, and the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and astral projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. Throughout, he demonstrates how people's blind faith, and their confidence in suspect phenomena and remedies, are manipulated for political ends. Park shows that science prevails when people stop fooling themselves.
Compelling and precise, Superstition takes no hostages in its quest to provoke. In shedding light on some very sensitive--and Park would say scientifically dubious--issues, the book is sure to spark discussion and controversy.
quantum_flapdoodle
LibraryThing Review Not so much about superstition in general as about religious superstition. The author explores the ways in which religion and science are quite simply incompatible. Sort of a lightweight book
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) An easy read, yet a very concise dismantling of superstitious thinking.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) Park is much more open to allowing those he disagrees with their right to believe. An enlightened atheistic approach to the issue of religious belief. For further reflections see: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) Not bad but too short. I would have liked a more in depth treatment.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) Easy and enjoyable to read. For me, the book offered nothing new -- but to a person who bends a knee to superstition, it could be of great help.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) A great matter of fact commentary on the current state of irrationalism. A fun read.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) A feeble, petulant diatribe.
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) Its not bad, content is interesting and quite accurate. Pity is the author focuses a lot on creationists in the USA, and the world is much bigger than that. I think putting science in the perspective
Review: Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Voodoo Science #2) In my effort to understand why people believe so much nonsense this book comprised a readable collection of chapters much like those of other books I have read recently. Written by a physicist (well
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