The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science - Rilegato

Will Storr

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1447231686 ISBN 13: 9781447231684

Casa editrice: Picador, 2013

Riassunto

Will Storr was in the tropical north of Australia, excavating fossils with a celebrity creationist, when he asked himself a simple question. Why don't facts work? Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them? It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world - from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides - meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. He goes on a tour of Holocaust sites with David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during `past life regression' hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government with iconic climate sceptic Lord Monckton and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult. Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological `hero maker' inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"I loved it . . . funny, serious, richly vivid . . . Read this book." --Daily Telegraph

"An investigation not only of outlandish belief systems, but of all belief systems . . . engaging." --Sunday Times

"Storr can open chapters like a stage conjurer, and his prose has an easy, laconic style embracing Jon Ronson's taste for the fabulously weird and Louis Theroux's ability to put his subjects at ease. He is a funny and companionable guide . . . [who] confounds expectations." --Guardian

"Incontrovertibly brilliant" --Esquire

"Brilliant" --Grazia

"The Heretics throws new and salutary light on all our conceits and beliefs. Very valuable, and a great read to boot, this is investigative journalism of the highest order." --Independent, Book of the Week

"Utterly engrossing . . . The Heretics is an accessible and absolutely compelling read, Storr leaving us with a distinct lack of trust in the verity of our own beliefs. The most dangerous thing anyone can do is dismiss as stupid the beliefs of fringe extremists." --Daily Express

"I don't totally agree with The Heretics, which is why I enjoyed it so much, it pinpricked my mind from some of its lazy slumbering." --Robin Ince

"Storr takes his personal experiences on a Louis-Theroux type ride . . . [and] opens up his life as another source of irrationality, leading the reader to question their own core beliefs." --Stylist

"[Storr] seeks not to mock strange convictions, but to get inside the minds of those who hold them. The result is an entertaining journey dotted with some fascinating reportage . . . Storr remains sufficiently dubious of improbable claims, but sufficiently open to the genuine distress of those who make them, to explore alternative explanations for their plight." --Observer

"Read this and never trust your own mind again." --Q Magazine

"The Heretics is essentially a book about belief written by a sceptic questioning his own scepticism . . . At first glance Storr covers much the same territory as those other explorers of the outer realms of belief, Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux, but his tone is both less sneery and more genuinely exploratory than either . . . This is a humane and generous book and in the face of those ultra-rationalists and materialists who wish to rob us of the wonder of human existence, its insightful exploration of lives lived 'beyond the facts' is to be celebrated." --Sunday Telegraph

"Will Storr is a versatile, imaginative, committed long-form journalist with a populist touch. He is often brave with regard to his article choices . . . a talented, ambitious writer."
--Independent

Descrizione del libro:

For lovers of Jon Ronson, Ben Goldacre, Francis Wheen and Louis Theroux, a new book that explores why today's heretics just don't believe the facts.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Picador
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1447231686
• ISBN 13: 9781447231684
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 464