Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity

“A masterly new book.” —New Yorker

“A major achievement in the study of religious attitudes.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

To understand the nature of religious belief, we must look at how our minds process the world of imagination and make-believe.

We often assume that religious beliefs are similar in kind to ordinary factual beliefs—that believing in the existence of supernatural entities that hear our prayers is akin to believing that May comes before June. Neil Van Leeuwen reveals tha...