How We Believe
E201272
How We Believe is a book by Michael Shermer that examines the psychological, cultural, and evolutionary roots of religious belief and faith.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| How We Believe canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1796468 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: How We Believe Context triple: [Michael Shermer, notableWork, How We Believe]
-
A.
What I Believe
"What I Believe" is a non-fiction work by Leo Tolstoy in which he sets out his radical Christian anarchist philosophy, emphasizing nonviolence, love, and rejection of state and church authority.
-
B.
Beyond Belief
"Beyond Belief" is a seminal sociological work by Robert N. Bellah that explores the role of religion and symbolic meaning in modern American society.
-
C.
On Faith
On Faith is a key doctrinal section of the First Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution Dei Filius that systematically expounds the Catholic understanding of faith, its nature, and its relationship to reason and divine revelation.
-
D.
The Believers
The Believers is the English rendering of "Al-Mu'minun," the title of the 23rd chapter of the Qur'an, which focuses on the qualities and ultimate success of true faithful followers.
-
E.
Follow God
"Follow God" is a gospel-infused hip-hop track by Kanye West from his album *Jesus Is King*, known for its introspective lyrics and energetic, minimalist production.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: How We Believe Target entity description: How We Believe is a book by Michael Shermer that examines the psychological, cultural, and evolutionary roots of religious belief and faith.
-
A.
What I Believe
"What I Believe" is a non-fiction work by Leo Tolstoy in which he sets out his radical Christian anarchist philosophy, emphasizing nonviolence, love, and rejection of state and church authority.
-
B.
Beyond Belief
"Beyond Belief" is a seminal sociological work by Robert N. Bellah that explores the role of religion and symbolic meaning in modern American society.
-
C.
On Faith
On Faith is a key doctrinal section of the First Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution Dei Filius that systematically expounds the Catholic understanding of faith, its nature, and its relationship to reason and divine revelation.
-
D.
The Believers
The Believers is the English rendering of "Al-Mu'minun," the title of the 23rd chapter of the Qur'an, which focuses on the qualities and ultimate success of true faithful followers.
-
E.
Follow God
"Follow God" is a gospel-infused hip-hop track by Kanye West from his album *Jesus Is King*, known for its introspective lyrics and energetic, minimalist production.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book ⓘ |
| author | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| examines |
belief in God
ⓘ
cognitive biases related to faith ⓘ cultural roots of religious belief ⓘ evolutionary roots of religious belief ⓘ patterns of religious conversion ⓘ patterns of religious deconversion ⓘ psychological roots of religious belief ⓘ relationship between science and religion ⓘ social functions of religion ⓘ |
| genre |
non-fiction
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| hasContributor | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| hasEdition | How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God (revised edition) ⓘ |
| hasForm |
hardcover
ⓘ
paperback ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
scientific
ⓘ
skeptical ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
cognitive foundations of belief
ⓘ
limits of faith-based knowledge ⓘ naturalistic explanations of religious experience ⓘ social dynamics of religious communities ⓘ why people believe in God ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
general audience
ⓘ
readers interested in science and religion ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
evolution of religion
ⓘ
faith ⓘ psychology of religion ⓘ religious belief ⓘ skepticism ⓘ |
| mediaType |
book
ⓘ
print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
integrating psychology and evolutionary theory in the study of belief
ⓘ
popularizing scientific approaches to understanding religion ⓘ |
| partOfWorkSeries | Michael Shermer’s works on skepticism and science ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1999 ⓘ |
| publisher |
W. H. Freeman and Company
ⓘ
surface form:
W. H. Freeman
|
| relatedWork |
The Science of Good and Evil
ⓘ
Why People Believe Weird Things ⓘ |
| usesMethod |
evolutionary explanation
ⓘ
psychological analysis ⓘ survey research ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: How We Believe Description of subject: How We Believe is a book by Michael Shermer that examines the psychological, cultural, and evolutionary roots of religious belief and faith.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.