How We Believe

A detailed Summary of How We Believe

In the book, How We Believe, written by Michael Shermer, he presents the idea that humans are story-telling animals. It is in the human nature to tell stories at times that are needed to either prove a point or simply just to teach a moral. Ever since the beginning of time, stories have been told as a form of entertainment and teaching. Many generations of stories have been passed down as time goes by. Then stories started to fall as a form of knowledge and teaching of our history and science. Sometimes the stories end up being myths. People have used stories for many different reasons, from communicating with people to the teaching of historical and scientific events.

The author contends that humans are story-telling animals because of the way one lives their life. Shermer presents the idea that a person's daily life is a full story to tell in itself. One way of telling this story is to tell it by keeping a diary or journal of their daily life. These journals could consist of memorable events that occur each day. On most occasions, the stories that are written in these journals are very dull and may consist in a pattern of daily life. Even with that, it will also include more interesting days in the j

Although stories are told in many different forms, they change as time passes by. That is one reason why "true" stories are not always as "true" as they seem to be. As time passes by, a person will eventually fail to remember some parts of the story and leave it out, change or even add their own small part to the story. After passing the story down from one generation to another generation, these stories are modified so much that the original story is forgotten. Yet, even with the great change in the story, the general idea still exists within the story.

Through the art of acting in movies is a good way to tell stories with different situations and mixed emotions. In order to begin a movie, it must first be written down on paper. Whether the story is scary, dramatic or humorous, it is all thought up and written down by an author. After being written on paper, it is translated to the audience through acting, thus, allowing a story to be told through a more visual perspective. Movies help the audience see a more interesting way of moral story or entertainment.

Humans will always be story-telling animals. It is in our genes to be story-telling animals. People all over the world are the ones that cause our nature to be the way it is in the twenty first century. To tell morals and fictional stories about giving, receiving, and exchanging knowledge is a way of communicating with others. We do it in all different k

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Approximate Word count = 967
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion