Book Review: The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt

Perhaps my favorite post-Mormon read so far has been The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt.

I love this book because it presents the best theories I’m aware of for how morality and belief work. Both of these explanations can be extremely helpful to ex-Mormons who are deconstructing, and I hope the information will bring you insight and maybe a bit of peace.

Questions This Book Addresses

I’ll dedicate a post to the details of how morality works as well as one to how belief works, but for now the thing to know is that Haidt proposes the social intuitionist model. This model addresses questions like:

• Where does morality come from?
• Why do we believe the things we do?
• Why do seemingly good people come to such different conclusions?
• Why does my family think I’m being wicked just because I [don’t wear garments, drink coffee, etc.]?
• Why aren’t my loved ones willing to talk about things I’ve learned about the Church?
• Why do Church standards encompass so many different areas of life?
• Why did it take me so long to stop believing in the LDS gospel?
• How can people still believe when they know so many horrible things about the Church?
• Why are my loved ones jumping to their doom by voting for the GOP?
• Why aren’t my loved ones willing to accept me for who I am when they supposedly love me?
• How do I raise children to be moral when my whole framework for doing that is gone?
• What role does religion serve in society?

This book gives us a lot of answers about morality, belief, and society.

Other Aspects of This Book

The Righteous Mind is dense but a rewarding read. The points are clear and presented according to the principles that Haidt lays out for convincing people of your ideas. His arguments are compelling, and he explains and engages with competing theories, such as Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning and the New Atheist approach to religion.

The organization and structure are coherent and clear, as are the mechanics and the presentation of the material to a lay audience.

Some day, I will review a book on this site and not give it 5 stars. Today is not that day. 5 stars.