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The Benign Skeptic
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Book Synopsis The Benign Skeptic by : Sharon Taylor
Download or read book The Benign Skeptic written by Sharon Taylor and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2023-04-27 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Think before you believe.” Despite her strict Christian upbringing, skepticism was somehow in Sharon Taylor’s DNA. Perhaps it was a young girl’s innate sense of right and wrong that led her to root out bigots and perverts, question the hypocrisy in her church (and in her own mother’s blind faith), and combat poverty with street savvy. Or maybe it was curiosity and determination, combined with book smarts, that helped Taylor overcome the challenges in her tumultuous childhood, eventually attaining academic honors and a Ph.D. and embarking on an academic career—all while raising four children. The Benign Skeptic: A Memoir is a journey through the author’s long life from her birth at the start of World War II to present day, as the world still copes with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taylor’s candid storytelling starts by reeling the reader back in time, when the girl with the hated Shirley-Temple curls, born in Bend, Oregon, (to her parents “a mixed blessing”), was seemingly always trapped in a battle between her devout Baptist mother and atheist father, which eventually led to their divorce. This family breakdown set off a heartrending and often farcical chain of events with Taylor, her mother, and her paranoid and sometimes violent stepfather changing their identities for a short-lived life on the lam. As an adult, Taylor also overcomes a number of hurdles as a parent and wife, trying to find her way in the world and develop her own identity and values. The Benign Skeptic is a memoir about the complexity of family and romantic love, looking for the good in others, and recognizing that many things in life are more important than money. Along with history as seen through her eyes and nuggets of wisdom from a life well lived, Taylor offers her descendants (present and future) frank advice on everything from sex to control (and when to cede it) to the transformative powers of art and reading.
Book Synopsis A Faith for Skeptics by : John H. Heidt
Download or read book A Faith for Skeptics written by John H. Heidt and published by Gracewing Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Setting Yourself Free to Believe We do not live in an age of disbelief but in an age of doubt. After many years in the parish ministry, John H. Heidt has found that few people do not have some kind of belief in God. But a great many peopleinside and outside the churchare uneasy about believing too much or too strongly. They take all sorts of other things in life for granted, but when it comes to religion they are skeptics. This book is written for all those who would like to believe in something definite but are afraid to do so. It does not try to argue anyone into belief, but sets out to convince the reader that it is all right to believeand specifically to believe in the traditional teachings of Christianity.
Book Synopsis A Cultivated Reason by : Christopher Williams
Download or read book A Cultivated Reason written by Christopher Williams and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Plato’s tripartite division of the soul, Descartes’s criterion of clear and distinct ideas, and Kant’s notion of the categorical imperative attest, philosophy has traditionally been wedded to rationalism and its “intellectualist” view of persons. In this book Christopher Williams seeks to wean his fellow philosophers away from an overly rationalistic self-understanding by using resources that are available within the philosophical tradition itself, including some that anticipate strands of Nietzsche’s thought. The book begins by developing Hume’s critique of rationalism, with reference especially to the section of the Treatise that deals with the continuing existence of bodies (an argument that subverts intellectualist criteria by attempting to satisfy them) and to his neglected essay “The Sceptic” where Hume reveals the importance of our embodiment through a comic portrayal of philosophers’ efforts to “correct our sentiments.” Then it moves on to ward off charges of irrationalism by showing that, although our powers of self-correction are more limited than the rationalist thinks they are, a Humean position is able both to sustain a commitment to reflection and to sensitize us to a version of irrationalism, manifest in monotheistic theologies, that is otherwise difficult to detect. The book concludes, more speculatively, with a comparison of persons to artworks in order to show how our aesthetic dimension is the source of some of the normative work previously assigned to rationalist reason. Ranging as it does across subfields from epistemology and history of philosophy to ethics and aesthetics, A Cultivated Reason should appeal to a wide audience of philosophers and to scholars in other fields as well.
Book Synopsis Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi by : Paul Kjellberg
Download or read book Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi written by Paul Kjellberg and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1996-04-11 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chinese philosophical text Zhuangzi, written in part by a man named Zhuangzi in late fourth century B.C.E. China, is gaining recognition as one of the classics of world literature. Writing in beautiful prose and poetry, Zhuangzi mixes humor with relentless logic in attacking claims to knowledge about the world, particularly evaluative knowledge of what is good and bad or right and wrong. His arguments seem to admit of no escape. And yet where does that leave us? Zhuangzi himself clearly does not think that our situation is utterly hopeless, since at the very least he must have some reason for thinking we are better off aware of our ignorance. This book addresses the question of how Zhuangzi manages to sustain a positive moral vision in the face of his seemingly sweeping skepticism. Zhuangzi is compared to the Greek philosophers Plato and Sextus Empiricus in order to pinpoint more exactly what he doubts and why. Also examined is Zhuangzi's views on language and the role that language plays in shaping the reality we perceive. The authors test the application of Zhuangzi's ideas to contemporary debates in critical theory and to issues in moral philosophical thought such as the establishment of equal worth and the implications of ethical relativism. They also explore the religious and spiritual dimensions of the text and clarify the relation between Zhuangzi and Buddhism.
Book Synopsis Research Handbook on Climate Governance by : Karin Bäckstrand
Download or read book Research Handbook on Climate Governance written by Karin Bäckstrand and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-27 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen is often represented as a watershed in global climate politics, when the diplomatic efforts to negotiate a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol failed and was replaced by a fragmented and decentralized climate governance order. In the post-Copenhagen landscape the top-down universal approach to climate governance has gradually given way to a more complex, hybrid and dispersed political landscape involving multiple actors, arenas and sites. The Handbook contains contributions from more than 50 internationally leading scholars and explores the latest trends and theoretical developments of the climate governance scholarship.
Download or read book The Western Canon written by Harold Bloom and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 751 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literary critic defends the importance of Western literature from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Kafka and Beckett in this acclaimed national bestseller. NOMINATED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD Harold Bloom's The Western Canon is more than a required reading list—it is a “heroically brave, formidably learned” defense of the great works of literature that comprise the traditional Western Canon. Infused with a love of learning, compelling in its arguments for a unifying written culture, it argues brilliantly against the politicization of literature and presents a guide to the essential writers of the western literary tradition (The New York Times Book Review). Placing William Shakespeare at the “center of the canon,” Bloom examines the literary contributions of Dante Alighieri, John Milton, Jane Austen, Emily Dickenson, Leo Tolstoy, Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, Pablo Neruda, and many others. Bloom's book, much-discussed and praised in publications as diverse as The Economist and Entertainment Weekly, offers a dazzling display of erudition and passion. “An impressive work…deeply, rightly passionate about the great books of the past.”—Michel Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
Book Synopsis Skeptic in the House of God by : James L. Kelley
Download or read book Skeptic in the House of God written by James L. Kelley and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James L. Kelley, a skeptic about religion, writes with insight and humor of his life as a member of St. Mark's, an Episcopal church that welcomes doubters without pressuring them to compromise their intellectual integrity. When Kelley first visited the church, he was well into his forties and searching for a respite from urban malaise. At the same time, he found himself filled with disquieting questions: How could he reconcile his convictions with the central purpose of the church - to worship a God he didn't believe in? Could he say the prayers and sing the hymns while remaining an honest skeptic? After fifteen years of full participation in a church that is open not only to skeptics but also to gay men and lesbians, blacks and Jews, where members are invited to critique Sunday sermons, and where hymns are rewritten to reflect feminist concerns, Kelley found that his agnosticism remained but his skepticism about church participation had disappeared. Modern urban life can be a sterile, isolating experience, yet in St. Mark's Kelley discovered a place of vibrant community, honest inquiry, and support over the hard places in life.
Book Synopsis Searching for Faith by : W. Ross Winterowd
Download or read book Searching for Faith written by W. Ross Winterowd and published by Parlor Press LLC. This book was released on 2004-08-20 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Searching for Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey is intended for the general reader. It is not a scholarly book; however, it is the result of a decades-long interest in how readers read and how texts convey their meaning, leavened by a very personal commitment to the quest for faith. It explores timely questions that must concern anyone who thinks about faith, particularly insofar as faith is based on the Bible.
Book Synopsis Rhetoric, Prudence, and Skepticism in the Renaissance by : Victoria Ann Kahn
Download or read book Rhetoric, Prudence, and Skepticism in the Renaissance written by Victoria Ann Kahn and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Meet the Skeptic written by Bill Foster and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet the Skeptic is a new approach to apologetics and evangelism that organizes a non-believer's objections into four basic root ideas. Learn how to effectively share your Christian faith without reaching for comebacks and offering "churchisms." This new approach to apologetics and evangelism is written for teens, college students and adults. A leader's guide and workbook are available for church and educational classroom settings. Are you equipped to handle the skeptic's questions?
Book Synopsis The Skeptic's Defense Against All Christian Or Other Priests by : Caleb Marshall Landers
Download or read book The Skeptic's Defense Against All Christian Or Other Priests written by Caleb Marshall Landers and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True by : Guy P. Harrison
Download or read book 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True written by Guy P. Harrison and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What would it take to create a world in which fantasy is not confused for fact and public policy is based on objective reality?" asks Neil deGrasse Tyson, science popularizer and author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. "I don't know for sure. But a good place to start would be for everyone on earth to read this book." Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you're trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. Or you met someone at a party who insisted the Holocaust never happened or that no one ever walked on the moon. How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? This down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims will help you set the record straight. The author, a veteran journalist, has not only surveyed a vast body of literature, but has also interviewed leading scientists, explored "the most haunted house in America," frolicked in the inviting waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and even talked to a "contrite Roswell alien." He is not out simply to debunk unfounded beliefs. Wherever possible, he presents alternative scientific explanations, which in most cases are even more fascinating than the wildest speculation. For example, stories about UFOs and alien abductions lack good evidence, but science gives us plenty of reasons to keep exploring outer space for evidence that life exists elsewhere in the vast universe. The proof for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster may be nonexistent, but scientists are regularly discovering new species, some of which are truly stranger than fiction. Stressing the excitement of scientific discovery and the legitimate mysteries and wonder inherent in reality, this book invites readers to share the joys of rational thinking and the skeptical approach to evaluating our extraordinary world.
Book Synopsis A Skeptic’s Guide to Belief by : Ken Crispin
Download or read book A Skeptic’s Guide to Belief written by Ken Crispin and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would happen if you faced your doubts, set aside your preconceptions, and decided to follow the path of truth wherever it might lead? Most people, whether believers or atheists, doggedly defend what they have always believed. Many see this as an expression of faith. Yet, there is something almost inexpressibly sad about the plight of people living out their lives in reliance upon beliefs they dare not question. Perhaps that is why many of us come to a point at which we feel compelled to pursue the truth, no matter what the implications. But even if we found the courage to embark upon such a journey, could we really find a path through the scientific, philosophical, experiential, and theological thickets that surround the great questions of life? And if we did, would we know the truth and be set free? Would we be forced to face a long-feared despair? Or would we find ourselves still staring impotently at an enigmatic universe? This is a book unlike any other. It addresses these questions with unflinching honesty, drawing evidence from a diversity of scientific fields and subjecting the competing arguments to rigorous skeptical analysis.
Book Synopsis Skeptics and True Believers by : Chet Raymo
Download or read book Skeptics and True Believers written by Chet Raymo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Years ago, noted science teacher and writer Chet Raymo embarked upon his own quest to reconcile the miracle stories he learned as a child with the science he learned as an adult. Skeptics and True Believers is the culmination of that search-a passionate, ever-inquisitive statement that science and religion can mutually reinforce the way we experience the world. Acknowledging that the scientific and the spiritual communities are increasingly split, Raymo builds strong bridges between them. He illustrates his argument with an array of thought-provoking stories, such as the remarkable migratory flight of a small bird called the red knot; the long, glorious glide of the Comet Hyakutake across the night sky; a hilarious alien abduction that didn't happen. Together, they are compelling evidence that religion should embrace the reliable knowledge of the world that science provides, while at the same time science should respect and nourish humankind's need for spiritual sustenance. "Miracles are explainable," Raymo paraphrases the writer Tim Robinson, "it is the explanations that are miraculous." For anyone drawn to reflect on life's meaning and purpose, Chet Raymo's uncompromising skepticism and reverence for mystery will affirm and inspire.
Book Synopsis The Philosophical Review by : Jacob Gould Schurman
Download or read book The Philosophical Review written by Jacob Gould Schurman and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Spirituality for the Skeptic by : Robert C. Solomon
Download or read book Spirituality for the Skeptic written by Robert C. Solomon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-12-04 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining the ideas of great thinkers from Kafka to Socrates, this text arrives at an alternative vision of spirituality, one that is non-dogmatic and practical, that should appeal to many seekers looking to make sense of the human condition.
Book Synopsis The Skeptic by : Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
Download or read book The Skeptic written by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen and published by . This book was released on 1835 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
