The Evolution Of God In Human Imagination

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The Evolution of God in Human Imagination

Author : Gersham A. Nelson
Publisher : Archway Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1480867322
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of God in Human Imagination by : Gersham A. Nelson

Download or read book The Evolution of God in Human Imagination written by Gersham A. Nelson and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-21 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After empowering Christianity and becoming its titular head during the first quarter of the fourth century, Roman emperor Constantine played a greater role in determining the core belief and practice of this religion than any family member or disciple of the historical Jesus. Implications of this fact are many and should be of interest to all Christians and others with an interest in, or connections to, Western Civilization. The Evolution of God in Human Imagination addresses vital questions that many have asked for centuries, including how God became man and/or man became God. Professor Gersham A. Nelson examines the evolution of God from a Judeo-Christian perspective, first demonstrating how different regional cultures and mythologies seem to have influenced Judaism and Christianity, before showing how Christianity jettisoned the most fundamental concept of God held by Judaism and other ancient religions. Professor Nelson also argues that a close examination of the Church that emerged with the imperial patronage of Rome during the fourth century repudiated not only Judaism but also views attributed to the Jesus of history. Failure to re-examine the foundation of Christianity, including claims made by leaders regarding divine will and prerogative, after the Reformation, ensured that contradictions and confusion continue to plague one generation of Christians after another. Even when conspicuous flaws were identified in the worldview advocated by Christian teachings, adjustments would, at best, be slow and selective. Nevertheless, the growing capacity of human brings to explore, discover, and create new knowledge has continued to inspire new questions and is providing some unanticipated answers.

The Evolution Of Gods : The Scientific Origin Of Divinity And Religion

Author : Ajay Kansal
Publisher : Epicurus Books
ISBN 13 : 9350294389
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution Of Gods : The Scientific Origin Of Divinity And Religion by : Ajay Kansal

Download or read book The Evolution Of Gods : The Scientific Origin Of Divinity And Religion written by Ajay Kansal and published by Epicurus Books. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did gods create mankind, or did mankind create gods? Why, when and how did mankind begin to worship gods? Religious scriptures the world over claim that one or the other god made man, but science has not yet identified any supernatural power that created and governed human beings. Was it man who came up with the idea of gods to help him cope with his own fears? Could it be that ancient people attributed natural phenomena-unfathomable and frightening to them-to the working of invisible gods? What kind of sufferings or bewilderments made people bow before unseen powers or gods as we call them? When were these gods created? Who invented morals and methods of worship? Who wrote the ancient scriptures such as the Bible and the Vedas? Most crucially, have gods and the scriptures shaped our responses to the world around us? The Evolution of Gods seeks to answer these questions, and explains scientifically how, when and why religions and gods came into being. Ajay Kansal marshals anthropological and historical facts about the development of religions in a simple and straightforward manner to assert that it was mankind that created gods, and not the other way around.

Evolving God

Author : Barbara J. King
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022636092X
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolving God by : Barbara J. King

Download or read book Evolving God written by Barbara J. King and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of How Animals Grieve “contends that religion . . . is a consequence of primate evolution” in this “brilliant book” (Booklist, starred review). Religion has been a central part of human experience since at least the dawn of recorded history. The gods change, as do the rituals, but the underlying desire remains—a desire to belong to something larger, greater, most lasting than our mortal, finite selves. But where did that desire come from? Can we explain its emergence through evolution? Yes, says biological anthropologist Barbara J. King—and doing so not only helps us to understand the religious imagination, but also reveals fascinating links to the lives and minds of our primate cousins. Evolving God draws on King’s own fieldwork among primates in Africa and paleoanthropology of our extinct ancestors to offer a new way of thinking about the origins of religion, one that situates it in a deep need for emotional connection with others, a need we share with apes and monkeys. Though her thesis is provocative, and she’s not above thoughtful speculation, King’s argument is strongly rooted in close observation and analysis. She traces an evolutionary path that connects us to other primates, who, like us, display empathy, make meanings through interaction, create social rules, and display imagination—the basic building blocks of the religious imagination. With fresh insights, she responds to recent suggestions that chimpanzees are spiritual—or even religious—beings, and that our ancient humanlike cousins carefully disposed of their dead well before the time of Neandertals. “Her interpretations result in a provocative hypothesis about the evolution of spirituality.” —The Dallas Morning News

Word Pictures

Author : Brian Godawa
Publisher : IVP Books
ISBN 13 : 9780830837090
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis Word Pictures by : Brian Godawa

Download or read book Word Pictures written by Brian Godawa and published by IVP Books. This book was released on 2009-08-12 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artist and screen writer Brian Godawa used to revel in his ability to argue the truth of the gospel, often crushing his opponents in the process. In time, however, he began to realize that winning an argument about the logic of Christianity did not equal persuading people to follow Jesus. What was missing? Through prayer and searching the Scriptures, Godawa realized that while God cares deeply for rationality, propositional truths were not the only, or even the primary, tools he used to reach people with his Truth. In fact, Godawa discovered that story, metaphor and imagery were central to God's communication style because they could go places reason could never go: into the heart. In his refreshing and challenging book, Godawa helps you break free from the spiritual suffocation of heady faith. Without negating the importance of reason and doctrine, Godawa challenges you to move from understanding the Bible "literally" to "literarily" by exploring the poetry, parables and metaphors found in God's Word. Weaving historical insight, pop culture and personal narrative throughout, Godawa reveals the importance God places on imagination and creativity in the Scriptures, and provides a biblical foundation for Christians to pursue image, beauty, wonder and mystery in their faith. For any Christian who wants to learn how to communicate and defend the Gospel in a postmodern context, this book will help you find a path between the two extremes of intellectualized faith and anti-intellectual faith by recovering a biblical balance between intellect and imagination.

God and the Cosmos

Author : Harry Lee Poe
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830839542
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis God and the Cosmos by : Harry Lee Poe

Download or read book God and the Cosmos written by Harry Lee Poe and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theologian Harry Lee Poe and chemist Jimmy H. Davis argue that God's interaction with our world is a possibility affirmed equally by the Bible and the contemporary scientific record. Rather than confirming that the cosmos is closed to the actions of the divine, advancing scientific knowledge seems to indicate that the nature of the universe is actually open to the unique type of divine activity portrayed in the Bible.

Why We Believe

Author : Agustin Fuentes
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 030024925X
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Why We Believe by : Agustin Fuentes

Download or read book Why We Believe written by Agustin Fuentes and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief—the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea—is central to the human way of being in the world.

The Evolution of Imagination

Author : Stephen T. Asma
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022622516X
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Imagination by : Stephen T. Asma

Download or read book The Evolution of Imagination written by Stephen T. Asma and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-06-21 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consider Miles Davis, horn held high, sculpting a powerful musical statement full of tonal patterns, inside jokes, and thrilling climactic phrases—all on the fly. Or think of a comedy troupe riffing on a couple of cues from the audience until the whole room is erupting with laughter. Or maybe it’s a team of software engineers brainstorming their way to the next Google, or the Einsteins of the world code-cracking the mysteries of nature. Maybe it’s simply a child playing with her toys. What do all of these activities share? With wisdom, humor, and joy, philosopher Stephen T. Asma answers that question in this book: imagination. And from there he takes us on an extraordinary tour of the human creative spirit. Guided by neuroscience, animal behavior, evolution, philosophy, and psychology, Asma burrows deep into the human psyche to look right at the enigmatic but powerful engine that is our improvisational creativity—the source, he argues, of our remarkable imaginational capacity. How is it, he asks, that a story can evoke a whole world inside of us? How are we able to rehearse a skill, a speech, or even an entire scenario simply by thinking about it? How does creativity go beyond experience and help us make something completely new? And how does our moral imagination help us sculpt a better society? As he shows, we live in a world that is only partly happening in reality. Huge swaths of our cognitive experiences are made up by “what-ifs,” “almosts,” and “maybes,” an imagined terrain that churns out one of the most overlooked but necessary resources for our flourishing: possibilities. Considering everything from how imagination works in our physical bodies to the ways we make images, from the mechanics of language and our ability to tell stories to the creative composition of self-consciousness, Asma expands our personal and day-to-day forms of imagination into a grand scale: as one of the decisive evolutionary forces that has guided human development from the Paleolithic era to today. The result is an inspiring look at the rich relationships among improvisation, imagination, and culture, and a privileged glimpse into the unique nature of our evolved minds.

The Corporeal Imagination

Author : Patricia Cox Miller
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812204689
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Corporeal Imagination by : Patricia Cox Miller

Download or read book The Corporeal Imagination written by Patricia Cox Miller and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With few exceptions, the scholarship on religion in late antiquity has emphasized its tendencies toward transcendence, abstraction, and spirit at the expense of matter. In The Corporeal Imagination, Patricia Cox Miller argues instead that ancient Christianity took a material turn between the fourth and seventh centuries. During this period, Miller contends, there occurred a major shift in the ways in which the human being was oriented in relation to the divine, a shift that reconfigured the relationship between materiality and meaning in a positive direction. The Corporeal Imagination is a groundbreaking investigation into the theological poetics of material substance in late ancient Christian texts. From hagiographies to literary descriptions of sacred paintings to treatises on relics and theurgy, Miller examines a wide variety of ancient texts to reveal how Christian writers increasingly described the matter of the world as invested with divine power. By appealing to the reader's sensory imagination, Christian texts endowed phenomena like relics, saints' bodies in hagiography, and saints' presence in icons with a visual and tactile presence. The book draws on a variety of contemporary theoretical models to elucidate the significance of all these materials in ancient religious life and imagination.

Alive in God

Author : Timothy Radcliffe
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472970225
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (729 download)

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Book Synopsis Alive in God by : Timothy Radcliffe

Download or read book Alive in God written by Timothy Radcliffe and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-03 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can Christianity touch the imagination of our contemporaries when ever fewer people in the West identify as religious? Timothy Radcliffe argues we must show how everything we believe is an invitation to live fully. God says: 'I put before you life and death: choose life'. Anyone who understands the beauty and messiness of human life – novelists, poets, filmmakers and so on – can be our allies, whether they believe or not. The challenge is not today's secularism but its banality. We accompany the disciples as they struggle to understand this strange man who heals, casts out demons and offers endless forgiveness. In the face of death, he teaches them what it means to be alive in God. Then he embraces all that afflicts and crushes humanity. Finally, Radcliffe explores what it means for us to be alive spiritually, physically, sacramentally, justly and prayerfully. The result is a compelling new understanding of the words of Jesus: 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.'

Nonzero

Author : Robert Wright
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0375727817
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis Nonzero by : Robert Wright

Download or read book Nonzero written by Robert Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2001-04-20 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history–and discerning where history will lead us next. In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex by mastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright's narrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, from stone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moral significance–a way of looking at our biological and cultural evolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality has improved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning may itself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, witty, profound, Nonzero offers breathtaking implications for what we believe and how we adapt to technology's ongoing transformation of the world.

Religion in Human Evolution

Author : Robert N. Bellah
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674252934
Total Pages : 777 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion in Human Evolution by : Robert N. Bellah

Download or read book Religion in Human Evolution written by Robert N. Bellah and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-08 with total page 777 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal

The Image in Mind

Author : Charles Taliaferro
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1441148825
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis The Image in Mind by : Charles Taliaferro

Download or read book The Image in Mind written by Charles Taliaferro and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-06 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A philosophical inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of theism and naturalism in accounting for the emergence of consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. The authors begin by offering an account of modern scientific practice which gives a central place to the visual imagination and aesthetic values. They then move to test the explanatory power of naturalism and theism in accounting for consciousness and the very visual imagination and aesthetic values that lie behind and define modern science. Taliaferro and Evans argue that evolutionary biology alone is insufficient to account for consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. Insofar as naturalism is compelled to go beyond evolutionary biology, it does not fare as well as theism in terms of explanatory power.

By Design Or by Chance

Author : Denyse O'Leary
Publisher : Kitchener, Ont. : Castle Quay Books
ISBN 13 : 9781894860031
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis By Design Or by Chance by : Denyse O'Leary

Download or read book By Design Or by Chance written by Denyse O'Leary and published by Kitchener, Ont. : Castle Quay Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: O'Leary provides by far the broadast overview yet of the ID movement. she quotes ID leaders such as Phillip Johnson, William Dembski and Michael Behe. she also quotes their sternest critics, including Richard Dawkins, Stephen J. Gould and Michael Ruse. She writes about the Wedge movement, DNA, the age of the Earth, the search for extraterrestrial life, the teaching of ID in schools, and the monarch butterfly. She anticipates the culmination of the ID revolution by writing that Darwinism "was part of our folklore." Yet the evolutionary tales she relates are still widely taught as fact in many schools. This well organized guidebook of O'Leary's journey through the world of Intelligent Design has the potential to lead many of the next generation away from the evolutionary fables that now pass for science. Her book is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the history and significance of the Intelligent Design movement. It also belongs in college and even high school classrooms. Forrest M. Mims III, U.S. science journalist Denyse O'Leary has been a freelance writer since 1971. She specializes in science news of interest to faith communities for such publications as Christianity Today, Faith Today, and the Christian Times. She is the author of several titles including Faith@Science: Why Science Needs Faith in the Twenty-First Century, and it the Faith and Science columnist for ChristianWeek. She has written for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and trade jounals, including the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, and Canadian Living.

Genes, Genesis, and God

Author : Holmes Rolston
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521646741
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (467 download)

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Book Synopsis Genes, Genesis, and God by : Holmes Rolston

Download or read book Genes, Genesis, and God written by Holmes Rolston and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-02-13 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the phenomena of religion can not be reduced to the phenomena of biology.

Creator God, Evolving World

Author : Cynthia S. W. Crysdale
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 1451426437
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (514 download)

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Book Synopsis Creator God, Evolving World by : Cynthia S. W. Crysdale

Download or read book Creator God, Evolving World written by Cynthia S. W. Crysdale and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cynthia Crysdale and Neil Ormerod here present a robust theology of God in light of supposed tensions between Christian belief and evolutionary science. Those who pit faith in an almighty and unchanging God over against a world in which chance is operative have it wrong on several accounts, they insist. Creator God, Evolving World clarifies a number of confused assumptions in an effort to redeem chance as an intelligible force interacting with stable patterns in nature. A proper conception of probabilities and regularities in the world's unfolding reveals neither random chaos nor a predetermined blueprint but a view of the universe as the fruit of both chance and necessity. By clarifying terms often used imprecisely in both scientific and theological discourse, the authors make the case that the role of chance in evolution neither mitigates God's radical otherness from creation nor challenges the efficacy of God's providence in the world.

The Singing Heart of the World: Creation, Evolution, and Faith

Author : John Feehan
Publisher : Orbis Books
ISBN 13 : 1608332195
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singing Heart of the World: Creation, Evolution, and Faith by : John Feehan

Download or read book The Singing Heart of the World: Creation, Evolution, and Faith written by John Feehan and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Good Book of Human Nature

Author : Carel van Schaik
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0465074707
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Good Book of Human Nature by : Carel van Schaik

Download or read book The Good Book of Human Nature written by Carel van Schaik and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Good Book of Human Nature, evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution. The Bible, they argue, was written to make sense of the single greatest change in history: the transition from egalitarian hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. Religion arose as a strategy to cope with the unprecedented levels of epidemic disease, violence, inequality, and injustice that confronted us when we abandoned the bush--and which still confront us today, "--Amazon.com.