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Author : Iain William Provan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781481300223
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)
Download or read book Seriously Dangerous Religion written by Iain William Provan and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprehensive (re)reading of the Old Testament in light of contemporary issues
Author : Keith Ward
Publisher : Lion Books
ISBN 13 : 0745959490
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (459 download)
Download or read book Is Religion Dangerous? written by Keith Ward and published by Lion Books. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many commentators today claim that religion is dangerous and harmful. In addressing this question, Keith Ward begins by defining what religion actually is and how most human harm has been caused. He then looks at why people say that religion is dangerous, focusing particularly on religious wars and conflicts and on specific attacks on religion, such as the claims that God is wrathful, that religion is intolerant, that religious morality is primitive and cruel. Keith Ward argues that religion produces great good - for example, in terms of hospitals, the abolition of slavery, great art and music, moral heroism, and philosophy and science. Religion, he concludes, is the best rational basis for morality.
Author : Christopher Hitchens
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
ISBN 13 : 1551991764
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (519 download)
Download or read book God Is Not Great written by Christopher Hitchens and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.
Author : Stephen T. Asma
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190469692
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)
Download or read book Why We Need Religion written by Stephen T. Asma and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-09 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we feel is as vital to our survival as how we think. This claim, based on the premise that emotions are largely adaptive, serves as the organizing theme of Why We Need Religion. This book is a novel pathway in a well-trodden field of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Stephen Asma argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime--we can feel the sacred depths of nature--but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. No theorist of religion has failed to notice the importance of emotions in spiritual and ritual life, but truly systematic research has only recently delivered concrete data on the neurology, psychology, and anthropology of the emotional systems. This very recent "affective turn" has begun to map out a powerful territory of embodied cognition. Why We Need Religion incorporates new data from these affective sciences into the philosophy of religion. It goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work. In short, the book is a Darwinian defense of religious emotions and the cultural systems that manage them.
Author : Jerry A. Coyne
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143108263
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)
Download or read book Faith Versus Fact written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A superbly argued book.” —Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion The New York Times bestselling author of Why Evolution is True explains why any attempt to make religion compatible with science is doomed to fail In this provocative book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne lays out in clear, dispassionate detail why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Coyne is responding to a national climate in which more than half of Americans don’t believe in evolution, members of Congress deny global warming, and long-conquered childhood diseases are reappearing because of religious objections to inoculation, and he warns that religious prejudices in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the bestselling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable “truth” by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm—to individuals and to our planet—in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in. Praise for Faith Versus Fact: “A profound and lovely book . . . showing that the honest doubts of science are better . . . than the false certainties of religion.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
Author : Dominic Erdozain
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1609092287
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (9 download)
Download or read book The Dangerous God written by Dominic Erdozain and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the heart of the Soviet experiment was a belief in the impermanence of the human spirit: souls could be engineered; conscience could be destroyed. The project was, in many ways, chillingly successful. But the ultimate failure of a totalitarian regime to fulfill its ambitions for social and spiritual mastery had roots deeper than the deficiencies of the Soviet leadership or the chaos of a "command" economy. Beneath the rhetoric of scientific communism was a culture of intellectual and cultural dissidence, which may be regarded as the "prehistory of perestroika." This volume explores the contribution of Christian thought and belief to this culture of dissent and survival, showing how religious and secular streams of resistance joined in an unexpected and powerful partnership. The essays in The Dangerous God seek to shed light on the dynamic and subversive capacities of religious faith in a context of brutal oppression, while acknowledging the often-collusive relationship between clerical elites and the Soviet authorities. Against the Marxist notion of the "ideological" function of religion, the authors set the example of people for whom faith was more than an opiate; against an enduring mythology of secularization, they propose the centrality of religious faith in the intellectual, political, and cultural life of the late modern era. This volume will appeal to specialists on religion in Soviet history as well as those interested in the history of religion under totalitarian regimes.
Author : Alister McGrath
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830868739
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)
Download or read book The Dawkins Delusion? written by Alister McGrath and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath present a reliable assessment of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, famed atheist and scientist, and the many questions this book raises--including, above all, the relevance of faith and the quest for meaning.
Author : Katherine Stewart
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1635573459
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (355 download)
Download or read book The Power Worshippers written by Katherine Stewart and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for the documentary God & Country For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.
Author : Vitaly Malkin
Publisher : Arcadia
ISBN 13 : 9781911350286
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)
Download or read book Dangerous Illusions written by Vitaly Malkin and published by Arcadia. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on 10 years of dedicated research, Dangerous Illusions is a battle cry for the human race to throw off religion in favour of logic and reason.In this committed and passionate book, author Vitaly Malkin - a philanthropist, business man and investor - argues for a radical shift in humanity's thinking about religion; that reason and religion cannot co-exist, and that mankind will only be truly happy if we are able to shake off the illusions of religion in order to live a life more rooted in the present.Dangerous Illusions sets out to explore the irrational demands that religion makes of man and asks the reader to question what benefit these acts offer human beings in this life. Malkin scrutinises topics such as suffering and evil, pleasure and asceticism, sex and celibacy, and circumcision and excision, through the lens of the three major world monotheistic religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism.In doing so, the book fearlessly refutes our most careless beliefs, encouraging us to be more aware of the dangers religions pose to our society and, even to change our intellectual practices altogether.
Author : Gary Eberle
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 1590304322
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)
Download or read book Dangerous Words written by Gary Eberle and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eberle examines the problematical, divisive words that are often used when discussing religion, including fundamentalism, myth, and God and concludes that the way religious discourse can best proceed is when its partisans understand the limitations of words as they debate them.
Author : Lauren F. Winner
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300215827
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)
Download or read book The Dangers of Christian Practice written by Lauren F. Winner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the central place that "practices" have recently held in Christian theology, Lauren Winner explores the damages these practices have inflicted over the centuries Sometimes, beloved and treasured Christian practices go horrifyingly wrong, extending violence rather than promoting its healing. In this bracing book, Lauren Winner provocatively challenges the assumption that the church possesses a set of immaculate practices that will definitionally train Christians in virtue and that can't be answerable to their histories. Is there, for instance, an account of prayer that has anything useful to say about a slave-owning woman's praying for her slaves' obedience? Is there a robustly theological account of the Eucharist that connects the Eucharist's goods to the sacrament's central role in medieval Christian murder of Jews? Arguing that practices are deformed in ways that are characteristic of and intrinsic to the practices themselves, Winner proposes that the register in which Christians might best think about the Eucharist, prayer, and baptism is that of "damaged gift." Christians go on with these practices because, though blighted by sin, they remain gifts from God.
Author : Mary Eberstadt
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 006245403X
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (624 download)
Download or read book It's Dangerous to Believe written by Mary Eberstadt and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Eberstadt, “one of the most acute and creative social observers of our time,” (Francis Fukuyama) shines a much-needed spotlight on a disturbing trend in American society: discrimination against traditional religious belief and believers, who are being aggressively pushed out of public life by the concerted efforts of militant secularists. In It’s Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt documents how people of faith—especially Christians who adhere to traditional religious beliefs—face widespread discrimination in today’s increasingly secular society. Eberstadt details how recent laws, court decisions, and intimidation on campuses and elsewhere threaten believers who fear losing their jobs, their communities, and their basic freedoms solely because of their convictions. They fear that their religious universities and colleges will capitulate to aggressive secularist demands. They fear that they and their families will be ostracized or will have to lose their religion because of mounting social and financial penalties for believing. They fear they won’t be able to maintain charitable operations that help the sick and feed the hungry. Is this what we want for our country? Religious freedom is a fundamental right, enshrined in the First Amendment. With It’s Dangerous to Believe Eberstadt calls attention to this growing bigotry and seeks to open the minds of secular liberals whose otherwise good intentions are transforming them into modern inquisitors. Not until these progressives live up to their own standards of tolerance and diversity, she reminds us, can we build the inclusive society America was meant to be.
Author : Richard Moon
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108554202
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)
Download or read book Putting Faith in Hate written by Richard Moon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To allow or restrict hate speech is a hotly debated issue in many societies. While the right to freedom of speech is fundamental to liberal democracies, most countries have accepted that hate speech causes significant harm and ought to be regulated. Richard Moon examines the application of hate speech laws when religion is either the source or target of such speech. Moon describes the various legal restrictions on hate speech, religious insult, and blasphemy in Canada, Europe and elsewhere, and uses cases from different jurisdictions to illustrate the particular challenges raised by religious hate speech. The issues addressed are highly topical: speech that attacks religious communities, specifically anti-Muslim rhetoric, and hateful speech that is based on religious doctrine or scripture, such as anti-gay speech. The book draws on a rich understanding of freedom of expression, the harms of hate speech, and the role of religion in public life.
Author : Joseph Laycock
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520284917
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)
Download or read book Dangerous Games written by Joseph Laycock and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-02-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game. Dangerous Games explores both the history and the sociological significance of this panic. Fantasy role-playing games do share several functions in common with religion. However, religionÑas a socially constructed world of shared meaningÑcan also be compared to a fantasy role-playing game. In fact, the claims of the moral entrepreneurs, in which they presented themselves as heroes battling a dark conspiracy, often resembled the very games of imagination they condemned as evil. By attacking the imagination, they preserved the taken-for-granted status of their own socially constructed reality. Interpreted in this way, the panic over fantasy-role playing games yields new insights about how humans play and together construct and maintain meaningful worlds. LaycockÕs clear and accessible writing ensures that Dangerous Games will be required reading for those with an interest in religion, popular culture, and social behavior, both in the classroom and beyond.
Author : Lilia Tarawa
Publisher : Allen & Unwin
ISBN 13 : 1760639184
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (66 download)
Download or read book Daughter of Gloriavale written by Lilia Tarawa and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2017-08-23 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this personal account, Lilia Tarawa exposes the shocking secrets of the cult, with its rigid rules and oppressive control of women. She describes her fear when her family questioned Gloriavale's beliefs and practices. When her parents fled with their children, Lilia was forced to make a desperate choice: to stay or to leave. No matter what she chose, she would lose people she loved. In the outside world, Lilia struggled. Would she be damned to hell for leaving? How would she learn to navigate this strange place called 'the world'? And would she ever find out the truth about the criminal convictions against her grandfather? 'A powerful and revealing book...' Kirsty Wynn, New Zealand Herald 'An affecting parable and testament, in the most commendably secular senses.' David Hill, New Zealand Listener
Author : Ali A. Rizvi
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250094445
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)
Download or read book The Atheist Muslim written by Ali A. Rizvi and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.
Author : Georges Minois
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226530299
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)
Download or read book The Atheist's Bible written by Georges Minois and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author tracks the course of the book from its origins in 1239 to its most salient episodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, introducing colorful individuals obsessed with possessing the legendary work--and the equally obsessive passion of those who wanted to punish people who sought it. This account sheds light on the power of atheism, the threat of blasphemy, and the persistence of free thought during a time when the outspoken risked being burned at the stake.
