Author: Ezra Hall Gillett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literature and morals
Languages : en
Pages : 440

View

Book Description

Author: Reza Aslan
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0553394738
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

View

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God. In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives. Praise for God “Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”—HuffPost “Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times “A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Author: Tim Whitmarsh
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307958337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

View

Book Description
How new is atheism? Although adherents and opponents alike today present it as an invention of the European Enlightenment, when the forces of science and secularism broadly challenged those of faith, disbelief in the gods, in fact, originated in a far more remote past. In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean, a world almost unimaginably different from our own, to recover the stories and voices of those who first refused the divinities. Homer’s epic poems of human striving, journeying, and passion were ancient Greece’s only “sacred texts,” but no ancient Greek thought twice about questioning or mocking his stories of the gods. Priests were functionaries rather than sources of moral or cosmological wisdom. The absence of centralized religious authority made for an extraordinary variety of perspectives on sacred matters, from the devotional to the atheos, or “godless.” Whitmarsh explores this kaleidoscopic range of ideas about the gods, focusing on the colorful individuals who challenged their existence. Among these were some of the greatest ancient poets and philosophers and writers, as well as the less well known: Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; Socrates, executed for rejecting the gods of the Athenian state; Epicurus and his followers, who thought gods could not intervene in human affairs; the brilliantly mischievous satirist Lucian of Samosata. Before the revolutions of late antiquity, which saw the scriptural religions of Christianity and Islam enforced by imperial might, there were few constraints on belief. Everything changed, however, in the millennium between the appearance of the Homeric poems and Christianity’s establishment as Rome’s state religion in the fourth century AD. As successive Greco-Roman empires grew in size and complexity, and power was increasingly concentrated in central capitals, states sought to impose collective religious adherence, first to cults devoted to individual rulers, and ultimately to monotheism. In this new world, there was no room for outright disbelief: the label “atheist” was used now to demonize anyone who merely disagreed with the orthodoxy—and so it would remain for centuries. As the twenty-first century shapes up into a time of mass information, but also, paradoxically, of collective amnesia concerning the tangled histories of religions, Whitmarsh provides a bracing antidote to our assumptions about the roots of freethinking. By shining a light on atheism’s first thousand years, Battling the Gods offers a timely reminder that nonbelief has a wealth of tradition of its own, and, indeed, its own heroes.

Author: F. B. Jevons
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 115

View

Book Description
This fascinating book revolves around the idea of God outside of Judeo-Christian framework. It was written by Frank Byron Jevons, a polymath, academic and administrator of Durham University. Each chapter in the book is dedicated to analyzing the concept of God through the lens of mythology, worship, and prayer.

Author: Michael Shermer
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1627791396
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

View

Book Description
Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer's celebrated columns in Scientific American For fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Now, in Skeptic, seventy-five of these columns are available together for the first time; a welcome addition for his fans and a stimulating introduction for new readers.

Author: Ezra Hall Gillett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literature and morals
Languages : en
Pages : 428

View

Book Description

Author: Tim Bayne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198754965
Category : PHILOSOPHY
Languages : en
Pages : 161

View

Book Description
What is the philosophy of religion? How can we distinguish it from theology on the one hand and the psychology/sociology of religious belief on the other? What does it mean to describe God as eternal? And should religious people want there to be good arguments for the existence of God, or is religious belief only authentic in the absence of these good arguments? In this Very Short Introduction Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion, and engages with some of the most burning questions that philosophers discuss. Considering how religion should be defined, and whether we even need to be able to define it in order to engage in the philosophy of religion, he goes on to discuss whether the existence of God matters. Exploring the problem of evil, Bayne also debates the connection between faith and reason, and the related question of what role reason should play in religious contexts. Shedding light on the relationship between science and religion, Bayne finishes by considering the topics of reincarnation and the afterlife. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author: Giovanni Giorgini
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783896659767
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
The relationship between religion, social structures and political institutions has always played a fundamental role in human societies. This collection of essays aims to explore possible ways in which philosophical conceptualizations of god, the gods, and the divine in the ancient world interact with traditional religious practices and institutions, as well as with non-philosophical images of the divine. It spans from the 'rationalization' of the divine operated by early Greek philosophers to the notion of toleration one may find in Augustine. It features such authors as Plato (who uses for the first time in history the words 'theology' and 'atheism'), and Aristotle, with his intellectualist view of God. It will be valuable to readers interested in intellectual history, political theory, history of religion and classics.

Author: Parth Atrey
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN: 1632991519
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 407

View

Book Description
Coming Full Circle: Redefining God in the Age of Reason takes us on a journey that explores how conceptions of God have evolved over 5,000 years of human history. This evolution takes us from the Vedic Rtá, to Plato’s “forms,” Spinoza’s “substance,” and Einstein’s “mind of God.” In the process, we are treated to the wisdom of the ages. Parth Atrey leads us to the incredible realization that our modern definition of God is completely consistent with the definition of God put forth by our most ancient ancestors. We have come full circle. Parth discusses the importance of faith and why it often trumps rationality. He shows why it is important to define God in a way that satisfies both our rational and our emotional needs. Reconciling rationality with deeply held faith and belief brings us full circle again, back to our most ancient religious roots. It also provides the only path to reducing religious conflict, eliminating superstition, and making this world a more peaceful place for all of humanity. ​Join this fascinating journey through the annals of time and through faith, belief, and rationality, and emerge with a refreshing perspective and perhaps your own personal definition of God! redefining-god.com

Author: Jonathan Goldstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300140590
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 575

View

Book Description
Some ancient civilizations held fast to the belief that their god or gods were stronger than all other heavenly powers. For a nation conquered by another power, the question of why their God allowed their defeat had to be faced. Goldstein looks at how different ancient civilizations reconciled their beliefs with the realities of history.