Download or read book Friendly Freethinker written by Chris Highland and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Another dynamic collection of contemporary essays on Humanism, Religion and Nature by former minister and chaplain Chris Highland selected from his weekly "Highland Views" columns in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Friendly Freethinker follows the publication of A Freethinker's Gospel and Broken Bridges, each presenting provocative perspectives on faith and freethought in a fractured world. Positive, incisive, hopeful and helpful, essays include "Can We Talk About Religious Supremacy?," "Having Difficult Conversations without Destroying Relationships," "Battling Bullies in Boyhood and Beliefs," "The Man Who Changed His Name to God," "Why Does the World Still Need Scriptures?," "The Friendship of an Atheist and an Evangelical," "If There is a God in Nature, Which One?," "What I Would Most Like to Believe," "Mature Christians and Grown-up Atheists," "Does Religion Begin and End in Silence?" and many more (50 essays in all). Highland draws from a deep well of experiences in chaplaincy and teaching, exploring the edges of our comfortable communities and congregations, asking the questions that stir us to more rational thinking and practical action. Though he left the ministry--and faith--Highland is happily married to a progressive minister who reads, comments and helps edit his newspaper columns. Together, they model a creative, constructive approach to bridging differences of belief. Highland's writings exemplify a commitment to secular/spiritual communication so greatly needed in our culture today.

Download or read book Free Thoughts on Religion the Church and National Happiness written by Bernard Mandeville and published by . This book was released on 1721 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Free Thought Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 840 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Faith and Freedom written by Michah Gottlieb and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent renewal of the faith-reason debate has focused attention on earlier episodes in its history. One of its memorable highlights occurred during the Enlightenment, with the outbreak of the "Pantheism Controversy" between the eighteenth century Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the Christian Counter-Enlightenment thinker Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. While Mendelssohn argued that reason confirmed belief in a providential God and in an immortal soul, Jacobi claimed that its consistent application led ineluctably to atheism and fatalism. At present, there are two leading interpretations of Moses Mendelssohn's thought. One casts him as a Jewish traditionalist who draws on German philosophy to support his premodern Jewish beliefs, while the other portrays him as a secret Deist who seeks to encourage his fellow Jews to integrate into German society and so disingenuously defends Judaism to avoid arousing their opposition. By exploring the Pantheism Controversy and Mendelssohn's relation to his two greatest Jewish philosophical predecessors, the medieval Rabbi Moses Maimonides and the seventeenth century heretic Baruch Spinoza, Michah Gottlieb presents a new reading of Mendelssohn arguing that he defends Jewish religious concepts sincerely, but gives them a humanistic interpretation appropriate to life in a free, diverse modern society. Gottlieb argues that the faith-reason debate is best understood not primarily as an argument about metaphysical questions, such as whether or not God exists, but rather as a contest between two competing conceptions of human dignity and freedom. Mendelssohn, Gottlieb contends, gives expression to a humanistic religious perspective worthy of renewed consideration today.

Download or read book Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe written by Tomáš Bubík and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-26 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive overview of atheism, secularity and non-religion in Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In contrast to scholarship that has focused on the ‘decline of religion’ and secularization theory, the book builds upon recent trends to focus on the ‘rise of non-religion’ itself. While the label of ‘post-communism’ might suggest a generalized perception of the region, this survey reveals that the precise developments in each country before, after and even during the communist era are surprisingly diverse. A multinational team of contributors provide interdisciplinary case studies covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. This approach utilises perspectives from social and intellectual history in combination with sociology of religion in order to cover the historical development of secularity and secular thought, complemented with sociological data. The study is framed by methodological and analytical chapters. Offering an important geographical perspective to the study of freethought, atheism, secularity and non-religion, this wide-ranging book will be of significant interest to scholars of twentieth-century social and intellectual history, sociology of religion and non-religion, cultural and religious studies, philosophy and theology.

Download or read book Faith and Free Thought written by and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Freethought and Freedom written by George H. Smith and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberty of conscience and freedom of thought are twin, core components of modern life in societies across the world. The ability to pursue one?s vision of the right and the good, coupled with liberty to pursue individual reason and enlightenment, helped produce so much of modern life that we may be apt to forget that libertarian philosophy was not dictated by Nature. Freethought and Freedom surveys the long history of religious and intellectual liberty, exploring their key ideas along the way.

Download or read book Faith and Free Thought written by Christian evidence society and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Faith and Free Thought written by and published by . This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Download or read book Faith Beyond Belief written by Margaret Placentra Johnston and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith Beyond Belief gives a much-needed voice to the “good” people who have left their church but whose spirituality continues to mature. Johnston uses first-person stories as well as known spiritual authorities in describing various stages of religious growth. Some of these real-life accounts are by nonbelievers; others are by those among the growing numbers of the “spiritual but not religious.” All are thoughtful people with too much integrity to live what they consider a lie. The stories of the nonbelievers-including an ex-Catholic, a former Mormon, and a clandestine Muslim apostate who left his community after the attacks of 9/11-show how complete confidence in human reason can lead away from literal religious interpretation. But, while that step is a necessary one on the spiritual path, it is only intermediate. Her second set of stories are of people at the “mystic” level who can tolerate paradox and see truth and reality as multidimensional. Johnston’s book will help doubters to see things in a new light as well as those who are struggling to clarify their own spiritual vision. It also points beyond the atheist/believer controversy wrecking such divisive havoc in our culture today.

Download or read book Just Pretend written by Dan Barker and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compares concepts of God to concepts of other mythological beings and stories.

Download or read book Dialogues between Faith and Reason written by John H. Smith and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-15 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contemporary theologian Hans Küng has asked if the "death of God," proclaimed by Nietzsche as the event of modernity, was inevitable. Did the empowering of new forms of rationality in Western culture beginning around 1500 lead necessarily to the reduction or privatization of faith? In Dialogues between Faith and Reason, John H. Smith traces a major line in the history of theology and the philosophy of religion down the "slippery slope" of secularization—from Luther and Erasmus, through Idealism, to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and contemporary theory such as that of Derrida, Habermas, Vattimo, and Asad. At the same time, Smith points to the persistence of a tradition that grew out of the Reformation and continues in the mostly Protestant philosophical reflection on whether and how faith can be justified by reason. In this accessible and vigorously argued book, Smith posits that faith and reason have long been locked in mutual engagement in which they productively challenge each other as partners in an ongoing "dialogue." Smith is struck by the fact that although in the secularized West the death of God is said to be fundamental to the modern condition, our current post-modernity is often characterized as a "postsecular" time. For Smith, this means not only that we are experiencing a broad-based "return of religion" but also, and more important for his argument, that we are now able to recognize the role of religion within the history of modernity. Emphasizing that, thanks to the logos located "in the beginning," the death of God is part of the inner logic of the Christian tradition, he argues that this same strand of reasoning also ensures that God will always "return" (often in new forms). In Smith's view, rational reflection on God has both undermined and justified faith, while faith has rejected and relied on rational argument. Neither a defense of atheism nor a call to belief, his book explores the long history of their interaction in modern religious and philosophical thought.

Download or read book Faith and Free Thought A second course of lectures delivered at the request of the Christian Evidence Society With a preface by S Wilberforce etc written by and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Free Thought Faith and Science written by Roger Pullin and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FREE THOUGHT, FAITH AND SCIENCE: FINDING UNITY THROUGH SEEKING TRUTH By Roger Pullin. This book covers a hot topic – can faith, defined as personal belief and trust in God and not as a religious affiliation, ever be compatible with science? Dr. Roger Pullin argues forcefully that faith and science are complementary paths to truth, with all truthful spiritual insights and all truthful disclosures through mathematics and science coming from God, and that through faith and science we approach one whole body of truth. He writes as a marine biologist with a long career in research, teaching and consulting, mostly in tropical developing countries, and as a believer. He is an Associate Member of Christians in Science and the Society of Ordained Scientists, a Member of the Science and Religion Forum and a Member and former Elder of the Union Church of Manila, Philippines. Dr. Pullin draws together threads from works across theology and science and from personal experiences to offer fresh perspectives on what he calls Free Thought. Free Thought has capital letters to distinguish it from our basic thought about the practicalities of life - what to eat, what to wear, how to dodge traffic etc. Free Thought is not freethinking, as defined conventionally by an outcome of dissent from some religious or other established order. No process defined by a specific outcome can be called free. Free Thought can have any outcome, including agnosticism, atheism and faith. Free Thought is founded on free will. Everyone is free to explore all available information and to choose what to believe. No one knows what anyone else truly believes. Free Thought is truly free. Every human self is a unique combination of a material mind-body with a spiritual soul. Free Thought is the integrated and iterative processing of information from the material and spiritual realms, in one or more common nonmaterial formats, across an individual mind-soul interface. Free Thought connects the material and spiritual realms in every person. Our Free Thought and mind-soul interfaces make us the agents by which God and the spiritual force for evil can bring about change in the material realm. The laws of nature are not suspended to allow so-called miracles. We have free will. The material realm works through free process. From this perspective, Dr. Pullin reviews the human condition, faith, science, the battlefields on which we seek truth in the midst of lies and nonsense and make moral choices, the need for reformations in organized religion and revolutions in science and the prospects for faith-science unity. He recommends expansion of faith-science quest for truth, by scientific appraisals of subjective evidence from within believers and nonbelievers and by considering the implications of a spiritual realm for brain and consciousness research and a theory of everything. This book’s 11 chapters can be adapted as a series of lectures. It depicts a model and mechanisms for Free Thought in a 6-part Figure 1, the backdrop to which forms the cover design, and a synthetic Figure 2. Its 5 Appendices provide definitions of terms, summaries of the author’s beliefs and background, reviews of related literature and a questionnaire for readers. Its total length is 431 pages, plus a user-friendly Index.

Download or read book Faith and Liberty written by Alejandro A. Chafuen and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2003-05-07 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people think that free-market ideas and theories were first substanially developed in the eighteenth century by figures such as Adam Smith. In this revised edition of Faith and Liberty, Alejandro A. Chafuen illustrates this misconception by examining the sixteenth and seventeenth century writings of a group of Catholic theologians and philosophers. The Late- Scholastics, as they are called, were the first to engage in a systematic moral analysis of the ethical issues associated with trade and commerce. In doing so, they arrived at solutions that are in many senses indistinguishable from the ideas of many modern free market commentators. In this revised ediiton, Chafuen blosters his case by including recent and pertinent material which gives rise to new questions and concerns. Reading this book will force to consider what they understand to be an authentiaclly Christian approach to economic questions.

Download or read book I Am Not Afraid are You written by Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Faith and Wisdom in Science written by Tom McLeish and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Can you Count the Clouds?" asks the voice of God from the whirlwind in the stunningly beautiful catalogue of nature-questions from the Old Testament Book of Job. Tom McLeish takes a scientist's reading of this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current 'science and religion' debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. Its narrative approach develops a natural critique of the cultural separation of sciences and humanities, suggesting an approach to science, or in its more ancient form natural philosophy - the 'love of wisdom of natural things' - that can draw on theological and cultural roots. Following the theme of pain in human confrontation with nature, it develops a 'Theology of Science', recognising that both scientific and theological worldviews must be 'of' each other, not holding separate domains. Science finds its place within an old story of participative reconciliation with a nature, of which we start ignorant and fearful, but learn to perceive and work with in wisdom. Surprisingly, science becomes a deeply religious activity. There are urgent lessons for education, the political process of decision-making on science and technology, our relationship with the global environment, and the way that both religious and secular communities alike celebrate and govern science.