Download or read book The Childfree Christ Antinatalism in Early Christianity written by Theophile de Giraud and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-10 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not a year goes by without the Pope or another Christian dignitary singing the praises of fecundity and the virtues of family, preferably numerous. However, the reading of the Gospels makes us discover a Christ fiercely hostile to the biological family and even more to reproduction. Among the few thinkers who have considered the issue, Kierkegaard will reach the conclusion that Christianity aimed at "blocking our species". In the wake of Christ, who remained childfree while urging us to become eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, the early Church fathers will also glorify perpetual virginity and disparage carnal fertility. Saint Augustine even wished that everyone would refrain from procreating so that the end of the world would be hastened! Would the natalism of contemporary Christian churches be the greatest deception of all time? In any case, it is an absolute betrayal, which, in this century of global overpopulation, is even more disastrous than that of Judas. The purpose of this essay will be to rediscover a truth carefully concealed: the original Christianity was indeed an antinatalism.About the author: Théophile de Giraud is a French-speaking Belgian writer born in 1968. He is one of the main contemporary advocates of antinatalism in the French language. In favour of the childfree cause, he organized three editions of a Non-Parents Day, which took place in Brussels and Paris between 2009 and 2011. Among other works, he has written an essay entitled: L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs: manifeste antinataliste (The Art of Guillotining Procreators: An Antinatalist Manifesto). This book was published in French in 2006 and is currently being translated into English.
Download or read book History of Antinatalism written by Michal Kutás and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collective monography deals with the history of antinatalism. It aims to supplement Ken Coates՚ monography Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar. Therefore, after rejecting David Benatars՚ analytical approach, it starts with the intellectual history of antinatalism in antiquity and the Middle Ages in general, with a focus on neglected tenets of the asymmetry and quality arguments in Aristotle's Eudemus and in early Christianity. Then it carries on with modern age up to the present, with a focus on the rarely identified precursors of the asymmetry argument, followed by analyses of some antinatalistic elements in Vladimir Solovyov, and of the almost unknown antinatalistic author bearing the pen name Kurnig. Finally, it returns to the contemporary antinatalism, this time focused on its implications in sexual ethics and in the ethics of suicide.
Download or read book Anti Natalism Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar written by Ken Coates and published by First Edition Design Pub.. This book was released on 2014-03-24 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last few decades seem to have begun what has been called 'the childless revolution'. In developed countries, increasingly people are choosing not to have children. The causes of this 'revolution' are many including the belief that to create a new life is to subject someone unnecessarily, and without their consent, to life's many sufferings including death. This belief and its underlying philosophy is known as anti-natalism. There has been a recent resurgence of this philosophy, with David Benatar's book Better Never To Have Been (2006) as a major catalyst. Anti-natalism can be seen as part of a broader philosophy, described here as Rejectionism, which finds existence -directly or indirectly, i.e. as procreation - as deeply problematic and unacceptable. The book traces the development of this philosophy from its ancient religious roots in Hinduism (Moksha) and Buddhism (Nirvana) to its most modern articulation by the South African philosopher David Benatar. It examines the contribution to rejectionist thought by Schopenhauer and von Hartmann in the 19th century and Zapffe, a little known Norwegian thinker, in the 20th century, and most recently by Benatar. Benatar and Zapffe represent this approach most clearly as anti-natalism. The book also devotes a chapter to the literary expression of rejectionist philosophy in the works of Samuel Beckett and J.P.Sartre. In sum, far from being an esoteric doctrine rejectionism has been a major presence in human history straddling all three major cultural forms - religious, philosophical and literary. The book argues that anti-natal philosophy and its practice owe a great deal to three major developments: secularization, liberalization of social attitudes, and technological advances (contraception). Anti-natal attitudes and practice should therefore be seen as a part of 'progress' in that these developments are widening our choice of lifestyles and attitudes to existence. In sum, The book argues that anti-natalism needs to be taken seriously and considered as a legitimate view of a modern, secular civilization. Secondly, the book seeks to situate current anti-natalist thought in its historical and philosophical perspective. Finally, it argues that in order to develop anti-natalism further it needs to be institutionalized as a form rational 'philosophy of life', and more attention needs to be paid to the problems and prospect of putting this philosophy into practice.
Download or read book Redemptive Almsgiving in Early Christianity written by Roman Garrison and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the light of the New Testament's conviction that Jesus Christ died for sins, and that the Cross is a 'once for all' act that makes the Temple cult unnecessary, this challenging work probes the reasons for the emerging doctrine of redemptive almsgiving in early Christianity. Do the New Testament writers themselves (even Jesus!) implicitly endorse the view that a 'supplementary' or alternative means of atonement is necessary? What is the background of this theme in Graeco-Roman sources and in the Hebrew Bible? What are the principal texts in early Christian literature that advocate almsgiving as a 'ransom' for sin? These questions firmly govern this investigation of the social and theological forces that gave legitimacy to a doctrine that at first appears to contradict the primary New Testament soteriology, namely that the death of Jesus Christ is the exclusive means of redemption from sin.
Download or read book Effective Altruism and Religion written by Dominic Roser and published by . This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new movement is on the scene: effective altruism-the combination of love and efficiency, making the world a better place not just with a bleeding heart and empathy but with a radical focus on reason and evidence and never losing sight of the goal of maximal impact. Its adherents typically stem from strongly secular environments such as elite philosophy departments or Silicon Valley. So far, a religious perspective on this movement has been lacking. What can people of faith learn from effective altruism, how can they contribute, and what must they criticise? This volume offers a first examination of these questions, providing both a Buddhist and an Orthodox Jewish perspective on them, in addition to various Christian contributions.
Download or read book The Antinatalism Magazine 3 written by Theophile Giraud and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-19 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Antinatalism Magazine is a magazine focused on the ethics of procreation. This is the third issue, and includes articles from Théophile de Giraud, K. Kalvall and Katerina Lochmanová. The magazine includes a travel guide in Norway to Peter Wessel Zapffe related places written by Tim Oseckas, a antinatalism novel called «The Gag Gift» from author Gregory Jahn, several interviews and a memory section for the founder of the magazine Jiwoon Hwang.
Download or read book Procreation Is Murder written by Anti Procreation and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-18 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anti Procreation defends anti-natalism (antinatalism) with analytic rigour and compares procreative and non-procreative infliction of death and suffering, and defends other grounds for anti-natalism.
Download or read book God s Babies written by John McKeown and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human population's annual total consumption is not sustainable by one planet. This unprecedented situation calls for a reform of religious cultures that promote a large ideal family size. Many observers assume that Christianity is inevitably part of this problem because it promotes "family values" and statistically, in America and elsewhere, has a higher birthrate than nonreligious people. This book explores diverse ideas about human reproduction in the church past and present. It investigates an extreme fringe of U.S. Protestantism, including the Quiverfull movement, that use Old Testament "fruitful" verses to support natalist ideas explicitly promoting higher fecundity. It also challenges the claim by some natalists that Martin Luther in the 16th century advocated similar ideas. This book argues that natalism is inappropriate as a Christian application of Scripture, especially since rich populations’ total footprints are detrimental to biodiversity and to human welfare. It explores the ancient cultural context of the Bible verses quoted by natalists. Challenging the assumption that religion normally promotes fecundity, the book finds surprising exceptions among early Christians (with a special focus on Saint Augustine) since they advocated spiritual fecundity in preference to biological fecundity. Finally the book uses a hermeneutic lens derived from Genesis 1, and prioritising the modern problem of biodiversity, to provide ecological interpretations of the Bible's "fruitful" verses.
Download or read book Better Never to Have Been written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. David Benatar presents a startling challenge to these assumptions. He argues that people systematically overestimate the quality of their life, and suffer quite serious harms by coming into existence.
Download or read book Realist Christian Theology in a Postmodern Age written by Sue Patterson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-06-03 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examination of Christian theological and contemporary philosophical theories on the place of language in reality.
Download or read book On Religion written by John D Caputo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John D. Caputo explores the very roots of religious thinking in this thought-provoking book. Compelling questions come up along the way: 'What do I love when I love my God?' and 'What can Star Wars tell us about the contemporary use of religion?' (are we always trying to find a way of saying 'God be with you'?) Why is religion for many a source of moral guidance in a postmodern, nihilistic age? Is it possible to have 'religion without religion'? Drawing on contemporary images of religion, such as Robert Duvall's film The Apostle, Caputo also provides some fascinating and imaginative insights into religious fundamentalism.
Download or read book Conversations about the Meaning of Life written by Thaddeus Metz and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Mother Theresa, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the exploration of Mars teach us about the meaning of life? World-renowned experts, David Benatar and Thaddeus Metz, give you their answers to life's biggest question. Spoiler alert: it isn't 42. We've all felt a unique sense of isolation over the past year. Is there a way to find meaning in this brave new world? Benatar argues that from the cosmic perspective, life on this pale blue dot has almost no significance. But Metz holds a more optimistic view. Discover his rules for how anyone can enrich their lives through truth, beauty, and goodness. Conversations about the Meaning of Life is a discussion with two of the most important thinkers on the topic, and includes an exclusive debate between them. If you strive to lead a more meaningful existence, and want an accessible, intelligent guide to the ultimate question, you'll love this book. Buy it now. "This is, in my opinion, the best dialogue about the meaning of life in the literature. The interlocutors are two of the most important philosophers in the field and it is enlightening to hear these two titans engaging each other directly. Anyone interested in the meaning of life should read this brief and accessible work." - John G Messerly, author of The Meaning of Life.
Download or read book The Women Are Up to Something written by Benjamin J. Bruxvoort Lipscomb and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Résumé éditeur : This book tells two intertwined stories, centered on twentieth-century moral philosophers Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch. The first is the story of four friends who came up to Oxford together just before WWII. It is the story of their lives, loves, and intellectual preoccupations; it is a story about women trying to find a place in a man's world of academic philosophy. The second story is about these friends' shared philosophical project and their unintentional creation of a school of thought that challenged the dominant way of doing ethics. That dominant school of thought envisioned the world as empty, value-free matter, on which humans impose meaning. This outlook treated statements such as “this is good” as mere expressions of feeling or preference, reflecting no objective standards. It emphasized human freedom and demanded an unflinching recognition of the value-free world. The four friends diagnosed this moral philosophy as an impoverishing intellectual fad. This style of thought, they believed, obscured the realities of human nature and left people without the resources to make difficult moral choices or to confront evil. As an alternative, the women proposed a naturalistic ethics, reviving a line of thought running through Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, and enriched by modern biologists like Jane Goodall and Charles Darwin. The women proposed that there are, in fact, moral truths, based in facts about the distinctive nature of the human animal and what that animal needs to thrive."
Download or read book In God s Name written by David Yallop and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2012-08-23 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only thirty-three days after his election, Pope John Paul I,Albino Luciani, died in strange circumstances. Almost immediately rumours of a cover-up began to circulate around the Vatican. In his researches David Yallop uncovered an extraordinary story: behind the Pope's death lay a dark and complex web of corruption within the Church that involved the Freemasons, Opus Dei and the Mafia and the murder of the 'Pope's Banker' Roberto Calvi. When first published in 1984 In God's Name was denounced by the Vatican yet became an award-winning international bestseller. In this new edition, Yallop brings the story up to date and reveals new evidence that has been long buried concerning the truth behind the Vatican cover-up. This is a classic work of investigative writing whose revelations will continue to reverberate around the world.
Download or read book Earthly Mission written by Robert Calderisi and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively investigation of the Catholic Church and its controversial social mission in the developing world
Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.
Download or read book How to Argue like Jesus written by Joe Carter and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2008-12-18 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses Jesus' words and actions found in the New Testament to systematically evaluate his rhetorical stylings, drawing real lessons from his teachings that today's readers can employ. Jesus of Nazareth never wrote a book, held political office, or wielded a sword. He never gained sway with the mighty or influential. He never took up arms against the governing powers in Rome. He was a lower-class worker who died an excruciating death at the age of thirty-three. Yet, in spite of all odds-obscurity, powerlessness, and execution-his words revolutionized human history. How to Argue Like Jesus examines the life and words of Jesus and describes the various ways in which he sought-through the spoken word, his life, and his disciples-to reach others with his message. The authors then pull some very simple rhetorical lessons from Jesus' life that readers can use today. Both Christian and non-Christian leaders in just about any field can improve their ability to communicate effectively by studying the words and methods of history's greatest communicator.
