Download or read book As If God Existed written by Maurizio Viroli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-09 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism--not republicanism or democracy. But in this book, Maurizio Viroli, a leading historian of republican political thought, challenges this conventional wisdom. He argues that political emancipation and the defense of political liberty have always required the self-sacrifice of people with religious sentiments and a religious devotion to liberty. This is particularly the case when liberty is threatened by authoritarianism: the staunchest defenders of liberty are those who feel a deeply religious commitment to it. Viroli makes his case by reconstructing, for the first time, the history of the Italian "religion of liberty," covering its entire span but focusing on three key examples of political emancipation: the free republics of the late Middle Ages, the Risorgimento of the nineteenth century, and the antifascist Resistenza of the twentieth century. In each example, Viroli shows, a religious spirit that regarded moral and political liberty as the highest goods of human life was fundamental to establishing and preserving liberty. He also shows that when this religious sentiment has been corrupted or suffocated, Italians have lost their liberty. This book makes a powerful and provocative contribution to today's debates about the compatibility of religion and republicanism.
Download or read book Jordan Peterson God and Christianity written by Chris Kaczor and published by Word on Fire Institute. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jordan Peterson's lectures and writings on psychology, philosophy, and religion have been a cultural phenomenon. Yet Peterson's own thought is marked by a tensive suspension between archetype and reality--between the ideal of Christ and the God who acts in history. Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life is the first systematic analysis, from a Christian perspective, of both Peterson's biblical series on YouTube and his bestselling book 12 Rules for Life, with an epilogue examining its sequel, Beyond Order. Christopher Kaczor and Matthew R. Petrusek draw readers into the depths of Peterson's thought on Scripture, suffering, and meaning, exploring both the points of contact with Christianity and the ways in which faith fulfills Peterson's project.
Download or read book If God Exists written by M. E. Stearn and published by Resource Publications (CA). This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When I was seven years old the nun teaching my Catechism class told us that Mary immaculately conceived Jesus. My mother immediately disabused me of this idea, stating, unequivocally, that Mary was just another fourteen-year-old who got pregnant, arguably and ironically planting the seed for this book. The theist belief that God exists as a conscious entity in some form other than that of matter or energy denies, by definition, the actual existence of God. Atheism denies the belief in God existing as a conscious entity. Neither theists nor atheists rely upon evidence to support their belief. This thesis proposes that God either exists or doesn't exist and belief does not change the ultimate fact. Syllogistically, if God exists, God exists as some form of matter or energy and God is infinite by definition, and since matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed according to the Law of Conservation, God and matter and energy are identical and everything that exists in the cosmos is God. Omnideism proposes a logical explanation for the actual existence of God consistent with the laws of physics and theistic purpose for human existence . . . if God exists.
Download or read book If God Why Evil written by Norman L. Geisler and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author and apologist takes on one of the most difficult questions Christians face. How can an omnipotent, loving God preside over a world filled with evil and suffering? The author's approach is concise, systematic, and clearly communicated, just what Geisler fans have grown to expect. In addition to relying on time-tested solutions to the problem of evil, the author also presents a compelling new way to think about this puzzle.
Download or read book Does God Exist written by Hans Kung and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2013-01-02 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does God exist? The question implies another: Who is God? This book is meant to give an answer to both questions and to give reasons for this answer. Does God exist? Yes or no? Many are at a loss between belief and unbelief; they are undecided, skeptical. They are doubtful about their belief, but they are also doubtful about their doubting. There are still others who are proud of their doubting. Yet there remains a longing for certainty. Certainty? Whether Christians or Jews, believers in God or atheists, the discussion today runs right across old denominations and new ideologies—but the longing for certainty is unquenched. Does God exist? We are putting all our cards on the table here. The answer will be "Yes, God exists," As human beings in the twentieth century, we certainly can reasonably believe in God—even more so in the Christian God—and perhaps even more easily today than a few decades or centuries ago. For, after so many crises, it is surprising how much has been clarified and how many difficulties in regard to belief in God have melted into the Light that no darkness has overcome.
Download or read book God The Failed Hypothesis written by Victor J. Stenger and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology, while science has sat on the sidelines. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality. This book contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, physicist Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence. He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation. After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. This paperback edition of the New York Times bestselling hardcover edition contains a new foreword by Christopher Hitchens and a postscript by the author in which he responds to reviewers' criticisms of the original edition.
Download or read book The Big Argument written by John Frederick Ashton and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Probability of God written by Dr. Stephen D. Unwin and published by Forum Books. This book was released on 2004-10-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does God exist? This is probably the most debated question in the history of mankind. Scholars, scientists, and philosophers have spent their lifetimes trying to prove or disprove the existence of God, only to have their theories crucified by other scholars, scientists, and philosophers. Where the debate breaks down is in the ambiguities and colloquialisms of language. But, by using a universal, unambiguous language—namely, mathematics—can this question finally be answered definitively? That’s what Dr. Stephen Unwin attempts to do in this riveting, accessible, and witty book, The Probability of God. At its core, this groundbreaking book reveals how a math equation developed more than 200 years ago by noted European philosopher Thomas Bayes can be used to calculate the probability that God exists. The equation itself is much more complicated than a simple coin toss (heads, He’s up there running the show; tails, He’s not). Yet Dr. Unwin writes with a clarity that makes his mathematical proof easy for even the nonmathematician to understand and a verve that makes his book a delight to read. Leading you carefully through each step in his argument, he demonstrates in the end that God does indeed exist. Whether you’re a devout believer and agree with Dr. Unwin’s proof or are unsure about all things divine, you will find this provocative book enlightening and engaging. “One of the most innovative works [in the science and religion movement] is The Probability of God...An entertaining exercise in thinking.”—Michael Shermer, Scientific American “Unwin’s book [is] peppered with wry, self-deprecating humor that makes the scientific discussions more accessible...Spiritually inspiring.”--Chicago Sun Times “A pleasantly breezy account of some complicated matters well worth learning about.”--Philadelphia Inquirer “One of the best things about the book is its humor.”--Cleveland Plain Dealer “In a book that is surprisingly lighthearted and funny, Unwin manages to pack in a lot of facts about science and philosophy.”--Salt Lake Tribune
Download or read book The Problem of God written by Mark Clark and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Problem of God explores answers to the most difficult questions raised against Christianity. A skeptic who became a Christian and then a pastor, author Mark Clark grew up in an atheistic home. After his father's death, he began a skeptical search for truth through the fields of science, philosophy, and history, eventually finding answers in the last place he expected: Christianity. In a winsome, persuasive, and humble voice, The Problem of God responds to the top ten interrogations people bring against God, and Christianity, including: Does God even exist in the first place? What do we do with Christianity's violent history? Is Jesus just another myth? Can the Bible be trusted? Why should we believe in Hell anymore today? Each chapter answers the specific challenge using a mix of theology, philosophy, and science. Filled with compelling stories and anecdotes, The Problem of God presents an organized and easy-to-understand range of apologetics, focused on both convincing the skeptic and informing the Christian. The book concluding with Christianity's most audacious assertion: how should we respond to Jesus' claim that he is God and the only way to salvation.
Download or read book Does God Exist written by J. P. Moreland and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2009-12-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a God? What is the evidence for belief in such a being? What is God like? Or, is God a figment of human inspiration? How do we know that such a being might not exist? Should belief or disbelief in God''s existence make a difference in our opinions and moral choices, in the way we see ourselves and relate to those around us?These are fundamental questions, and their answers have shaped individual lives, races, and nations throughout history. On March 24, 1988, at the University of Mississippi, J.P. Moreland, a leading Christian philosopher and ethicist, and Kai Nielsen, one of today''s best-known atheist philosophers, went head-to-head over these questions.Does God Exist? records their entire lively debate and includes questions from the audience, the debaters'' answers, and the responses of four recognized scholars - William Lane Craig, Antony Flew, Dallas Willard, and Keith Parsons. Noted author and philosopher Peter Kreeft has written an introduction, concluding chapter, and appendix - all designed to help readers decide for themselves whether God is fact or fantasy.
Download or read book New Proofs for the Existence of God written by Robert J. Spitzer and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Responding to contemporary popular atheism, Robert J. Spitzer's New Proofs for the Existence of God examines the considerable evidence for God and creation that has come to light from physics and philosophy during the last forty years. --from publisher description.
Download or read book On the Nature and Existence of God written by Richard M. Gale and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-26 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This influential book evaluates the arguments for the existence and nature of God that emerged in the late twentieth century.
Download or read book The Hiddenness Argument written by J. L. Schellenberg and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many places and times, and for many people, God's existence has been rather less than a clear fact. According to the hiddenness argument, this is actually a reason to suppose that it is not a fact at all. The hiddenness argument is a new argument for atheism that has come to prominence in philosophy over the past two decades. J. L. Schellenberg first developed the argument in 1993, and this book offers a short and vigorous statement of its central claims and ideas. Logically sharp but so clear that anyone can understand, the book addresses little-discussed issues such as why it took so long for hiddenness reasoning to emerge in philosophy, and how the hiddenness problem is distinct from the problem of evil. It concludes with the fascinating thought that retiring the last of the personal gods might leave us nearer the beginning of religion than the end. Though an atheist, Schellenberg writes sensitively and with a nuanced insider's grasp of the religious life. Pertinent aspects of his experience as a believer and as a nonbeliever, and of his own engagement with hiddenness issues, are included. Set in this personal context, and against an authoritative background on relevant logical, conceptual, and historical matters, The Hiddenness Argument's careful but provocative reasoning makes crystal clear just what this new argument is and why it matters.
Download or read book Faith Reason and the Existence of God written by Denys Turner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-16 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical objections to proofs of God's existence rely upon an attenuated and impoverished conception of reason which theologians of all monotheistic traditions might wish to reject. Denys Turner proposes that on a broader and deeper conception of it, human rationality is open to the 'sacramental shape' of creation as such and in its exercise of rational proof of God it in some way participates in that sacramentality of all things.
Download or read book As If God Existed written by Maurizio Viroli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-09 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism--not republicanism or democracy. But in this book, Maurizio Viroli, a leading historian of republican political thought, challenges this conventional wisdom. He argues that political emancipation and the defense of political liberty have always required the self-sacrifice of people with religious sentiments and a religious devotion to liberty. This is particularly the case when liberty is threatened by authoritarianism: the staunchest defenders of liberty are those who feel a deeply religious commitment to it. Viroli makes his case by reconstructing, for the first time, the history of the Italian "religion of liberty," covering its entire span but focusing on three key examples of political emancipation: the free republics of the late Middle Ages, the Risorgimento of the nineteenth century, and the antifascist Resistenza of the twentieth century. In each example, Viroli shows, a religious spirit that regarded moral and political liberty as the highest goods of human life was fundamental to establishing and preserving liberty. He also shows that when this religious sentiment has been corrupted or suffocated, Italians have lost their liberty. This book makes a powerful and provocative contribution to today's debates about the compatibility of religion and republicanism.
Download or read book If God Exists written by M. E. Stearn and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When I was seven years old the nun teaching my Catechism class told us that Mary immaculately conceived Jesus. My mother immediately disabused me of this idea, stating, unequivocally, that Mary was just another fourteen-year-old who got pregnant, arguably and ironically planting the seed for this book. The theist belief that God exists as a conscious entity in some form other than that of matter or energy denies, by definition, the actual existence of God. Atheism denies the belief in God existing as a conscious entity. Neither theists nor atheists rely upon evidence to support their belief. This thesis proposes that God either exists or doesn't exist and belief does not change the ultimate fact. Syllogistically, if God exists, God exists as some form of matter or energy and God is infinite by definition, and since matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed according to the Law of Conservation, God and matter and energy are identical and everything that exists in the cosmos is God. Omnideism proposes a logical explanation for the actual existence of God consistent with the laws of physics and theistic purpose for human existence . . . if God exists.
Download or read book Reflections on the Existence of God written by Richard Simmons, 3rd and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a series of short essays seeking to answer life's most enduring question: Does God exist? I have attempted to craft a book that is well researched (I have been conducting this research for over 30 years) but also easy to read and understand. Each essay can be read in less than 10 minutes. In the end it is important to know whether God exists or He does not exist. There is no third option. What I am seeking to do in this book is to determine which of these beliefs is true and which one is not.
