Download or read book It s Not about Religion written by Gregory Harms and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Middle Eastern Studies. When the Middle East is covered on the news or depicted in film, what is shown is a region defined almost exclusively by violence, chaos, and extremism, and a common question often arises in response: Does religion have anything to do with it? In this concise book, Gregory Harms examines a range of topics in an effort to answer the question. As the book's title indicates, the region's woes and instability are in fact not caused by biblical or Islamic factors. Harms reveals a list of entirely secular factors and realities as he examines how and why Americans view the Arab Middle East the way they do; the history of European and U.S. involvement in the region; the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism; and how academics and the mass media tend to discuss the region and its inhabitants. In roughly one hundred pages, the reader is shown a constellation of history and culture that will hopefully help move the conversation of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in a more grounded and precise direction. "For anyone wishing to understand the disconnect between the protests of the 'Arab Spring' that have so inspired us all and the Western image of the Middle East as an eternally fundamentalist, freedom-hating backwater, this book is for you. An informative, lively, and humane look at the real sources of conflict and struggle in the region."—Naomi Klein "Gregory Harms's IT'S NOT ABOUT RELIGION is a welcome breath of reason in the midst of our continued and willful ignorance about all things Islamic, Middle Eastern, and especially, Muslim. Important and timely."—Nick Flynn

Download or read book God Is Not a Religion written by James K. Karlson and published by . This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God Is Not a Religion: Why America Is in Decline leads readers to ask the difficult--but necessary--questions. It probes the nature of God, His ties to the American people and their long national experiment, and the characteristics of the broadly based decline cutting across the country's social, political and cultural institutions. Then it offers a path to follow for returning to the fundamental tenets that originally grounded the country. It suggests that this road to recovery will take the American people to a place in which they reaffirm the sovereignty of God and the accountability of the nation's governmental servants. In this insightful diagnosis and prescription author James K. Karlson, a chemist and business executive, brings to bear his analytical and managerial experience, seasoned by his Christian convictions, to fill the pages of God Is Not a Religion with historically informed analysis and biblically grounded guidance. He proposes that the journey of faith beckons both to individuals and to the country. He applies his diagnosis and prescription to the many challenges facing America, such as education, racism, marriage, global climate change, taxes, and guns. God Is Not a Religion: Why America Is in Decline promises to take seriously history, theology, morality, politics, and personal responsibility as it turns a critical eye, tempered by the Christian faith, to the nation and its people. An examination of the political, moral, and spiritual decline characterized in modern American culture that offers a path for individuals and the nation to follow to return to living "under God."

Download or read book Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not written by Robert N. McCauley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparison of the cognitive foundations of religion and science and an argument that religion is cognitively natural and that science is cognitively unnatural.

Download or read book Jesus Religion written by Jefferson Bethke and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

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.

Download or read book Religion is Not about God written by Loyal D. Rue and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation If religion is not about God, then what on earth is it about? Loyal Rue contends that religion is a series of strategies that aims to influence human nature so that we might think, feel, and act in ways that are good for us, both individually and collectively.

Download or read book Give Me an Answer written by Cliffe Knechtle and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 1986-03-31 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cliffe Knechtle offers clear, reasoned and compassionate responses to the tough questions skeptics ask.

Download or read book When Islam Is Not a Religion written by Asma T Uddin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Muslim religious liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude Muslim Americans from those protections.Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream—along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.” This conceit is not just a threat to the First Amendment rights of American Muslims. It is a threat to the freedom of all Americans.Her new book reveals a significant but overlooked danger to our religious liberty. Woven throughout this national saga is Uddin’s own story and the stories of American Muslims and other people of faith who have faced tremendous indignities as they attempt to live and worship freely.Combining her experience of Islam as a religious truth and her legal and philosophical appreciation that all individuals have a right to religious liberty, Uddin examines the shifting tides of American culture and outlines a way forward for individuals and communities navigating today’s culture wars.

Download or read book Christianity Is Not Religion written by James a. Fowler and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-02-24 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jim Fowler explains that Christianity is not a book-religion, not a belief-system, not morality, not role-playing, not social problem-solving, not an ideological option, and not an ...ism, before concluding with the positive emphasis that Christianity IS Christ.

Download or read book God written by Reza Aslan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book Your Religion Is False written by Joel Grus and published by Brightwalton LLC. This book was released on 2009 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The funniest book ever written about why your religion is false!Whether you're a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, a Rasta or a Jain, an Environmentalist or a Cheondoist, a Scientologist or a Giant Stone Head Worshipper, your religion is false.But don't feel bad -- so is everyone else's! When you want to know what not to believe, this is the only book you need.In addition, you'll learn* Why "god" doesn't exist* Why there's no such thing as a "soul"* How to find "meaning" in a religion-less world* Which of your religious heroes are pedophiles* Why "religious tolerance" is a terrible ideaAnd, as a bonus, the greatest religious joke ever told. You can't afford not to read this book!

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.

Download or read book Relax It s Just God written by Wendy Thomas Russell and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gold-medal winner of a Next Generation Book Award, silver-medal winner of the Independent Publishers Book Award. As featured on the PBS NewsHour “A gem of a book.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW) A step-by-step guide to raising confident, open-minded kids in an age of religious intolerance. Relax, It's Just God offers parents fresh, practical and honest ways to address issues of God and faith with children while promoting curiosity and kindness, and successfully fending off indoctrination. A rapidly growing demographic cohort in America, secular parents are at the forefront of a major and unprecedented cultural shift. Unable to fall back on what they were taught as children, many of these parents are struggling, or simply failing, to address issues of God, religion and faith with their children in ways that promote honesty, curiosity, kindness and independence. The author sifts through hard data, including the results of a survey of 1,000 nonreligious parents, and delivers gentle but straightforward advice to both non-believers and open-minded believers. With a thoughtful voice infused with humor, Russell seamlessly merges scientific thought, scholarly research and everyday experience with respect for a full range of ways to view the world. "Relax, It's Just God" goes beyond the numbers to assist parents (and grandparents) who may be struggling to find the right time place, tone and language with which to talk about God, spirituality and organized religion. It encourages parents to promote religious literacy and understanding and to support kids as they explore religion on their own -- ensuring that each child makes up his or her own mind about what to believe (or not believe) and extends love and respect to those who may not agree with them. Subjects covered include: • Talking openly about our beliefs without indoctrinating kids • Making religious literacy fun and engaging • Talking about death without the comforts of heaven • Navigating religious differences with extended family members • What to do when kids get threatened with hell

Download or read book The End of Religion written by Bruxy Cavey and published by Tyndale House. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The End of Religion, Bruxy Cavey shares that relationship has no room for religion. Believers and seekers alike will discover anew the wondrous promise found in our savior. And Christ’s eternal call to walk in love and freedom will resonate with readers of all ages and denominations.

Download or read book God Doesn t Believe in Atheists written by Ray Comfort and published by Bridge Logos Foundation. This book was released on 2002-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proves to atheists that they don't exist, reveals to agnostics their true motives, and strengthens the faith of the believers. This book answers questions such as Who made God? and Where did Cain get his wife? The book uses humor, reason, and logic to send a powerful message. Here are some reactions from atheists who read the book . . .

Download or read book The Myles Munroe s Kingdom Series written by Dr. Myles Munroe and published by Destiny Image Publishers. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 1905 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kingdom of God is here! The defining message of Dr. Myles Munroes life and worknow available for the first time as a packaged collection. While many remember Dr. Munroe for delivering exceptional teaching on topics such as purpose, potential, vision, praise and worship, leadership, and even relationships, perhaps no revelation has been more important for the individual believer as his message on the Kingdom of God. Dr. Munroe served as a pioneer and prophetic voice, summoning people to experience and enjoy the fullness of their salvation in Christ. This came through discovering their purpose, unlocking their potential, and walking the earth as Kingdom citizens, fueled by Heavens vision. Dr. Munroe now stands among the great cloud of witnesses in Heaven, still beckoning us onward to become representatives and ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. His voice continues to challenge Christ-followers around the world to fulfill their destinies. Today, Dr. Munroes Kingdom message is more crucial than ever. In this hour of turmoil and upheaval, embrace your Kingdom purpose!

Download or read book Faith Misused written by Alvin J Schmidt and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Overview of the use of the Greek word pistis in the New Testament and how the English word faith is often misused"--