Download or read book Thought provoking Scientific Reflections on Religion written by Bahram Varza and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2016-04-11 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research into wars and the resulting misery and bloodshed shows that, even today, these scourges of humanity are usually rooted in religion. Clearly, the vast majority of believers are influenced by their religious education, convinced that their own faith is the sole guarantor of eternal bliss in Paradise. In order not to jeopardize the blessedness which clerics suggest they will attain and depending on the level of their devoutness, the faithful attempt to obey the wishes and orders of their clergy. The media are full of reports on the destructive outcomes of such blind faith. Faith is, in most cases, the result of the upbringing provided by our parents, who, as our protectors, also have our complete trust. Since children are not able to consider the dogmas instilled in them by their parents in intellectual terms, these dogmas are deposited in our subconscious without qualification. And influence us for the rest of our lives. A religion demonstrates its destructive powers when, for reasons of self-interest and contrary to all reason, clerics are able to present the creator of the universe as a God who is, on the one hand, omnipotent and, on the other, an individual requiring assistance. This trick is employed to lay claim to the services of an omnipotent, retributive God, who punishes unbelievers severely while fulfilling the wishes of believers. In order, however, to win His favour we are obliged to protect this God against ‘infidels’ with our goods and persons as the clerics see fit. This book therefore explores how consistent the traditional concept of God is with the actual creator of the universe.
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 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 Natural Reflections written by Barbara Herrnstein Smith and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-19 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important and original book, eminent scholar Barbara Herenstein Smith describes, assesses, and reflects upon a set of contemporary intellectual projects involving science, religion, and human cognition. One, which Smith calls "the New Naturalism", is the effort to explain religion on the basis of cognitive science. Another, which she calls "the New Natural Theology", is the attempt to reconcile natural-scientific accounts of the world with traditional religious belief. These two projects, she suggests, are in many ways mirror images -- or "natural reflections"--Of each other. Examing these and related efforts from the perspective of a constructivist-pragmatist epistemology, Smith argues that crucial aspects of belief - religious and other - that remain elusive or invisible under dominant rationalist and computational models are illuminated by views of human cognition that stress its dynamic, embodied, and interactive features. She also demonstrates how constructivist understandings of the formation and stabilization of knowledge - scientific and other - alert us to simularities in the springs of science and religion that are elsewhere seen largely in terms of difference and contrast. In Natural Reflections, Smith develops a sophisticated approach to issues often framed only polemically. Recognizing science and religion as complex, distinct domains of human practice, she also insists on their significant historical connections and cognitive continuities and offers important new modes of engagement with each of them--Jacket.
Download or read book Understanding Religion and Science written by Michael Horace Barnes and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fully comprehensive textbook covering the issues, methods and relations between religion and science throughout history and up To The modern day.
Download or read book Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose written by John F. Haught and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This stimulating book offers candid reflections on the question of cosmic purpose written both by prominent scientists and by scholars representing the world's religious traditions. Examining the issue from a wide variety of perspectives, this is the only current book to deal with cosmic purpose from an interreligious and interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions address the question of whether a religiously-based notion of a purposeful cosmos is consistent with the latest scientific understanding of nature, and whether theology can affirm the presence of divine action without contradicting science.
Download or read book Christianity and Evolution written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and published by HMH. This book was released on 2002-11-18 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of The Phenomenon of Man reconciles passionate faith with the rigor of scientific thinking. With his unique background as a geologist, paleontologist, and Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a powerful exponent of the view that scientific theories could comfortably coexist with religious faith. To this day, his ideas provoke passionate debates in communities that view science and faith as necessarily separate ideologies. In this collection of nineteen essays, Teilhard seeks to illuminate a middle ground between science and religion that he felt both disciplines could accept. He explores the Fall and original sin, the possibility of life on other planets, and the role that God may have played in the process of human evolution, successfully challenging contemporary theologians to rethink their views of the universe and its creation. “Like other great visionary poets—Blake, Hopkins, Yeats—Teilhard engages the reader both intellectually and sensually.” —The Washington Post Book World “An excellent blend of theological speculation with practical or ascetical application.” —Catholic Telegraph
Download or read book Einstein s God written by Krista Tippett and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller "An exhilirating exploration of the meaning of it all." --Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God Drawn from Krista Tippett's Peabody Award-winning public radio program, the conversations in this profoundly illuminating book reach for a place too rarely explored in our ongoing exchange of ideas--the nexus of science and spirituality. In fascinating interviews with such luminaries as Freeman Dyson, Janna Levin, Parker Palmer, and John Polkinghorne, Krista Tippett draws out the connections between the two realms, showing how even those most wedded to hard truths find spiritual enlightenment in the life of experiment and, in turn, raise questions that are richly, theologically evocative. Whether she is speaking with celebrated surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland about the biology of the human spirit or questioning Drawin biographer James Moore about his subject's religious beliefs, Tippett offers a rare look at the way our best minds grapple with the questions for which we all seek answers.
Download or read book Philosophy Science and Religion for Everyone written by Duncan Pritchard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy, Science and Religion for Everyone brings together these great truth-seeking disciplines, and seeks to understand the ways in which they challenge and inform each other. Key topics and their areas of focus include: • Foundational Issues – why should anyone care about the science-and-religion debate? How do scientific claims relate to the truth? Is evolution compatible with design? • Faith and Rationality – can faith ever be rational? Are theism and atheism totally opposed? Is God hidden or does God simply not exist? • Faith and Science - what provides a better explanation for the origin of the universe—science or religion? Faith and physics: can they be reconciled? Does contemporary neuroscience debunk religious belief? Creationism and evolutionary biology - what constitutes science and what constitutes pseudo-science? • Practical Implications – is fundamentalism just a problem for religious people? What are the ethical implications of the science-and-religion debate? Do logic and religion mix? This book is designed to be used in conjunction with the free ‘Philosophy, Science and Religion’ MOOC (massive open online course) created by the University of Edinburgh, and hosted by the Coursera platform (www.coursera.org). This book is also highly recommended for anyone looking for a concise overview of this fascinating discipline.
Download or read book Science and Religion A Very Short Introduction written by Thomas Dixon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-07-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debate between science and religion is never out of the news: emotions run high, fuelled by polemical bestsellers like The God Delusion and, at the other end of the spectrum, high-profile campaigns to teach "Intelligent Design" in schools. Yet there is much more to the debate than the clash of these extremes. As Thomas Dixon shows in this balanced and thought-provoking introduction, a whole range of views, subtle arguments, and fascinating perspectives can be found on this complex and centuries-old subject. He explores the key philosophical questions that underlie the debate, but also highlights the social, political, and ethical contexts that have made the tensions between science and religion such a fraught and interesting topic in the modern world. Dixon emphasizes how the modern conflict between evolution and creationism is quintessentially an American phenomenon, arising from the culture and history of the United States, as exemplified through the ongoing debates about how to interpret the First-Amendment's separation of church and state. Along the way, he examines landmark historical episodes such as the Galileo affair, Charles Darwin's own religious and scientific odyssey, the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee in 1925, and the Dover Area School Board case of 2005, and includes perspectives from non-Christian religions and examples from across the physical, biological, and social sciences. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
Download or read book God s Existence Religious and Scientific Reflection written by Ravi K. Puri Ph.D. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When war, crimes, and calamities occur, the belief in God is shaken. The idea comes to mind. Does God Exist? If there is a God, then why is he not preventing deadly events comprising genocides, assassinations, crimes, and atrocities? On the contrary, He does not interfere. That means there is no God. Are people worshiping at various religious places Churches, Mosques, and Temples for various reasons wasting their time? If God does not exist, all these religious places should be closed and turned into cinemas, entertainment clubs, and sports stadiums. God is not any object that His existence can be proved. It can be felt by seeing His splendid creation. The act of creation reveals the creator. To know His existence is to know his magnificent creation and redemption. He is the transcendent designer and has not revealed Himself so far to anyone, No God, His prophet, deputy or beloved can interfere with any life on any planet. Each soul has its journey and is responsible for its actions. God is apathetic to the creation of the universe or any happening in the universe. The universe goes on as per its natural laws. So, let us not blame God for any catastrophe occurring in the world.
Download or read book How I Changed My Mind About Evolution written by Kathryn Applegate and published by Monarch Books. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over two dozen Christian leaders describe how they changed their minds about evolution Perhaps no topic appears as potentially threatening to evangelicals as evolution. The very idea seems to exclude God from the creation the book of Genesis celebrates. Yet many evangelicals have come to accept the conclusions of science while still holding to a vigorous belief in God and the Bible. How did they make this journey? How did they come to embrace both evolution and faith? Here are stories from a community of people who love Jesus and honor the authority of the Bible, but who also agree with what science says about the cosmos, our planet and the life that so abundantly fills it. Among the contributors are Scientists such as: Francis Collins Deborah Haarsma Denis Lamoureux Theologians and philosophers such as: James K. A. Smith Amos Yong Oliver Crisp Biblical scholars such as: N. T. Wright Scot McKnight Tremper Longman III Pastors such as: John Ortberg Ken Fong Laura Truax
Download or read book No Sense of Obligation written by Matt Young and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2001-10-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the Praise for No Sense of Obligation . . . fascinating analysis of religious belief -- Steve Allen, author, composer, entertainer [A] tour de force of science and religion, reason and faith, denoting in clear and unmistakable language and rhetoric what science really reveals about the cosmos, the world, and ourselves. Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic Magazine; Author, How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science About the Book Rejecting belief without evidence, a scientist searches the scientific, theological, and philosophical literature for a sign from God--and finds him to be an allegory. This remarkable book, written in the laypersons language, leaves no room for unproven ideas and instead seeks hard evidence for the existence of God. The author, a sympathetic critic and observer of religion, finds instead a physical universe that exists reasonlessly. He attributes good and evil to biology, not to God. In place of theism, the author gives us the knowledge that the universe is intelligible and that we are grownups, responsible for ourselves. He finds salvation in the here and now, and no ultimate purpose in life, except as we define it.
Download or read book Belief in God in an Age of Science written by John Polkinghorne and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1998-03-30 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Polkinghorne is a major figure in today’s debates over the compatibility of science and religion. Internationally known as both a theoretical physicist and a theologian—the only ordained member of the Royal Society—Polkinghorne brings unique qualifications to his inquiry into the possibilities of believing in God in an age of science. In this thought-provoking book, the author focuses on the collegiality between science and theology, contending that these "intellectual cousins" are both concerned with interpreted experience and with the quest for truth about reality. He argues eloquently that scientific and theological inquiries are parallel. The book begins with a discussion of what belief in God can mean in our times. Polkinghorne explores a new natural theology and emphasizes the importance of moral and aesthetic experience and the human intuition of value and hope. In other chapters, he compares science’s struggle to understand the nature of light with Christian theology’s struggle to understand the nature of Christ. He addresses the question, Does God act in the physical world? And he extends his ideas about the role of chaos theory, surveys the prospects for future dialogue between scientific and theological thinkers, and defends a critical realist understanding of the activities of both disciplines. Polkinghorne concludes with a consideration of the nature of mathematical truths and the links between the complementary realities of physical and mental experience.
Download or read book Eternal Living written by Gary W. Moon and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curated by Dallas Willard's long-time colleague and friend Gary Moon, this medley of images, snapshots and "Dallas-isms" moves readers toward deeper experiences of God. Whether influenced by him as a family member, friend, professor, philosopher or reformer, contributors bring refreshing insight into his ideas, what shaped him and also his contagious theology of grace and joy.
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.
Download or read book When Science Meets Religion written by Ian G. Barbour and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Definitive Introduction To The Relationship Between Religion And Science ∗ In The Beginning: Why Did the Big Bang Occur? ∗ Quantum Physics: A Challenge to Our Assumptions About Reality? ∗ Darwin And Genesis: Is Evolution God′s Way of Creating? ∗ Human Nature: Are We Determined by Our Genes? ∗ God And Nature: Can God Act in a Law-Bound World? Over the centuries and into the new millennium, scientists, theologians, and the general public have shared many questions about the implications of scientific discoveries for religious faith. Nuclear physicist and theologian Ian Barbour, winner of the 1999 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for his pioneering role in advancing the study of religion and science, presents a clear, contemporary introduction to the essential issues, ideas, and solutions in the relationship between religion and science. In simple, straightforward language, Barbour explores the fascinating topics that illuminate the critical encounter of the spiritual and quantitative dimensions of life.
