Intellectual, Humanist and Religious Commitment

Intellectual, Humanist and Religious Commitment PDF Author: Peter Forrest
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350097721
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book offers a rigorous analysis of why commitment matters and the challenges it presents to a range of believers. Peter Forrest treats commitment as a response to lost innocence. He considers the intellectual consequences of this by demonstrating why, for example, we should not believe in angels. He then explores why humans are attached to reason and to humanism, recognising the different commitments made by theist and non-theist humanists. Finally, he analyses religious faith, specifically fideism, defining it by way of contrast to Descartes, Pascal and William James, as well as contemporary philosophers including John Schellenberg and Lara Buchak. Of particular interest to scholars working on the philosophy of religion, the book makes the case both for and against committing to God, recognising that God's divine character sets up an emotional rather than an intellectual barrier to commitment to worship.

Intellectual, Humanist and Religious Commitment

Intellectual, Humanist and Religious Commitment PDF Author: Peter Forrest
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350097721
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a rigorous analysis of why commitment matters and the challenges it presents to a range of believers. Peter Forrest treats commitment as a response to lost innocence. He considers the intellectual consequences of this by demonstrating why, for example, we should not believe in angels. He then explores why humans are attached to reason and to humanism, recognising the different commitments made by theist and non-theist humanists. Finally, he analyses religious faith, specifically fideism, defining it by way of contrast to Descartes, Pascal and William James, as well as contemporary philosophers including John Schellenberg and Lara Buchak. Of particular interest to scholars working on the philosophy of religion, the book makes the case both for and against committing to God, recognising that God's divine character sets up an emotional rather than an intellectual barrier to commitment to worship.

Humanism: A Very Short Introduction

Humanism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Stephen Law
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199553645
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Summary: Philosopher Stephen Law explains why humanism--though a rejection of religion--nevertheless provides both a moral basis and a meaning for our lives.-publisher description.

Skepticism and Humanism

Skepticism and Humanism PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000950905
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
As we begin the third millennium there is cause for cautious optimism regarding the human prospect. Democratic revolutions and the doctrine of universal human rights have captured the imagination of large sectors of humanity, while major advances in science and technology continue to conquer disease and extend life, contributing to rising standards of living, affluence, and cultural freedom on a worldwide basis. Paradoxically, at the same time ancient authoritarian fundamentalist religions have grown in vitriolic intensity along with bizarre New Age, media-driven paranormal belief systems. Also surprising is the resurgence of primitive tribal and ethnic loyalties, unleashing wars of intolerance and bitterness. In Skepticism and Humanism, Paul Kurtz locates these threatening developments within a long-standing and largely unchallenged theological worldview. He proposes, as an alternative to religion, a new cultural paradigm rooted in scientific naturalism, rationalism, and a humanistic outlook. An estimated 60 percent of scientists are atheists or agnostics. However, the skeptical world view has been given little currency even in advanced societies, because of a cultural prohibition against the criticism of religion. At the same time, science has become increasingly narrow and specialized so that few people can draw on its broader intellectual and cultural implications. Skepticism and Humanism attempts to meet this need. It defends skepticism as a method for developing reliable knowledge by using scientific inquiry and reason to test all claims to truth. It also defends scientific naturalism-an evolutionary view of nature, life, and the human species. Kurtz sees the dominant religious doctrines as drawn from an agricultural/nomadic past, and emphasizes the need for a new outlook applicable to the postindustrial information age. At the same time, he rejects postmodernism for abandoning science and embracing a form of nihilism. There can be no doubt that as a new global civilization emerges, scientific naturalism, rationalism, and secular humanism have something significant to say about the meaning of life. Skepticism and Humanism shows how they can to foster democratic values and social prosperity. The book will be important for philosophers, scientists, and all those concerned with contemporary issues.

The Passionate Intellect

The Passionate Intellect PDF Author: Norman Klassen
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441202560
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Too often Christian college students feel they must either downplay their faith or stick to a small circle of like-minded friends and organizations. Somewhere along the way assumptions have taken root that intellectual university life and Christian faith cannot be synthesized. Klassen and Zimmermann assert that much is at stake for the young university student. A worldview takes a lasting shape and faith is usually discovered, deepened, or discarded during a collegiate journey. This new work is designed to give students, parents, and other interested readers a guide to the intellectual culture of the modern university and its contribution to society, helping them to realize the power of the university's influence and discover how to connect Christian belief to cutting-edge thinking.

Reason and Reverence

Reason and Reverence PDF Author: William R. Murry
Publisher: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
ISBN: 9781558965188
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description


A Secular Humanist Declaration

A Secular Humanist Declaration PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780879751494
Category : Humanism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration

Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration PDF Author: Gary Remer
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271042826
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Religious toleration is much discussed these days. But where did the Western notion of toleration come from? In this thought-provoking book Gary Remer traces arguments for religious toleration back to the Renaissance, demonstrating how humanist thinkers initiated an intellectual tradition that has persisted even to our present day. Although toleration has long been recognized as an important theme in Renaissance humanist thinking, many scholars have mistakenly portrayed the humanists as proto-Englightenment rationalists and nascent liberals. Remer, however, offers the surprising conclusion that humanist thinking on toleration was actually founded on the classical tradition of rhetoric. It was the rhetorician's commitment to decorum, the ability to argue both sides of an issue, and the search for an acceptable epistemological standard in probability and consensus that grounded humanist arguments for toleration. Remer also finds that the primary humanist model for a full-fledged theory of toleration was the Ciceronian rhetorical category of sermo (conversation). The historical scope of this book is wide-ranging. Remer begins by focusing on the works of four humanists: Desiderius Erasmus, Jacobus Acontius, William Chillingworth, and Jean Bodin. Then he considers the challenge posed to the humanist defense of toleration by Thomas Hobbes and Pierre Bayle. Finally, he shows how humanist ideas have continued to influence arguments for toleration even after the passing of humanism&—from John Locke to contemporary American discussions of freedom of speech.

Erasmus and the Middle Ages

Erasmus and the Middle Ages PDF Author: István Bejczy
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004247599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book discusses Erasmus’ view of the medieval past and his historical consciousness in general. It attempts to show a fault line between Erasmus’ specific observations on the course of history and the basic assumptions of his Christian humanism.

Is Man the Measure?

Is Man the Measure? PDF Author: Norman L. Geisler
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597522996
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
An academically respectable description and evaluation of secular humanism is available at last. The diversity within humanism receives full recognition in this book, as does the fact that not everything about humanism is bad from a Christian point of view. Indeed, the author continues, there are many emphases within humanism that are compatible with Christian beliefs, a thesis to which he devotes an entire chapter. Part 1 summarizes in turn eight prominent forms of humanism: Huxley's evolutionism, Skinner's behaviorism, Sartre's existentialism, Dewey's pragmatism, Marxism, Rand's egocentrism, Lamont's culturalism, and the coalitional form present in the humanist declaration and manifestoes. Emerging from these chapters are both the differences between humanists and the consensus that binds them together. It is this humanistic consensus, writes the author, that most radically conflicts with Christian beliefs and that is the number one problem in the United States today. After the chapter on the helpful emphases of secular humanism, part 2 details this movement's comparative inferiority, internal inconsistencies, religious inadequacies, and philosophical insufficiencies. The final chapter demonstrates that, while Christianity is consistent with the central principles of science, philosophy, epistemology, and ethics, humanism is not. There is no rational justification, the author concludes, for being a humanist.

Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism

Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism PDF Author: Kendyl L. R. Gibbons
Publisher: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
ISBN: 1558967834
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In this highly anticipated collection, Unitarian Universalist Humanists present their faith perspectives in 23 engaging and thought-provoking essays. The contributors, both lay and ordained, demonstrate why Humanism has been one of the bedrock theologies of Unitarian Universalism for the last hundred years. They reflect on what it means to be a religious Humanist today and how they see the movement evolving in the twenty-first century. They explore Humanist history, beliefs, approach to life, social justice, community, and religious education. Together, these voices proclaim a passionate affirmation of a rich and dynamic tradition within Unitarian Universalism.