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Author: Keith Ward
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019158827X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346
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Book Description
Continuing Keith Ward's series on comparative religion, this book deals with religious views of human nature and destiny. The beliefs of six major traditions are presented: the view of Advaita Vedanta that there is one Supreme Self, unfolding into the illusion of individual existence; the Vaishnava belief that there is an infinite number of souls, whose destiny is to be released from material embodiment; the Buddhist view that there is no eternal Self; the Abrahamic belief that persons are essentially embodied souls; and the materialistic position that persons are complex material organisms. Indian ideas of rebirth, karma, and liberation from samsara are critically analysed and compared with semitic belief in the intermediate state of Sheol, Purgatory or Paradise, the Final Judgement and the resurrection of the body. The impact of scientific theories of cosmic and biological evolution on religious beliefs is assessed, and a form of 'soft emergent materialism' is defended, with regard to the soul. In this context, a Christian doctrine of original sin and atonement is presented, stressing the idea of soterial, as opposed to forensic, justice. Finally, a Christian view of personal immortality and the 'end of all things' is developed in conversation with Jewish and Muslim beliefs about judgement and resurrection.
Author: Keith Ward
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019158827X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Get Book Here
Book Description
Continuing Keith Ward's series on comparative religion, this book deals with religious views of human nature and destiny. The beliefs of six major traditions are presented: the view of Advaita Vedanta that there is one Supreme Self, unfolding into the illusion of individual existence; the Vaishnava belief that there is an infinite number of souls, whose destiny is to be released from material embodiment; the Buddhist view that there is no eternal Self; the Abrahamic belief that persons are essentially embodied souls; and the materialistic position that persons are complex material organisms. Indian ideas of rebirth, karma, and liberation from samsara are critically analysed and compared with semitic belief in the intermediate state of Sheol, Purgatory or Paradise, the Final Judgement and the resurrection of the body. The impact of scientific theories of cosmic and biological evolution on religious beliefs is assessed, and a form of 'soft emergent materialism' is defended, with regard to the soul. In this context, a Christian doctrine of original sin and atonement is presented, stressing the idea of soterial, as opposed to forensic, justice. Finally, a Christian view of personal immortality and the 'end of all things' is developed in conversation with Jewish and Muslim beliefs about judgement and resurrection.
Author: Michel Tibayrenc
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0127999159
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 816
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Book Description
On Human Nature: Biology, Psychology, Ethics, Politics, and Religion covers the present state of knowledge on human diversity and its adaptative significance through a broad and eclectic selection of representative chapters. This transdisciplinary work brings together specialists from various fields who rarely interact, including geneticists, evolutionists, physicians, ethologists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, historians, linguists, and philosophers. Genomic diversity is covered in several chapters dealing with biology, including the differences in men and apes and the genetic diversity of mankind. Top specialists, known for their open mind and broad knowledge have been carefully selected to cover each topic. The book is therefore at the crossroads between biology and human sciences, going beyond classical science in the Popperian sense. The book is accessible not only to specialists, but also to students, professors, and the educated public. Glossaries of specialized terms and general public references help nonspecialists understand complex notions, with contributions avoiding technical jargon. - Provides greater understanding of diversity and population structure and history, with crucial foundational knowledge needed to conduct research in a variety of fields, such as genetics and disease - Includes three robust sections on biological, psychological, and ethical aspects, with cross-fertilization and reciprocal references between the three sections - Contains contributions by leading experts in their respective fields working under the guidance of internationally recognized and highly respected editors
Author: Jarvis Streeter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780761843573
Category : Philosophical anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"In this book, Jarvis Streeter details Ernest Becker's anthropological theories and compares them with traditional and contemporary Christian thought on human nature, sin, and salvation in order to see how the two approaches compare and where Becker might have insights to offer contemporary Christian thinkers." "Ernest Becker was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of human nature and motivation, drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, psychiatry, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and religion to create what he termed a Science of Man. His goal was to understand the most basic human motives, particularly those that led to evil behavior in order to ameliorate them and create a more humane world. He concluded, following the thought of Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, and philosophical and religious existentialism, that the related urges to avoid death anxiety, gain self-esteem, and symbolically deny death were the key human motives - ones which were also responsible for human evil - and that religion has had a complex role to play for both good and ill in human history."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: William James
Publisher: Xist Publishing
ISBN: 1681950898
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275
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Book Description
The Best Nonfiction Masterpiece of the 20th Century? “There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other.” - William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is not a book about a specific religion. The author, psychologist Williams James does not try to convince the reader one religion is better than the other. He doesn’t even make a case for atheism and the scientific approach. The book is in fact about human nature and how we experience religion at a psychological level. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes
Author: Malcolm Jeeves
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1599473550
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 173
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Book Description
Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion is the second title published in the new Templeton Science and Religion Series. In this volume, Malcolm Jeeves and Warren S. Brown provide an overview of the relationship between neuroscience, psychology, and religion that is academically sophisticated, yet accessible to the general reader. The authors introduce key terms; thoroughly chart the histories of both neuroscience and psychology, with a particular focus on how these disciplines have interfaced religion through the ages; and explore contemporary approaches to both fields, reviewing how current science/religion controversies are playing out today. Throughout, they cover issues like consciousness, morality, concepts of the soul, and theories of mind. Their examination of topics like brain imaging research, evolutionary psychology, and primate studies show how recent advances in these areas can blend harmoniously with religious belief, since they offer much to our understanding of humanity's place in the world. Jeeves and Brown conclude their comprehensive and inclusive survey by providing an interdisciplinary model for shaping the ongoing dialogue. Sure to be of interest to both academics and curious intellectuals, Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion addresses important age-old questions and demonstrates how modern scientific techniques can provide a much more nuanced range of potential answers to those questions.
Author: Donald A. Crosby
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791488195
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 213
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Book Description
The beauty, sublimity, and wonder of nature have been justly celebrated in all of the religious traditions of the world, but usually these traditions have focused on beings or powers presumed to lie behind nature, providing nature's ultimate explanation and meaning. In a radical departure, Donald A. Crosby makes an eloquent case for regarding nature itself as the focus of religion, conceived without God, gods, or animating spirits of any kind, and argues that nature is metaphysically ultimate. He explores the concept of nature, the place of humans in nature, the responsibilities of humans to one another and to their natural environments, and offers a religious vision that grants to nature the kind of reverence, awe, love, and devotion formerly reserved for God. Crosby also shares his personal journey from theistic faith to a religion of nature.
Author: Jack Miles
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324002794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 87
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Book Description
A brief, beautiful invitation to the study of religion from a Pulitzer Prize winner. How did our forebears begin to think about religion as a distinct domain, separate from other activities that were once inseparable from it? Starting at the birth of Christianity—a religion inextricably bound to Western thought—Jack Miles reveals how the West’s “common sense” understanding of religion emerged and then changed as insular Europe discovered the rest of the world. In a moving postscript, he shows how this very story continues today in the hearts of individual religious or irreligious men and women.
Author: Melvin Konner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393651878
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
An anthropologist examines the nature of religiosity, and how it shapes and benefits humankind. Believers is a scientist’s answer to attacks on faith by some well-meaning scientists and philosophers. It is a firm rebuke of the “Four Horsemen”—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens—known for writing about religion as something irrational and ultimately harmful. Anthropologist Melvin Konner, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew but has lived his adult life without such faith, explores the psychology, development, brain science, evolution, and even genetics of the varied religious impulses we experience as a species. Conceding that faith is not for everyone, he views religious people with a sympathetic eye; his own upbringing, his apprenticeship in the trance-dance religion of the African Bushmen, and his friends and explorations in Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and other faiths have all shaped his perspective. Faith has always manifested itself in different ways—some revelatory and comforting; some kind and good; some ecumenical and cosmopolitan; some bigoted, coercive, and violent. But the future, Konner argues, will both produce more nonbelievers, and incline the religious among us—holding their own by having larger families—to increasingly reject prejudice and aggression. A colorful weave of personal stories of religious—and irreligious—encounters, as well as new scientific research, Believers shows us that religion does much good as well as undoubted harm, and that for at least a large minority of humanity, the belief in things unseen neither can nor should go away.
Author: Ian G. Barbour
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451409857
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Book Description
Ian Barbour offers analyses of the shape and import of evolutionary theory, indeterminacy, neuroscience, information theory, and artificial intelligence. He also addresses deeper philosophical issues and the idea of nature itself. Then Barbour advances to the interconnected religious questions at the core of contemporary debate: Are humans free? Does religion itself evolve? Are we immortal? Is God omnipotent? How does God act in nature? Barbour's work offers hope that newer religious insights and imperatives occasioned by deep interaction with science can address the environmental and global challenges posed by the relentless advance of science.
Author: Donald Evans
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791412794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
Evans (philosophy, U. of Toronto) discusses spirituality and depth psychology being open and closed, loving oneself, sexuality, and therapy; and spirituality in connection with skepticism positivism and the paranormal, positivism and the genuinely spiritual; ethics mystical humanism and morality, go
