Why We Believe in God(s)

Why We Believe in God(s) PDF Author: J. Anderson Thomson
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN: 0984493239
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time—that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man—not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.

Why We Believe in God(s)

Why We Believe in God(s) PDF Author: J. Anderson Thomson
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN: 0984493239
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 91

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time—that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man—not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.

Why We Believe in God(s)

Why We Believe in God(s) PDF Author: J. Anderson Thomson
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing
ISBN: 9780984493210
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Why We Believe In God(s) provides a brief and accessible guide to the exciting new discoveries that allow us to finally understand why and how the human mind generates, accepts, and spreads religious beliefs.

Why We Believe in God(s)

Why We Believe in God(s) PDF Author: J. Anderson Thomson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781283221924
Category : Faith
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking work, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly regarded psychiatrist known for his studies of suicide terrorism, investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time, that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from cognitive psychology and the neurosciences, he presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man, not vice versa. With this volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion. As Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, states in his foreword to Why We Believe in God(s), This ... book will be swiftly read--and long remembered.

Lies We Believe About God

Lies We Believe About God PDF Author: Wm. Paul Young
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501101412
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
From the author of the bestselling novel The Shack and the New York Times bestsellers Cross Roads and Eve comes a compelling, conversational exploration of twenty-eight assumptions about God—assumptions that just might be keeping us from experiencing His unconditional, all-encompassing love. In his wildly popular novels, Wm. Paul Young portrayed the Triune God in ways that challenged our thinking—sometimes upending long-held beliefs, but always centered in the eternal, all-encompassing nature of God’s love. Now, in Wm. Paul Young’s first nonfiction book, he invites us to revisit our assumptions about God—this time using the Bible, theological discussion, and personal anecdotes. Paul encourages us to think through beliefs we’ve presumed to be true and consider whether some might actually be false. Expounding on the compassion fans felt from the “Papa” portrayed in The Shack—now a major film starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer—Paul encourages you to think anew about important issues including sin, religion, hell, politics, identity, creation, human rights, and helping us discover God’s deep and abiding love.

How We Believe

How We Believe PDF Author: Michael Shermer
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 071674161X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Recent polls report that 96% of Americans believe in God. Why is this? Why, despite the rise of science, technology, and secular education, are people turning to religion in greater numbers than ever before? Why do people believe in God at all?

Why Would Anyone Believe in God?

Why Would Anyone Believe in God? PDF Author: Justin L. Barrett
Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Incorporated/Bloomsbury
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Because of the design of our minds. That is Justin Barrett's simple answer to the question of his title. With rich evidence from cognitive science but without technical language, psychologist Barrett shows that belief in God is an almost inevitable consequence of the kind of minds we have. Most of what we believe comes from mental tools working below our conscious awareness. And what we believe consciously is in large part driven by these unconscious beliefs. Barrett demonstrates that beliefs in gods match up well with these automatic assumptions; beliefs in an all-knowing, all-powerful God match up even better. Barrett goes on to explain why beliefs like religious beliefs are so widespread and why it is very difficult for our minds to think without them. Anyone who wants a concise, clear, and scientific explanation of why anyone would believe in God should pick up Barrett's book.

Everybody Is Wrong About God

Everybody Is Wrong About God PDF Author: James A. Lindsay
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN: 1634310381
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
A call to action to address people's psychological and social motives for a belief in God, rather than debate the existence of God With every argument for theism long since discredited, the result is that atheism has become little more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Thus, engaging in interminable debate with religious believers about the existence of God has become exactly the wrong way for nonbelievers to try to deal with misguided—and often dangerous—belief in a higher power. The key, author James Lindsay argues, is to stop that particular conversation. He demonstrates that whenever people say they believe in "God," they are really telling us that they have certain psychological and social needs that they do not know how to meet. Lindsay then provides more productive avenues of discussion and action. Once nonbelievers understand this simple point, and drop the very label of atheist, will they be able to change the way we all think about, talk about, and act upon the troublesome notion called "God."

How to Believe in God

How to Believe in God PDF Author: Clark Strand
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 038552952X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
In How to Believe in God, Clark Strand, an accomplished master of both Eastern and Western mystical practices, takes on the most troublesome and provocative passages from Judeo-Christian scripture, transforming the Bible into a manual of spiritual liberation for the twenty-first-century seeker. Offering a revolutionary new model of approaching the Bible, he frees those sacred scriptures from superstition, dogma, and tribalism, and in the process recovers their universal teaching on salvation and belief. Drawing on his personal experiences, including his Bible Belt upbringing, his years as a Buddhist monk, and his life as a father and husband in a small rural community, Strand makes even the most subtle spiritual teaching heartfelt and accessible. How to Believe in God illuminates a clear path to reclaiming a God that leaves nothing out and leaves no one behind. His open, gentle, pioneering approach to faith allows everyone—from churchgoing Christians to those with no religious affiliation at all—to experience the Bible in new and exciting ways.

The Language of God

The Language of God PDF Author: Francis Collins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847396151
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Dr Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists, working at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. Yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God. How does he reconcile the seemingly unreconcilable? In THE LANGUAGE OF GOD he explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes the reader on a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry and biology -- indeed, reason itself -- are not incompatible with belief. His book is essential reading for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of all: why are we here? How did we get here? And what does life mean?

Why We Believe

Why We Believe PDF Author: Agustin Fuentes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030024925X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief—the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea—is central to the human way of being in the world.