A More Charitable Atheism

A More Charitable Atheism PDF Author: James A. Metzger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761871659
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
This anthology consists of fourteen topically arranged essays that explore a form of humanism characterized by epistemic humility, a progressive ethical orientation, as well as a respect for the positive features of religion. According to recent polls, more Americans find themselves uncomfortable maintaining traditional religious beliefs and moral commitments—a trend driven in large part by the Millennials, and one likely to continue with subsequent generations. As a professor who has regular interactions with students of this generation, the author has discovered that those who neither wish to affiliate with one particular religious tradition or community, as perhaps their parents and grandparents did, nor drop religion altogether fear that there are few if any truly attractive alternatives—alternatives that would help them find meaning, offer sound moral guidance, and navigate life’s most challenging times. This book in part aims to show that both meaning and resources for crafting a philosophically sound moral compass can be found outside the sacred canopy. These essays, however, are also the outcome of the author’s own journey from mainline Protestant Christianity to secular humanism. The primary catalyst for this transition was the onset of a serious autoimmune illness, which forced him to confront various issues in philosophy of religion, particularly the problem of suffering and evil. This autobiographical component is woven into several chapters with the intention of showing that in a postmodern milieu we can no longer attribute major worldview shifts to solitary, dispassionate rational inquiry. Although essays have been composed in such a way that each may stand alone, a feature of the book that allows readers to approach chapters in any order they choose, they nevertheless have been arranged into four sections that reflect the author’s personal journey. Major topics include: 1) Chronic Illness and the Death of God; 2) Epistemic Limitations and Respect for Persons; 3) A Humanist Approach to Reading the Bible and; 4) Advantages of Ethical Reasoning without God.

A More Charitable Atheism

A More Charitable Atheism PDF Author: James A. Metzger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761871659
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
This anthology consists of fourteen topically arranged essays that explore a form of humanism characterized by epistemic humility, a progressive ethical orientation, as well as a respect for the positive features of religion. According to recent polls, more Americans find themselves uncomfortable maintaining traditional religious beliefs and moral commitments—a trend driven in large part by the Millennials, and one likely to continue with subsequent generations. As a professor who has regular interactions with students of this generation, the author has discovered that those who neither wish to affiliate with one particular religious tradition or community, as perhaps their parents and grandparents did, nor drop religion altogether fear that there are few if any truly attractive alternatives—alternatives that would help them find meaning, offer sound moral guidance, and navigate life’s most challenging times. This book in part aims to show that both meaning and resources for crafting a philosophically sound moral compass can be found outside the sacred canopy. These essays, however, are also the outcome of the author’s own journey from mainline Protestant Christianity to secular humanism. The primary catalyst for this transition was the onset of a serious autoimmune illness, which forced him to confront various issues in philosophy of religion, particularly the problem of suffering and evil. This autobiographical component is woven into several chapters with the intention of showing that in a postmodern milieu we can no longer attribute major worldview shifts to solitary, dispassionate rational inquiry. Although essays have been composed in such a way that each may stand alone, a feature of the book that allows readers to approach chapters in any order they choose, they nevertheless have been arranged into four sections that reflect the author’s personal journey. Major topics include: 1) Chronic Illness and the Death of God; 2) Epistemic Limitations and Respect for Persons; 3) A Humanist Approach to Reading the Bible and; 4) Advantages of Ethical Reasoning without God.

Answering Atheism

Answering Atheism PDF Author: Trent Horn
Publisher: Catholic Answers
ISBN: 9781938983436
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Today's New Atheists don't just deny God's existence (as the old atheists did) - they consider it their duty to scorn and ridicule religious belief. We don't need new answers for this aggressive modern strain of unbelief: We need a new approach. In Answering Atheism, Trent Horn responds with a fresh and useful resource for the God debate, based on reason, common sense, and more importantly, a charitable approach that respects atheists' sincerity and good will, making this book suitable not just for believers but for skeptics and seekers too. Meticulously researched, and street-tested in Horn's work as a pro-God apologist, it tackles all the major issues of the debate, including: -Reconciling human evil and suffering with the existence of a loving, all-powerful God -Whether the empirical sciences have eliminated the need for God, or in fact point to him -How atheists usually deny moral laws (and thus a moral lawgiver) in theory

Disbelief 101

Disbelief 101 PDF Author: S. C. Hitchcock
Publisher: See Sharp Press
ISBN: 188436554X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Filled with wit, humor, and clear metaphor, this exploration into atheism is written specifically for young adults, though any adult interested in learning more about atheism will find value within. Not just focused on atheism, this crash course in logical thinking addresses the issues of indoctrination, whether it be religious, political, or commercial, and makes the case that morality is created through reasoning and logic, not through divine communication. Many hot topics are touched upon, such as traditional arguments for God's existence, the relationship of evolution and religious belief, the incompatible nature of science and religion, and the harmfulness of both Christianity and Islam.

Religion for Atheists

Religion for Atheists PDF Author: Alain De Botton
Publisher: Signal
ISBN: 0771025998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a deeply moving meditation on how we can still benefit, without believing, from the wisdom, the beauty, and the consolatory power that religion has to offer. Alain de Botton was brought up in a committedly atheistic household, and though he was powerfully swayed by his parents' views, he underwent, in his mid-twenties, a crisis of faithlessness. His feelings of doubt about atheism had their origins in listening to Bach's cantatas, were further developed in the presence of certain Bellini Madonnas, and became overwhelming with an introduction to Zen architecture. However, it was not until his father's death -- buried under a Hebrew headstone in a Jewish cemetery because he had intriguingly omitted to make more secular arrangements -- that Alain began to face the full degree of his ambivalence regarding the views of religion that he had dutifully accepted. Why are we presented with the curious choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle and effective rituals and practices for which there is no equivalent in secular society? Why do we bristle at the mention of the word "morality"? Flee from the idea that art should be uplifting, or have an ethical purpose? Why don't we build temples? What mechanisms do we have for expressing gratitude? The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In Religion for Atheists is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.

Atheist Delusions

Atheist Delusions PDF Author: David Bentley Hart
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300155646
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Religious scholar Hart argues that contemporary antireligious polemics are based not only upon conceptual confusions but upon facile simplifications of history and provides a powerful antidote to the New Atheists' misrepresentations of the Christian past.

Seven Types of Atheism

Seven Types of Atheism PDF Author: John Gray
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374714266
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
From the provocative author of Straw Dogs comes an incisive, surprising intervention in the political and scientific debate over religion and atheism When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your firmest convictions—secular or religious—are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought. For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood “science.” John Gray’s stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself. Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of “God-haters” like the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from Bertrand Russell’s search for truth in mathematics to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary light on what it is to be human.

A Sceptic's Guide to Atheism

A Sceptic's Guide to Atheism PDF Author: Peter S Williams
Publisher: Authentic Media Inc
ISBN: 1842278991
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This is an accessible response to the contemporary anti-God arguments of the 'new atheists' (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Grayling, etc). Atheism has become militant in the past few years, with its own popular mass media evangelists such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. In this readable book, Christian philosopher Peter S. Williams considers the arguments of the 'new atheists' and finds them wanting. Williams explains the history of atheism and responds to the claims that: 'belief in God causes more harm than good'; 'religion is about blind faith and science is the only way to know things'; 'science can explain religion away'; 'there is not enough evidence for God'; 'the arguments for God's existence do not work'. Williams argues that belief in God is more intellectually plausible than atheism.

God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great PDF Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 1551991764
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
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.

Why There Is No God

Why There Is No God PDF Author: Armin Navabi
Publisher: Atheist Republic
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
"Science can't explain the complexity and order of life; God must have designed it to be this way.""God's existence is proven by scripture.""There's no evidence that God doesn't exist.""God has helped me so much. How could none of it be true?""Atheism has killed more people than religion, so it must be wrong!" How many times have you heard arguments like these for why God exists? Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God provides simple, easy-to-understand counterpoints to the most popular arguments made for the existence of God. Each chapter presents a concise explanation of the argument, followed by a response illustrating the problems and fallacies inherent in it. Whether you're an atheist, a believer or undecided, this book offers a solid foundation for building your own inquiry about the concept of God.

Jesus Among Secular Gods

Jesus Among Secular Gods PDF Author: Ravi Zacharias
Publisher: FaithWords
ISBN: 1455569143
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale defend the absolute claims of Christ against modern belief in the "secular gods" of atheism, scientism, relativism, and more. The rise of these secular gods presents the most serious challenge to the absolute claims of Christ since the founding of Christianity itself. The Christian worldview has not only been devalued and dismissed by modern culture, but its believers are openly ridiculed as irrelevant. In Jesus Among Secular Gods, Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale challenge the popular "isms" of the day, skillfully pointing out the fallacies in their claims and presenting compelling evidence for revealed absolute truth as found in Jesus. This book is fresh, insightful, and important, and faces head on today's most urgent challenges to Christian faith. It will help seekers to explore the claims of Christ and will provide Christians with the knowledge to articulate why they believe that Jesus stands tall above all other gods.