After the surprising publishing success of the so-called New Atheists it has become clear that there is a market for critical discussions about religion. A religion is much more complex than a set of beliefs which cannot be proven, as the New Atheists argue. There is, in fact, much more to religion and much more to the arguments about its truth claims. This book seeks to bring together a range of discussions, both critical and apologetic, each of which examines some part of religion and its functions. Half of the contributors are critical of some element of religion and the other half are apologetic in nature, seeking to defend or extend some particular religious argument. Covering a wide range of topics, including ethics, religious pluralism, the existence of God, and reasonableness of Islam, these pieces have in common arguments that are made in careful and scholarly ways-they represent reasonable perspectives on a wide swath of contemporary religious debates, in contrast to the unreasonableness that creeps into discussions on religion in American society.
After the surprising publishing success of the so-called New Atheists it has become clear that there is a market for critical discussions about religion. A religion is much more complex than a set of beliefs which cannot be proven, as the New Atheists argue. There is, in fact, much more to religion and much more to the arguments about its truth claims. This book seeks to bring together a range of discussions, both critical and apologetic, each of which examines some part of religion and its functions. Half of the contributors are critical of some element of religion and the other half are apologetic in nature, seeking to defend or extend some particular religious argument. Covering a wide range of topics, including ethics, religious pluralism, the existence of God, and reasonableness of Islam, these pieces have in common arguments that are made in careful and scholarly ways-they represent reasonable perspectives on a wide swath of contemporary religious debates, in contrast to the unreasonableness that creeps into discussions on religion in American society.
1 Table of Contents 2 Preface Chapter 3 1. Worldview is the Brain's Operating System Chapter 4 2. The God Debates and the Materialist Interpretation of History Chapter 5 3. Sense and Nonsense in Religion and Belief Chapter 6 4. All Religions are Cousins: Religion in Human Evolution Chapter 7 5. Hegel's Metaphysics and Religious Pluralism Chapter 8 6. Getting "Ought" from "Is": A Practical Solution for Materialists Chapter 9 7. Towards a Neuropathy of Empathy Chapter 10 8. Ethics and the Fabric of the Universe Chapter 11 9. The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God: An Apologia Chapter 12 10. God as Moral Praxis Chapter 13 11. Towards a Materialist Theology, Or, Why Atheists (and Marxists) Should Write Theology Chapter 14 12. Is Islam Reasonable? Chapter 15 13. Types of Religious Naturalism
Richard Curtis is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Seattle Central Community College and the Cornish College of the Arts in Washington.
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