A preeminent scientist asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society from the Crusades to 9/11. He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows...

What is the philosophy of religion? How can we distinguish it from theology on the one hand and the psychology/sociology of religious belief on the other? What does it mean to describe God as 'eternal'? And should religious people want there to be good arguments for the existence of God, or is religious belief only authentic in the absence of these good arguments?00In this 'Very Short Introduction' Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion,...

Drawing from Eastern philosophy and religion, Watts argues that is only by acknowledging what we do not and cannot know that we can find something truly worth knowing.--From publisher description.

The host of the popular weekly program on National Public Radio talks about her journey from politics back to religion-and a life of conversation. Includes excerpts from radio program. For Krista Tippett, politics was the primary arena of human action, and reporting was the way to tell a story. The granddaughter of a Southern Baptist minister, raised in a family where life revolved around church, she dismissed her religious upbringing to become a...

"In the second of a four-volume series, mythologist Joseph Campbell traces the evolution of world mythology as it developed into the distinctive religions of the Middle East, India, China, and Japan"--

The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world's fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment, insisting rather on the love of God as the only valid form of adoration. Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music...

The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation." Many on the left contend that the Founders were secular or Deist and that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state throughout the land. None of these claims are true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman. With refreshing

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The author recounts his grief over the death of his wife, and explains how he reexamined his religious beliefs.

"Modern science teaches us that anything can be explained in terms of atoms and forces, including the inner workings of the brain. But certain personal experiences can challenge the idea that there's nothing beyond inert matter. Communing with nature, working through a complex problem, or experiencing a piece of art, we sometimes feel a powerful sense of transcendence, of connecting with a cosmic unity that may seem unexplainable by science. But according...

"Today the Quran is used by some to justify war and acts of terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the Land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality and contraception. The significance of Scripture--the holy texts at the centre of all religious traditions--may not be immediately obvious in our secular world but its misunderstanding is perhaps the root cause of most of today's controversies over religion. In this timely...