The Case for Religion

The Case for Religion PDF

Author: Keith Ward

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-10-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1780746709

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A brilliant and accessible rebuttal of The God Delusion from one of Christianity's most incisive thinkers In this, his first new book since the best-selling God: A Guide for the Perplexed (Oneworld, 2002), Keith Ward turns his attention to the role - and the validity of religion over the centuries and in the world today. His erudite yet informative and factual narrative outlines the various attempts that have been made throughout history to explain religion, including the anthropological, psychological, sociological and philosophical theories of key thinkers from Immanuel Kant to Sigmund Freud. Adopting a comparative approach, the book covers all the religious traditions from West and East alike, concluding in a compelling manner that not only are the world faiths much more than a series of theoretical perspectives, but that, in the face of discord and violence, religious understanding retains more resonance than ever before within our global community.

The God Argument

The God Argument PDF

Author: A. C. Grayling

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1408837420

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

There has been a bad-tempered quarrel between defenders and critics of religion in recent years. Both sides have expressed themselves acerbically because there is a very great deal at stake in the debate. This book thoroughly and calmly examines all the arguments and associated considerations offered in support of religious belief, and does so in full consciousness of the reasons people have for subscribing to religion, and the needs they seek to satisfy by doing so. And because it takes account of all the issues, its solutions carry great weight. The God Argument is the definitive examination of the issue, and a statement of the humanist outlook that recommends itself as the ethics of the genuinely reflective person.

The Case for God

The Case for God PDF

Author: Karen Armstrong

Publisher: Knopf Canada

Published: 2009-09-22

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0307372952

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

From the bestselling author of A History of God and The Great Transformation comes a balanced, nuanced understanding of the role religion plays in human life and the trajectory of faith in modern times. Why has God become incredible? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? Moving from the Paleolithic Age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the lengths to which humankind has gone to experience a sacred reality that it called God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. She examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. With her trademark depth of knowledge and profound insight, Armstrong elucidates how the changing world has necessarily altered the importance of religion at both societal and individual levels. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for structuring a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age.

God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great PDF

Author: Christopher Hitchens

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Published: 2008-11-19

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1551991764

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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.

The Religion Clauses

The Religion Clauses PDF

Author: Erwin Chemerinsky

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190699736

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"The relationship between the government and religion is deeply divisive. With the recent changes in the composition of the Supreme Court, the First Amendment law concerning religion is likely to change dramatically in the years ahead. The Court can be expected to reject the idea of a wall separating church and state and permit much more religious involvement in government and government support for religion. The Court is also likely to expand the rights of religious people to ignore legal obligations that others have to follow, such laws that require the provision of health care benefits to employees and prohibit businesses from discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation. This book argues for the opposite and the need for separating church and state. After carefully explaining all the major approaches to the meaning of the Constitution's religion clauses, the book argues that the best approaches are for the government to be strictly secular and for there to be no special exemptions for religious people from neutral and general laws that others must obey. The book argues that this separationist approach is most consistent with the concerns of the founders who drafted the Constitution and with the needs of a religiously pluralistic society in the 21st century"--

Women v. Religion

Women v. Religion PDF

Author: Karen L. Garst

Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)

Published: 2018-06-01

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 163431171X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Throughout history, religion has been used as a tool of female subjugation. Women have been deemed less worthy than men, have been prevented from owning property, and worse—all in the name of a higher power. In recent decades, women have made progress in terms of equal rights with men, at least in Western democracies, but still, why has the United States never had a female president? Why aren't more women heads of Fortune 500 companies? Why do politicians in the West continue to attack women's reproductive rights? As this volume explores, it would be hard to find a bigger culprit than religion when identifying the last cultural barriers to full gender equality. With topics ranging from the subjugation of women in the Bible to the shame and guilt felt by women due to religious teaching, this volume makes clear that only by rejecting the very system that limits their autonomy will women be fully liberated from its malignant influences, not just in codified law but also in cultural practice.

Law and Religion

Law and Religion PDF

Author: Leslie C. Griffin

Publisher:

Published: 2010-03-10

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Designed to be used either as a primary text or with any Law and Religion or First Amendment text, Law and Religion: Cases in Context presents descriptions and discussions of the landmark cases in law and religion and the First Amendment. Cases are selected from the leading religion and First Amendment casebooks, and the authors provide insights into the significance of each while revealing its context and, for many, details about what happened after the case was concluded. This unique text will intrigue students and engage their interest with: - Accessible prose and interesting illustrations; - Cases that involve issues that continue to confound the courts: creation science and evolution; public religious symbols like the cross and the crèche; private religious clothing like the yarmulke and the khimar; tax policy and religion; - Engaging characters, such as: Guy Ballard, who told customers that he was chosen by Saint Germain as a divine messenger and possessed supernatural healing powers that they could purchase; Officer and Doctor Simcha Goldman, who wore a yarmulke to the psychology clinic until an irritated military attorney complained to Goldman's superiors that the yarmulke was not permitted under Air Force regulations; Kimberlie Webb, a Philadelphia police officer who lost her efforts to wear a headscarf while in uniform and on duty; Ronald Rosenberger, who successfully challenged the University of Virginia's denial of funding to his evangelical publication, Wide Awake; - Insights from leading law and religion scholars of diverse professional, religious, geographical, and institutional backgrounds. In her role as editor, Leslie C. Griffin, who holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University as well as a J.D. from Stanford Law School, has brought together an impressive group of contributors to create Law and Religion: Cases in Context.

The Case for God

The Case for God PDF

Author: Karen Armstrong

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2010-09-07

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0307389804

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A nuanced exploration of the role of religion in our lives, drawing on insights of the past to build a faith for our dangerously polarized age—from the New York Times bestselling author of The History of God Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? Answering these questions with the same depth of knowledge and profound insight that have marked all her acclaimed books, Armstrong makes clear how the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level. Yet she cautions us that religion was never supposed to provide answers that lie within the competence of human reason; that, she says, is the role of logos. The task of religion is “to help us live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there are no easy explanations.” She emphasizes, too, that religion will not work automatically. It is, she says, a practical discipline: its insights are derived not from abstract speculation but from “dedicated intellectual endeavor” and a “compassionate lifestyle that enables us to break out of the prism of selfhood.”

The Case for Faith

The Case for Faith PDF

Author: Lee Strobel

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0310234697

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this book, the author turns his skills to the most persistent emotional objections to belief -- the eight "heart" barriers to faith. This book is for those who may be feeling attracted to Jesus but who are faced with intellectual barriers standing squarely in their path. For Christians, it will deepen their convictions and give them fresh confidence in discussing Christianity with even their most skeptical friends

The God Argument

The God Argument PDF

Author: A. C. Grayling

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-03-04

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1620401924

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A powerful argument for humanism as an alternative to organized religion, by one of the world's leading public intellectuals.