Reasonable Perspectives On Religion

Preface

1. Worldview Is The Brain’s Operating System
Richard Curtis
2. The God Debates And The Materialist Interpretation Of History
Alexander Saxton
3. Sense And Nonsense In Religion And Belief
James Carse
4. All Religions Are Cousins: Religion In Human Evolution
Robert N. Bellah
5. Hegel’s Metaphysics And Religious Pluralism
Patrick Rogers Horn
6. Getting “Ought” From “Is”: A Practical Solution For Materialists
William F. Harms
7. Towards A Neuropathy Of Empathy
Gary Olson
8. Ethics And The Fabric Of The Universe
David Ray Griffin
9. The Cosmological Argument For The Existence Of God: An Apologia
Paul Herrick
10. God As Moral Praxis
Michael Benedikt
11. Towards A Materialist Theology, Or, Why Atheists (and Marxists) Should Write Theology
Roland Boer
12. Is Islam Reasonable?
Kevin Barrett
13. Types Of Religious Naturalism
Joseph Chuman

Additional Info
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.

List of Contributors
Kevin Barrett; Robert N. Bellah; Michael Benedikt; Roland Boer; James Carse; Joseph Chuman; Richard Curtis; David Ray Griffin; William F. Harms; Paul Herrick; Patrick Rogers Horn; Gary Olson; Alexander Saxton;