Description
As tensions simmer, and often explode, between the secular and the religious forces in modern life, the big questions about human belief press ever more urgently. Where does belief, or its lack, originate? How can we understand and appreciate religious traditions different from our own? Featuring conversations with twelve skeptics, atheists, agnostics, and believersโincluding Alvin Plantinga, Philip Kitcher, Michael Ruse, and John CaputoโTalking God offers new perspectives on religion, including the challenge to believers from evolution, cutting-edge physics and cosmology; arguments both for and against atheism; and meditations on the value of secular humanism and faith in the modern world. Experts offer insights on Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, as well as Judaism and Christianity. Topical and illuminating, Talking God gives readers a deeper understanding of faith today and how philosophers understand it.From Talking God:
โ[Some say] Buddhism is not a religion because Buddhists donโt believe in a supreme being. This simply ignores the fact that many religions are not theistic in this sense. Chess is a game, despite the fact that it is not played with a ball, after all.โโJay Garfield, from chapter 10, โBuddhism: Religion Without Divinityโ
โWhy think that the creator was all-knowing and omnipotent?โ Maybe the creator was a student god, and only got a B minus on this project?โโLouise Antony, from chapter 2, โA Case for Atheismโ
โThere are a large numberโmaybe a couple of dozenโof pretty good theistic arguments. None is conclusive, but each, or at any rate the whole bunch taken together, is about as strong as philosophical arguments ordinarily get.โโAlvin Plantinga, from chapter 1, โA Case for Theismโ
โIf you cease to โbelieveโ in a particular religious creed, like Calvinism or Catholicism, you have changed your mind and adopted a new positionโ But if you lose โfaith,โโeverything is lost. You have lost your faith in life, lost hope in the future, lost heart, and you cannot go on.โโJohn Caputo, from chapter 3, โReligion and Deconstructionโ ISBN:9780393352818
