Books about religion.

[Penumbra]

I've got to read him. I've seen you recommend him some other place, too. I'll bet if you like him, he's damnably good.

Eh, I just read it in a library once when I was bored. I don't remember all of it, but I remember that I thought it was good. The book won a Pulitzer prize. The guy wrote a sequel to it but I haven't read it.

Basically, in God: A Biography, Miles does a purely literary analysis on the Tanakh. He takes the set of stories as though it were a literary narrative, and examines the protagonist Yahweh and how he changes over time, and what his character and motivations are like.

 

[doppelganger]

Here are some that I really liked:

Philosophies of India - Heinrich Zimmer
Escape from Freedom - Erich Fromm
A New Christianity for a New World - John Shelby Spong
Psychology & Western Religion - Carl Jung
Pathways to Bliss - Joseph Campbell
The Wisdom of Insecurity - Alan Watts

 

[doppelganger]

I never read the God Delusion actually, but I figured this topic needed counter-balance.

I didn't read "The End of Faith" because I didn't care about his views on religion. Plus I'm getting enough of them in "The Moral Landscape". I just wanted to see his attempts to circumvent the is-ought problem and deliver some science-based morality.

Having read Dawkins, Harris and Dennett, the best of the three is Dennett's Breaking the Spell:Religion as a natural phenomenon. It is the least agenda-driven in its approach to religion - seeking as its main goal to describe and understand rather than rebut.

 

[Songbird]

Journeys Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn

It chronicles the lives of a Catholic monk, a zen master, and a psychiatrist (Merton, Dogen, and Jung), and how they used emptiness as a transformational door to fulfillment.

 

[earlwooters]

The Gathas.
Gathas

The word of El.
BOOKOFEL - Home

 

[Otherright]

Many people believe that science can explain everything. But that's not true. Science can not explain everything. Science has its limitations:

1. Science can not tell us what happens when after a person is dead.

2. Science can not stop time.

3. Science can not tell what is moral or not.

4. Science can not measure human personality/soul.

5. Science can not create life. It can not even create a living cell from nothing.

Humans need both science and religion. The things which science can not explain, can be illuminated by spiritual scriptures like the Quran, the Bible, and the Vedas. Religion and science complement each other. This reminds me of a quote from Einstein.

"Science without Religion Is Lame, Religion without Science is Blind"
- Albert Einstein.

1. I think it can. You're just reading the wrong books.
2. Umm... neither can religion. But then again that depends on how you see time.
3. Do you consider sociology a science? Patricia Churchland is doing some great work in the neurology of morality and ethics. Religion is not required to tell us what is moral or ethical, social interaction is.
4. You need to read more on this. I think the current theories of quantum biology definitely help.
5. Science does create life. Biology is the study of this process.

 

[Sunstone]

Journeys Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn

It chronicles the lives of a Catholic monk, a zen master, and a psychiatrist (Merton, Dogen, and Jung), and how they used emptiness as a transformational door to fulfillment.

That's one for my list.

 

[Sunstone]

I haven't read her treatment of the Gospel of Thomas yet, but I've only heard good things about Elaine Pagels comparisons and contrasts between Thomas and the Book of John.

 

[Penumbra]

I haven't read her treatment of the Gospel of Thomas yet, but I've only heard good things about Elaine Pagels comparisons and contrasts between Thomas and the Book of John.

I read the Origin of Satan by Pagels. I remember thinking it was pretty good.

 

[Otherright]

I read the Origin of Satan by Pagels. I remember thinking it was pretty good.

I read that book as well. It was pretty good. There are a few things in it that seem speculative, but overall Pagels gives a very thorough treatment to the subject.

 

[doppelganger]

I haven't read her treatment of the Gospel of Thomas yet, but I've only heard good things about Elaine Pagels comparisons and contrasts between Thomas and the Book of John.

"Beyond Belief"

Great book.

 

[Otherright]

"Beyond Belief"

Great book.

Which one? I know of a couple books with this title. I read one recently that was a critical look at Christianity through a Buddhists eyes.

 

[doppelganger]

Which one? I know of a couple books with this title. I read one recently that was a critical look at Christianity through a Buddhists eyes.

The Pagels' book by that name. Full title: Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.