Religion and the Idea of God
By Chris Park
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About this ebook
In recent years religion has had bad press worldwide, with the rise and decline of New Atheism, continued secularisation, and the rise of religious fundamentalism, particularly in the context of militant forms of radical Islam. But, before rejecting all religion as bad, dangerous or deluded, we should step back from what might turn out to be short-term controversies, try to adopt a broader perspective, and take a calmer and more rational look at religion. With this in mind, this ebook explores the nature of religion and the place and role of God in religion. It then looks at the origin and development of religion, and offers an overview of the benefits of religion. It closes with a consideration of the decline of organised religion.
Chris Park
I am a retired academic with more than 30 years experience in university teaching, research and senior management in the UK. These days I enjoy spending time reading, writing, walking and travelling, but not all at the same time!
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Religion and the Idea of God - Chris Park
RELIGION AND THE IDEA OF GOD
Copyright 2016 Chris Park
Smashwords Edition
Thank you for downloading this ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial reasons. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy, and please consider downloading the other books in the series GOD MATTERS, both free from Smashwords.com. Thank you for your support.
This ebook contains material drawn from my book God: Real or Imagined? which was first published in print format by Zaccmedia in 2013. It is part of the GOD MATTERS series, the other ebooks of which are listed in ‘Other books by this author’.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The nature of religion
3. God in religion
4. The origin and development of religion
5. The benefits of religion
6. The decline of organized religion
References
About the author
Other books by this author
1. Introduction
"For many people, probably a majority of the people on Earth, nothing matters more than religion." Daniel Dennett (2006)
Many people would argue that, like sex and politics, religion is not an appropriate topic of conversation in polite company. Robert Wright (2009) goes further, arguing that in modern intellectual circles, speculating seriously about God’s existence isn’t a path to widespread esteem. Indeed, the first decade of the twenty-first century made god-talk an even graver breach of highbrow etiquette than it had been at the end of the twentieth.
As a result today, particularly in the West, God is often viewed as the elephant in the room
, something that may well be important but whose very existence is generally either not acknowledged or deliberately ignored.
Curiosity and the religious instinct
As humans we are natural curious creatures; we are hard-wired to want or need to know, to ask questions and seek answers. As far as we know, we are the only species endowed with this sense of wonder and curiosity.
This inbuilt inquisitiveness is often keenest when we are young, when Because it is
is not a sufficiently persuasive answer. I can well remember my own childhood, when my dad took me for a walk along our street and (he tells me) I constantly pestered him with questions like why is the sky blue?
or why is the grass green?
Whatever answers he gave me failed to silence me, or to put my mind at rest.
As we grow up, our questions change. As life gets serious, our responsibilities grow, the years fly by, and we are confronted by multiple challenges. As adults we often ask ourselves What is it all about?
and Is this it, all there is to life?
We wonder Why do bad things happen, particularly to good people?
Question after question, not all of them answerable we now know. But it doesn’t stop us wondering, thinking, searching.
This incessant curiosity about things beyond our everyday experience is one of the unique qualities of being human. It is the product of a dissatisfied mind in search of some kind of peace. Natural curiosity is deep-rooted, and it lies at the heart of the question of God.