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Archive for the ‘Philosophy of Religions’ Category

#51 Society Without God

Posted in God, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, tagged , , , , on April 1, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The sociologist of religion, Phil Zuckerman, visited the closest thing to Nirvana for those who dream of living in a society without God—Denmark.  Zuckerman’s plan to spend several months in one of the most secular places on the planet was driven by his desire to demonstrate that there’s a link between a general lack of interest [...]

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#38 Multifaith squabble–over love!

Posted in God, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged , , , , on October 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

If you imagine that multifaith dialogue is easy, this post will change your mind. Continue reading but be warned that you’ll be asked to tease out the intricacies of an argument between the University of Chicago historian, David Nirenberg, a champion of secularism, and His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, the champion par excellence of Roman [...]

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#34 Blah blah blah: help or hindrance?

Posted in Philosophy of Religions, Religious Philosophy, Theology, tagged , , , , on September 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

It’s common wisdom that religion is NEVER, EVER a topic of polite conversation.  Talking about religious views supposedly leads to arguments, so if one wishes to avoid the risk of a friendship-ending conflict, one should keep mum.  We are trained at near Pavlovian levels;  if our interlocutor has the bad grace to bring up religion, [...]

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#23 Generalized religiousness and the American dream

Posted in Ethics, God, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, Religious Philosophy, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged , on May 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »

In a recent New York Times editorial, Ross Douthat, describes religious trends in 21st century America as neither shifting towards the extreme of unbelief or the extreme of fundamentalism.  Instead, religious trends are shifting toward a “generalized ‘religiousness’ detached from the claims of any specific faith tradition.”  While growing numbers of Americans are abandoning organized [...]

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#15 The battle of the gods

Posted in God, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, tagged , , on March 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »

We expect monotheists, who believe themselves to be worshipping the one and only true God, to have difficulty accomodating gods or even conflicting views about God.  Although David Hume (1711-1776) has sometimes been derided as an armchair-anthropologist, he was one of the wisest observers of human behavior and of religion.  When discussing monotheism in his book, The Natural [...]

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#12 God without clothes: what would s/he look like?

Posted in God, Philosophy of Religions, Prayer, Religion, Religious Philosophy, Theology on February 26, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Is God unknowable, beyond the possibility of the human mind to comprehend? There are plenty of good reasons to be intentional about keeping God abstract.  To preserve the one God as a word of appeal for every person, regardless of whether that person is male or female, is most easily achieved by denying that God has [...]

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#11 What’s in a name? God, G-d, G*d

Posted in God, Philosophy of Religions, Prayer, Religion, Theology on February 19, 2009 | 11 Comments »

A quick glance at a few different faith traditions shows just how many ways there are to speak about the divine.  For example, some traditional Jews won’t say the word God because they believe that it is too holy to pronounce. One is forbidden from making any representations of God—even in speech.  When reading the [...]

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