Religion Vs. Science
Religion Vs. Science

Author: Elaine Howard Ecklund

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190650621

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At the end of a five-year journey to find out what religious Americans think about science, Ecklund and Scheitle emerge with the real story of the relationship between science and religion in American culture. Based on the most comprehensive survey ever done-representing a range of religious traditions and faith positions-Religion vs. Science is a story that is more nuanced and complex than the media and pundits would lead us to believe. The way religious Americans approach science is shaped by two fundamental questions: What does science mean for the existence and activity of God? What does science mean for the sacredness of humanity? How these questions play out as individual believers think about science both challenges stereotypes and highlights the real tensions between religion and science. Ecklund and Scheitle interrogate the widespread myths that religious people dislike science and scientists and deny scientific theories. Religion vs. Science is a definitive statement on a timely, popular subject. Rather than a highly conceptual approach to historical debates, philosophies, or personal opinions, Ecklund and Scheitle give readers a facts-on-the-ground, empirical look at what religious Americans really understand and think about science.

How God Works
How God Works

Author: David DeSteno

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1982142324

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Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, pioneering research psychologist David DeSteno shows why religious practices and rituals are so beneficial to those who follow them—and to anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof). Scientists are beginning to discover what believers have known for a long time: the rewards that a religious life can provide. For millennia, people have turned to priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, and others to help them deal with issues of grief and loss, birth and death, morality and meaning. In this absorbing work, DeSteno reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being. With empathy and rigor, DeSteno chronicles religious rites and traditions from cradle to grave. He explains how the Japanese rituals surrounding childbirth help strengthen parental bonds with children. He describes how the Apache Sunrise Ceremony makes teenage girls better able to face the rigors of womanhood. He shows how Buddhist meditation reduces hostility and increases compassion. He demonstrates how the Jewish practice of sitting shiva comforts the bereaved. And much more. DeSteno details how belief itself enhances physical and mental health. But you don’t need to be religious to benefit from the trove of wisdom that religion has to offer. Many items in religion’s “toolbox” can help the body and mind whether or not one believes. How God Works offers advice on how to incorporate many of these practices to help all of us live more meaningful, successful, and satisfying lives.

Science Vs. Religion
Science Vs. Religion

Author: Elaine Howard Ecklund

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2010-05-06

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0195392981

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That the longstanding antagonism between science and religion is irreconcilable has been taken for granted. And in the wake of recent controversies over teaching intelligent design and the ethics of stem-cell research, the divide seems as unbridgeable as ever.In Science vs. Religion, Elaine Howard Ecklund investigates this unexamined assumption in the first systematic study of what scientists actually think and feel about religion. In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. She finds that most of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. Nearly 50 percent of them are religious. Many others are what she calls "spiritual entrepreneurs," seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion. The book centers around vivid portraits of 10 representative men and women working in the natural and social sciences at top American research universities. Ecklund's respondents run the gamut from Margaret, a chemist who teaches a Sunday-school class, to Arik, a physicist who chose not to believe in God well before he decided to become a scientist. Only a small minority are actively hostile to religion. Ecklund reveals how scientists-believers and skeptics alike-are struggling to engage the increasing number of religious students in their classrooms and argues that many scientists are searching for "boundary pioneers" to cross the picket lines separating science and religion.With broad implications for education, science funding, and the thorny ethical questions surrounding stem-cell research, cloning, and other cutting-edge scientific endeavors, Science vs. Religion brings a welcome dose of reality to the science and religion debates.

God in the Age of Science?
God in the Age of Science?

Author: Herman Philipse

Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)

Published: 2012-02-23

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0199697531

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Herman Philipse puts forward a powerful new critique of belief in God. He examines the strategies that have been used for the philosophical defence of religious belief, and by careful reasoning casts doubt on the legitimacy of relying on faith instead of evidence, and on probabilistic arguments for the existence of God.

Science and Spiritual Practices
Science and Spiritual Practices

Author: Rupert Sheldrake

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-10-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1640092641

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"I have personally adopted many of the practices Rupert describes in his book and experienced more love, joy, empathy, gratitude, and equanimity as a result. We are all indebted to Rupert, who has tirelessly brought us deep insights from both science and spirituality.” ―Deepak Chopra The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. In this pioneering book, Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which many religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: meditation, gratitude, connecting with nature, relating to plants, rituals, singing and chanting, and pilgrimage and holy places. Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the nonreligious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all. This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive toward radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake compellingly argues that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension, we may find the strength to live more fulfilling lives.

Light
Light

Author: Zoltán Néda

Publisher: Zeta Books

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 6066970852

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The book is aiming, programmatically, at showing that both in science and religious thinking the basic space-time entity is ultimately built and defined by light. In this sense, the book is emphasizing the unique role of light in understanding the world around us. The approach is based on the belief that science and religion represent two very different modes of addressing reality, both of them being relevant to us as human beings.

The language of science and religion and the answers they each give to the same questions differ due to the elementary postulates on which they are built. A dialogue and debate in the classical sense is, therefore, meaningless. This is why the book has allowed the voice of Physics and the voice of the Philosophy of Religion to be heard in their distinctiveness and nobility. Instead of endless polemics, the work proposes to acknowledge with patience and respect the altera pars approach for the same overarching topics, highlighting the complexity of both domains, and, on a transdisciplinary level, pointing towards the complexity of our mind and reality.

The book is illustrated by Valentin Petridean. The images mirror and enrich the rigorous game of the intellect, illuminating it with sparks of vivid imagination.

CONTENTS

Memories from the past and the need for a new dialogueExperiment versus ExperienceThe Nitty-Gritty of LightThe Nature of LightColours and PerceptionProducing and Absorbing LightThe Speed of Light’s PropagationLight and AetherIdeal SpaceTangible SpaceIdeal TimeTangible TimeThe Principle of RelativityThe AftermathChanging Paradigms: ‘Memories of the Future’Concluding remarks

Why We Need Religion
Why We Need Religion

Author: Stephen T. Asma

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-05-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0190469692

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How we feel is as vital to our survival as how we think. This claim, based on the premise that emotions are largely adaptive, serves as the organizing theme of Why We Need Religion. This book is a novel pathway in a well-trodden field of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Stephen Asma argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime--we can feel the sacred depths of nature--but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. No theorist of religion has failed to notice the importance of emotions in spiritual and ritual life, but truly systematic research has only recently delivered concrete data on the neurology, psychology, and anthropology of the emotional systems. This very recent "affective turn" has begun to map out a powerful territory of embodied cognition. Why We Need Religion incorporates new data from these affective sciences into the philosophy of religion. It goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work. In short, the book is a Darwinian defense of religious emotions and the cultural systems that manage them.

The Science of the Mind
The Science of the Mind

Author: Ernest Holmes

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1602066868

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First published in 1926, this book is the most important writing from preacher Ernest Shurtleff Holmes. In it, he strives to introduce man to himself, as he truly is. Man is part of the Infinite Spirit, as is all of the visible and invisible in existence. And sharing in the creative power of the Infinite, man becomes able to make thought manifest, as is the case with illness. Holmes explains how the mind controls illness in the body and how changing one's mental state can be healing. In this volume, Holmes gives readers a complete course in Mental Science, so that they may come to understand the power and potential that exists within. Anyone looking for a new way to understand the world and their place in it will find this an empowering read.