The God Problem: Expressing Faith and Being Reasonable - download pdf or read online

By Robert Wuthnow

ISBN-10: 0520274288

ISBN-13: 9780520274280

The USA is likely one of the such a lot hugely trained societies in the world, and likewise probably the most non secular. In The God Problem, Robert Wuthnow examines how heart category american citizens juggle the likely paradoxical dating among religion and reason.

Based on exceedingly wealthy and candid interviews with nearly 2 hundred humans from numerous faiths, this publication dispels the commonest causes: that americans are adept at conserving faith and mind separate, or that they're a country of "joiners." in its place, Wuthnow argues, we do this—not via arising with rational proofs for the life of God—but via adopting sophisticated usages of language that continue us from making unreasonable claims approximately God. In an illuminating narrative that unearths the complicated negotiations many adopt with a purpose to be non secular within the glossy international, Wuthnow probes the methods of conversing that happen in prayers, in discussions approximately God, in perspectives of heaven, in understandings of typical catastrophes and private tragedies, and in makes an attempt to reconcile religion with science.

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Extra resources for The God Problem: Expressing Faith and Being Reasonable

Sample text

Mencken, Robert Ingersoll, and Madeleine Murray O'Hare all gained notoriety for their negative views of religion. In the post-9/11 world, it is certainly understandable that there is a market for work taking a hard look at the dark side of religion. However, there is a puzzle. If religion is such a problematic idea, why do so many Americans claim to believe in God? After all, the United States has one of the highest levels of education in the world. The percentages of Americans who attend college, graduate from college, and earn advanced postgraduate degrees have all been rising.

Our contemporary culture sometimes gives us the false impression that believing in God is not problematic at all, especially because so many people do believe and apparently consider it reasonable to believe. ” Instead of questioning how they can reconcile these beliefs, we just assume they must have their reasons. Similarly, we hear a politician or athlete say that she is asking God's blessing on America or that he is praying for victory, and we somehow determine that these are just figures of speech.

Historical and ethnographic studies focus on the practice of faith within particular communities. But it is hard to know what people practice unless we also talk to them about the meaning of their faith. Listening closely to people talking about their faith requires paying attention not only to what they say but also to how they say it. The techniques that facilitate doing this are called discourse analysis. Considerable advances have been made over the past two decades in refining these techniques.

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The God Problem: Expressing Faith and Being Reasonable by Robert Wuthnow


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