A Miscellany 196
Larry Beinhart's The God Series
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The author Larry Beinhart, has started publishing a series of articles on The Huffington Post entitled The God Series. The first of these articles explains why we need to study God as: Because Religion Is the Battleground of the 21st Century.
He[1] intends to follow on with several more articles in The Huffington Post covering topics such as:
- Looking at God: Belief, Agnosticism, Atheism
- Belief & False Beliefs
- Why We Believe in God
- Why We Believe Enough to Kill & Die
- What is Spirituality?
- Morality: What is it? Where does it Come From? What is its Relation to Religion
- The Competition Between Monotheisms, Polytheism, and Nontheistic Societies
Based on the first article, I suggest this series will be well worth reading, and those who don't want to wait for more on the Huffington site will find the next three are already available on Larry Beinhart's own site in the articles section.
In spite of his criticism of agnosticism[2] in Article 2 which is simply muddle-headed, this looks like it will be a thoughtful series of articles. I highly recommend them and suggest you watch for further articles in the series.
Footnotes:
- If you want to know where Beinhart comes from religiously, I suggest you read his article about his visit to an Iranian synagogue: The Designated Jew.
- He writes:
But how can you study the psychology of religious belief in a meaningful way unless you first determine if people are believing in something real or false? It’s the difference between someone trying to climb a tree that’s there and trying to climb one that’s imaginary.
and
Agnosticism can’t ask the fundamental questions about God. Or man. ... If we start as agnostics, we can’t ask the fundamental questions.
Sorry, Larry, but I disagree. And I suggest this site as a whole rebuts those statements.