ABSTRACT

When we start to discuss religion we run into controversial questions about history and anthropology, about the scope of scientific explanation, and about free will, good and evil. This book explains how to find our way through these disputes and shows how we can be freed from assumptions and prejudices which make progress impossible by deeper philosophical insight into the concepts involved. Books about religion usually concentrate on a few central Judaeo-Christian doctrines and either attack them or defend them with tenacious conservatism, yielding nothing. This book has a broader scope, and instead of trying to prove that religion, or any particular religion, is reasonable or unreasonable, it seeks to persuade people to be reasonable about religion.

chapter 1|6 pages

Introduction: Plan of the Book

chapter 2|7 pages

Religion

chapter 3|5 pages

Gods

chapter 4|8 pages

Magic

chapter 5|4 pages

Christian Superstition

chapter 6|13 pages

The Spread of Christianity

chapter 7|3 pages

Reason

chapter 8|6 pages

Science and Understanding

chapter 9|8 pages

Accommodation with Philosophy

chapter 10|7 pages

War with Science

chapter 11|7 pages

Explaining the Physical Order

chapter 12|8 pages

Explaining Mind

chapter 13|10 pages

The Last Exorcism

chapter 14|7 pages

Creation

chapter 15|5 pages

Conceiving Jehovah

chapter 16|4 pages

The Trinity

chapter 17|7 pages

Salvation

chapter 18|7 pages

From Natural to Supernatural

chapter 19|6 pages

Baptism

chapter 20|6 pages

The Eucharist

chapter 21|6 pages

'The Whole Truth'

chapter 22|11 pages

Religion and Morality