Belief and Make-Believe : Critical Reflections On The Sources of Credulity

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wells, George Albert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apologetics--History.

Emotions.

Instinct.

Reason.

Religion and poetry.

Thought and thinking.

Local Subjects:

Apologetics--History.

Emotions.

Instinct.

Reason.

Religion and poetry.

Thought and thinking.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (333 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Belief and Make-Believe

Place of Publication:

New York : Open Court, 2013.

Summary:

Why do so many people - sometimes even intelligent people - swallow the preposterous claims of religion? G.A. Wells, the leading freethinker of our time, tries to shed light on this puzzle in his entertaining and enormously learned book, Belief and Make-Believe.Professor Wells begins by analyzing the nature of belief. To dispel popular confusions on the relation between words and thoughts, he compares the thinking process of scientists, laymen, and chimpanzees.The power of emotion and instinct to help form people's ideological outlooks is analyzed by preference to "

Contents:

Contents; Preface; PART ONE: THINKNG AND BELIEF; 1. Ideas, Words, and the Thinking Process; i. Ideas: Particular, General, and Abstract; ii. The Role of Words; iii. The Thinking Process in Scientist, Layman, and Chimpanzee; iv. The Historian's Thinking; v. The Role of Analogies; 2. Reason and Instinct; i. Reason in the Ideas of Uncivilized Peoples; ii. Generalized Instincts and the Reasoning They Prompt; iii. Defiance and Reliance; iv. Fear and the Need for Protection; PART TWO: THE BIBLE AS A BASIS FOR RELIGIOUS BELIEF; Introduction; 3. The Bible-With or Without Illusions?

4. Portraits of Jesus, Old and Newi. Jesus as Unknowable; ii. The Significance Originally Assigned to the Crucifixion; iii. The Koran on the Crucifixion; iv. Schweitzer; v. Hoskyns and Davey; vi. Sanders and Davies; vii. The Evidence of Josephus: Charlesworth; viii. Conclusion; 5. The New Testament on Human Destiny and Human Nature; i. Bodily Resurrection; ii. Predestination; iii. Hell; iv. The Efficacy of Human Initiative; PART THREE: MAKE-BELIEVE; 6. Ideas and Pesudo-Ideas; i. Providence and the Idea of God; ii. Religion as Imagination: Santayana; iii. Richardson and 'Existential Knowledge'

iv. Honest to God in Retrospectv. Conclusion; PART FOUR: RELIGION AND POETRY; 7. The Origin and Development of Poetry and Dance; i. Poetry; ii. Song and Dance; iii. Developments in Literature and in Literary Criticism; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index of New Testament References; General Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780812698701

0812698703

OCLC:

865331112