The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science

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Review: The Ghost in the Universe

Lorna Green - manuscript. Carl Emery - - Heythrop Journal 57 6.

Tzim-Tzum and the Creation of Light. Guillermo Armengol - - Pensamiento 65 The Enigma of the Universe: Mahendrakumar - - Jain Vishva Bharati University.

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Nature, History and Morality. The Essence of My Work: A Brief Precis The Universe is One: Towards a Theory of Knowledge and Life. Olivier - - Upa. The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics. Max Planck - - Philosophical Review Law, Justice, and the Humanities. I especially recommend this book to theists who have read Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and found it too harsh or disrespectful, or who thought Dawkins poorly informed about theists. Edis IS well informed about theists, and even though he is arguing against theistic beliefs, he is always very respectful toward those who do believe in god.

Frankly, Edis makes Dawkins look like an amateur. Sep 07, Karl Jennings rated it it was amazing Shelves: Taner Edis attempts, in this book, to explore arguments for and against the existence of God. He explores this question from the perspective of a scientific naturalism, bringing in arguments and evidence from history, psychology, scientific inquiry, philosophy, and literature.

He examines the claims of major world religions with a sympathetic style, giving due credit to claims of religious experience, and examining claims fairly and logically.

Edis explores God in terms of traditional notions of Taner Edis attempts, in this book, to explore arguments for and against the existence of God. Edis explores God in terms of traditional notions of deity and explores the evolution of human concepts of deity from beginnings in myth and scripture to religious understanding of God in light of modern knowledge. He explores religious experience both as evidence for a spiritual facet to the world and as a product of human evolution.

In the end he discusses the underpinnings of morality and explores attempts at forming or discovering an objective morality.

Finally he explores the importance of moral systems and the possibility not only of coexistence of competing philosophies, but of forming common moral bonds in a pluralistic society. Now a warning, this book is dense. It's not that it's overly verbose, or particularly hard to read, it's just dense with ideas to the point where I would find my mind pondering and exploring a particular point while my eyes read and re-read the same lines.

It took me a long time to get through the whole thing, but in the end I'm glad I did.

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I'd welcome discussion with anyone else who has read the book and found value in any of the author's arguments. May 29, Rachel rated it did not like it Shelves: The blurb that interested me in the book called it an "accessible defense of a naturalistic view of the world", but instead it is a criticism of not just religion, but spirituality and God. Now THAT would be an interesting book. As a side note, it also pissed me off that Edis keeps citing his own articles in the endnotes.

Jul 23, Denise rated it really liked it Shelves: Rian rated it it was ok Jan 12, Calladus rated it did not like it Feb 01, Theresa rated it it was ok Jul 08, Luke rated it really liked it May 06, Adam Lewis rated it it was amazing Aug 10, Adam rated it really liked it Feb 09, Sarah rated it it was amazing Dec 14, Kailoa rated it it was amazing Dec 07, Charlotte rated it liked it Oct 15, Stefaan rated it it was amazing Sep 04, Monseman rated it it was ok Jun 30, Victor Debeerst rated it liked it Nov 02, Adam Slagell rated it really liked it Jul 26, All the Abrahamic religions attach great importance to Holy Writ, and this is particularly true of Islam, which regards the Quran as directly inspired by God.

Edis treats all such claims even-handedly, concluding that all sacred texts are of human origin. And he has a separate chapter on Christianity, which will evidently be of prime interest to most of his readers.

The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science

Here he echoes much modern scholarship in finding a large mythic element in accounts of Jesus's life, though he does not feel able to go as far as those, such as G. Wells, who doubt the entire existence of Jesus as a historical figure. As far back as the nineteenth century, disillusioned refugees from conventional religion sought to find a way of maintaining faith in a science-dominated world by seeking the paranormal. Psychical research, now renamed parapsychology, began largely as a reaction to perceived soulless materialism.

Edis considers this option, but concludes that the evidence for the paranormal is unconvincing. The same applies to reports of miracles in general; a nonmiraculous explanation can usually be found if one looks hard enough, he believes. While this may well be true, Edis does not wholly avoid falling into the skeptic's trap of adopting rationalist explanations uncritically.

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For example, when the Virgin made her final appearance at Fatima in , a large crowd turned up to witness the promised miracle and duly saw the sun performing extraordinary gyrations. Edis suggests that this may have been due to a rare atmospheric phenomenon called a "sun dog" or "false sun. His alternative suggestion of a "contagious misperception" is perhaps more plausible. There has always been a tendency to seek for evidence of God's existence at the subjective level, in those experiences usually designated as mystical.

That such psychological events do occur, are widespread in all societies, and are enormously important for those who have them is certain, but the question is whether they are merely subjective or afford genuine knowledge about ultimate reality.

They produce feelings of utter certainty, but could this be delusive? And how far is all mystical experience inevitably colored by the culture of the person to whom it occurs? Edis offers a pretty balanced discussion of such questions but concludes, as one would expect, that claims to knowledge based on mysticism cannot be sustained.

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