Spiritual Truth And Religious Delusions

Spiritual Truth and Religious Delusions is an examination of our human spiritual needs and what the various human religions must do to meet those needs. It is time to put human religions under the same scientific microscope we have placed all other human endeavors from aviation to zoology. What are our needs, what must our/my religion do to meet those needs? Isnt it time to place all religions which dont foster human unity and well-being into the wastebasket, as we strive for the larger, the more workable, and the more beautiful human living?

What is a religious or spiritual delusion? What does religious delusion reveal about the difference between good and bad spirituality? What is the connection between religious delusion and moral failure? Or between religious delusion and religious terrorism? Or religious delusion and despair? The Abraham Dilemma: A Divine Delusion is the first book written by a philosopher on the topic of religious delusion - on the disorder's causes, contents, consequences, diagnosis and treatment. The book argues that we cannot understand a religious delusion without appreciating three facts. One is that religiosity or spirituality is a part of human nature, whether it takes theistic or non-theistic forms. Another is that religious delusion is something to which we are all vulnerable. The third is that the delusion is not best understood by reducing it to brain chemistry, or by insisting that it is empirically false. It is best understood by examining its harmful personal and moral consequences - consequences that nearly unfolded when the biblical patriarch Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac in response to a command, he thought, from God. The book presents a fascinating and profound exploration of a phenomenon as old as mankind itself.

Since we, as human beings, are a part of the natural biota of the earth, and the earth is a part of the natural universe, the only thing we can really know about is the natural universe. Therefore Nature is the only thing we can think or talk about. To think or talk about things that are not about Nature is to think or talk about things about which we know nothing. Extra natural (or as some would say, supernatural) things are things about which we know nothing. Therefore, we cannot escape the conclusion that those theologians, priests, pastors and ministers who speak of extra natural (supernatural) things do not know what they are talking about. If we pay any attention at all to people who don't know what they are talking about, what does that say about us?

This is a new release of the original 1941 edition.

Although medicine is practised in a secular setting, religious and spiritual issues have an impact on patient perspectives regarding their health and the management of any disorders that may afflict them. This is especially true in psychiatry, as feelings of spirituality and religiousness are very prevalent among the mentally ill. Clinicians are rarely aware of the importance of religion and understand little of its value as a mediating force for coping with mental illness. This book addresses various issues concerning mental illness in psychiatry: the relation of religious issues to mental health; the tension between a theoretical approach to problems and psychiatric approaches; the importance of addressing these varying approaches in patient care and how to do so; and differing ways to approach Christian, Muslim and Buddhist patients.

The Seeker’s Guide to Faith confronts and answers the thirteen principal arguments against God that are now advanced by modern secularist movement (sometimes called New Atheism) using the powerful insights and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are many books written to encourage faith for people who are experiencing doubts about God generally. However, this book is the only one of its kind by a Latter-day Saint author that directly and specifically challenges all the main arguments against faith in God that are now aggressively asserted by the belligerent modern secular movement. Its uniqueness is enhanced by the fact that the doctrines and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are used whenever applicable to effectively answer the challenges raised by this movement. This author believes that the unique teachings and insights of the Church are better suited than those of any other faith for answering those challenges. Furthermore, the author’s professional and volunteer activities have afforded him the opportunity to know and work with people of nearly all religious backgrounds, in nearly all walks of life. Recent experiences have led him to examine the reasons many apparently intelligent people reject faith. His legal background and training have aided him in spotting and understanding the weaknesses and flaws of the logical underpinnings of atheism. His Gospel upbringing as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has helped him see through the fog of the dogma and arguments of atheism to the “More Excellent Way” afforded by the Gospel’s plan of happiness. He hopes The Seeker’s Guide to Faith will help others who stand at the crossroads of their doubts to find their faith in Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Religious scholar Hart argues that contemporary antireligious polemics are based not only upon conceptual confusions but upon facile simplifications of history and provides a powerful antidote to the New Atheists' misrepresentations of the Christian past.