Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of BeliefHarper Collins, 2 µ.¤. 2007 - 496 ˹éÒ Discovering God is a monumental history of the origins of the great religions from the Stone Age to the Modern Age. Sociologist Rodney Stark surveys the birth and growth of religions around the world—from the prehistoric era of primal beliefs; the history of the pyramids found in Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, and Cambodia; and the great "Axial Age" of Plato, Zoroaster, Confucius, and the Buddha, to the modern Christian missions and the global spread of Islam. He argues for a free-market theory of religion and for the controversial thesis that under the best, unimpeded conditions, the true, most authentic religions will survive and thrive. Among his many conclusions:
Most people believe in the existence of God (or Gods), and this has apparently been so throughout human history. Many modern biologists and psychologists reject these spiritual ideas, especially those about the existence of God, as delusional. They claim that religion is a primitive survival mechanism that should have been discarded as humans evolved beyond the stage where belief in God served any useful purpose—that in modern societies, faith is a misleading crutch and an impediment to reason. In Discovering God, award-winning sociologist Rodney Stark responds to this position, arguing that it is our capacity to understand God that has evolved—that humans now know much more about God than they did in ancient times. |
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... polytheism is reasserted, while elsewhere well-defined Gods recede into unconscious spirits, only to have both trends later be reversed. Such variability not only poses intellectual challenges, but narrative difficulties. Rather than ...
... polytheism because these entities are not regarded as Gods. They exist and function only within God's authority. In this sense, then, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are correctly identified as the three great monotheisms. The chapters ...
... polytheism in the early civilizations—Sumer, Egypt, Greece, and Mesoamerica. Why did these civilizations turn from the High Gods of more primitive times and embrace idols and an image of the Gods as essentially human beings, except for ...
... polytheism, and how in the sixth century bce a monotheistic sect rooted in the elite group of Jews held in Babylon returned and overthrew the remnants of polytheism, finally instituting unwavering monotheism in Israel. The next section ...
... polytheism known as Folk Religion long after similar faiths had died out in the West? Chapter 7 analyzes the rise of Christianity. It begins with the “historic” Jesus and then examines how the theological Christ effectively humanized ...
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Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief Rodney Stark ªÁºÒ§Êèǹ¢Í§Ë¹Ñ§Ê×Í - 2009 |
Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief Rodney Stark ªÁºÒ§Êèǹ¢Í§Ë¹Ñ§Ê×Í - 2009 |