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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... Societies 21 2. Temple Religions of Ancient Civilizations 64 3. Rome: An Ancient Religious Marketplace 113 4. The “Rebirth” of Monotheism 156 5. Indian Inspirations 210 6. Chinese Gods and “Godless” Faiths 249 7. The Rise of ...
... societies proved very vulnerable to an influx of loving deities from elsewhere, including Cybele (the Great Mother Goddess from Phrygia) and Isis (the Savior Goddess from Egypt). Loving Gods merit deep commitment—the term loving sums up ...
... societies. Thus the chapter summarizes and evaluates the three major contemporary approaches to explaining why all societies have religion: the biological, cultural, and theological. Chapter 2 sketches the ascendancy of state-supported ...
... conversion of the general public in most of these satellite societies took many centuries. It also exposes the anti-Christian fabrication that Islam was very tolerant of other Introduction: Revelation and Cultural Evolution 19.
... societies such as Moorish Spain are false. Muslims were no less intolerant than Christians. Finally, the major outlines of Muslim sectarianism are sketched, demonstrating that Islam is as fractured and diverse as are Christianity and ...
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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 |