By Robert Wuthnow
The U.S. is among the such a lot hugely proficient societies in the world, and likewise probably the most spiritual. In The God Problem, Robert Wuthnow examines how heart classification americans juggle the doubtless paradoxical courting among religion and reason.
Based on exceedingly wealthy and candid interviews with nearly 200 humans from numerous faiths, this publication dispels the commonest motives: that americans are adept at holding faith and mind separate, or that they're a country of "joiners." in its place, Wuthnow argues, we do this—not by way of bobbing up with rational proofs for the lifestyles of God—but by way of adopting sophisticated usages of language that continue us from making unreasonable claims approximately God. In an illuminating narrative that unearths the complicated negotiations many adopt with the intention to be non secular within the smooth global, Wuthnow probes the methods of speaking that take place in prayers, in discussions approximately God, in perspectives of heaven, in understandings of common catastrophes and private tragedies, and in makes an attempt to reconcile religion with science.
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Extra info for The God Problem: Expressing Faith and Being Reasonable
Sample text
However, there is a puzzle. If religion is such a problematic idea, why do so many Americans claim to believe in God? After all, the United States has one of the highest levels of education in the world. The percentages of Americans who attend college, graduate from college, and earn advanced postgraduate degrees have all been rising. 2 Quite the contrary. It is, if anything, flourishing. Millions of Americans—far more than in any similarly educated country—pray every day. They flock to houses of worship on weekends, watch programs about faith on television, and purchase books about religion—apparently even books that question religion.
11 It suggests that religion encourages people to do stupid things that are also dangerous, such as not receiving vaccinations. The list of destructive acts condoned by religion is quite long. The Bible tells of God wiping out whole cities and instructing the chosen people to slaughter their enemies, including women, children, and livestock. The biblical prophets call down divine wrath on false teachers. The psalmist cries out for the Lord's vengeance. The relatively milder teachings of the New Testament condone slavery and tell of people stricken dead for seemingly minor offenses.
These convictions are divinely revealed and inviolable, subject neither to compromise nor to rational explication in terms that other groups can understand. This argument has had special resonance among political theorists interested in the conditions under which democracy can flourish. Presumably everyone in the United States, Western Europe, Canada, and countries with similar political traditions believes in democracy. A person who has invested considerable time and energy acquiring information and learning how to apply reason to important decisions will be inclined to think that information and learning are especially appropriate to the workings of a democracy.