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For AS and A2 level
students, outline notes are available from my lectures
on the following topics:
The Cosmological Arguments;
Augustine and the Problem of Evil;
The Goodness of God in the Judaeo-Christian
Tradition;
Revelation through Scripture;
Miracles - for AS level;
The Religious
Language Game;
Parapsychology and the debate about life after death;
Religious Experience.
For a critical look at religious experience, Stephen
Law's blog has some interesting and clearly argued items during March 08. Log on
to
http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/
Dave Webster, who runs the Religion,
Philosophy and Ethics course at the
University of Gloucestershire, has a blog
with an interesting range of entries and links.
Take a look at
www.r-p-e.blogspot.com
There have recently been a whole range of books
attacking the basis of religion, or presenting it as a natural phenomenon (on
the assumption that most religious believers would not accept it as such). Three
of them - God is not Great by Christopher Hitchins, Daniel Dennett's
Breaking the Spell and The End of Faith by Sam Harris all appear in
the top 10 titles for Philosophy.
For those who want to get something of a
balance on Dawkins' approach in The God Delusion (which is little more
than crude, old-fashioned polemic) and might try the Alister McGrath book
The Dawkins Delusion - for my comments on these,
click here.
Those who are equally dissatisfied with militant
atheism on one side and naive fundamentalism on the other would do well to
read..
Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life by
Mark Vernon.
Blending clear argument with personal reflections,
it offers a defence of agnosticism, from one who has moved from belief in God,
through atheism to a position of positively embracing a level of uncertainty.
'Encouraging us to widen our imagination and to
open our lives to a sense of wonder, Mark Vernon is convinced, in the tradition
of Socrates, that we achieve this by avoiding the certainties of faith and the
rigidities of atheism. Believers and non-believers will find this a richly
rewarding read.' John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford.
And if you enjoy this book, why not take a look at
his website and blog:
www.philosophyoffriendship.com
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