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Here's a quote from one satisfied customer's email, after reading the 3rd edition of this book:

'Having just finished your “philosophy of religion”, from the “teach yourself” series, I wanted to compliment you on a most amazingly thought provoking book.  I bought the book without any knowledge of you or the series and was quite taken by the fact that I could hardly read a page without stopping to think about the ideas being presented.'     (received from a reader in Oklahoma City, March 7th 2010)

 

 

People long to make sense of life; to find some key that will unlock its mysteries and enable them to understand themselves and their place within the universe. Faced with their own fragility and death, they seek courage or comfort. Longing to develop and create, they seek inspiration.

 

In this human quest for meaning, some take to philosophy, others to the creative arts, and others - in fact the majority of humankind - take to some form of religion. Almost every profound aspect of life - from sexuality to artistic creativity, or from the emotional trauma of prolonged suffering or bereavement to the spontaneous expression of wonder at natural beauty - may become the raw material out of which a religious interpretation of life can be built.

                                                                                                                                   

But why? What are religious beliefs, and how do they relate to the rest of our understanding of life? Can they be justified rationally? Are they a mental springboard,

launching us into a deeper exploration and appreciation of life, or a mental prison, closing our minds to reason and evidence? Or are they neither, but only our use (or misuse) of them makes them so?

 

 … just some of the questions that are explored in this book.

 

The new, 4th edition of this book has been revised and re-designed, with end-of-chapter ckecklists, insight boxes and short summaries of the subject.