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Zusatztext The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs addresses questions about the psychology of religious fundamentalism in a most penetrating and enlightening manner, from perspectives that are neglected in most of the literature on the subject - including anthropology, evolutionary and social psychology, and philosophy. Schimmel provides us with a sophisticated understanding of the mentality of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural fundamentalists, and of why and how they tenaciously cling to beliefs that have failed the tests of experience, scholarship and reason - and the dangers of their doing so. The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs is an essential read for anyone concerned about defending Western democracy in its ideological struggle against the values, vices, and violence of radical Islam. Informationen zum Autor Solomon Schimmel is Professor of Jewish Education and Psychology at Hebrew College. He is the author of The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology and Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness. Klappentext Modern scholarship in several disciplines makes it clear that the Bible and the Quran were authored by humans, not least because of their internal inconsistencies. Nevertheless, fundamentalists -- some of them highly educated professionals -- persist in believing in the divine authorship of their sacred scriptures. In this book, Solomon Schimmel seeks to understand why these people insist on such beliefs and how they defend them in the face of evidence to the contrary. Because his expertise is in Judaism, he focuses on the example of orthodox Jews, but he also attends to the cases of Christian and Muslim fundamentalists. Schimmel begins with an autobiographical narrative describing his own journey from acceptance of the beliefs of orthodox Judaism, especially the divine revelation of the Pentateuch to Moses, to religious doubt and eventual rejection of this and other core beliefs of orthodoxy. He reviews how pre-modern Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers responded to challenges to the divine origin of their respective scriptures. He goes on to explore the motives underlying the attempts of believers to retain their beliefs and related practices when they are challenged. He identifies a range of psychological strategies used to protect vulnerable beliefs from challenges based on reason, experience, and scholarship. Examples are provided not only from the three monotheisms, but from other ideologies, such as communism. He goes on to offer concrete contemporary examples of orthodox Jews employing these strategies to protect their belief in the divine revelation of the Pentateuch. These examples are gleaned from Internet discussion groups and personal correspondence. He concludes with a discussion of what he sees as the grave and sometimes dangerous moral and ethical consequences of scriptural fundamentalism as well as the undesirable intellectual effects of maintaining such beliefs. Zusammenfassung The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs examines how and why Jewish, Christian, and Muslim fundamentalists defend their belief in the divine authorship of the Bible and the Koran against evidence to the contrary from scholarship and science, and the harmful and dangerous consequences of their beliefs. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Chapter One WHY THIS BOOK? : AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REFLECTIONS Chapter Two FAITH, REVELATION, AND REASON Chapter Three JEWISH BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM Chapter Four CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM Chapter Five MUSLIM KORANIC FUNDAMENTALISM Chapter Six ACQUIRING AND PROTECTING UNREASONABLE BELIEFS Chapter Seven ON DEFUNDAMENTALIZING FUNDAMENTALISTS Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index ...
