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Informationen zum Autor Burton Porter received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. from St. Andrews University, Scotland, with graduate study at Oxford University. He has taught at various institutions such as Russell Sage College and Drexel University, and has held positions as Department Chair and Dean of Arts and Sciences. At present, he is on the faculty at Western New England University in Springfield, MA, having served as Visiting Professor at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. He received the award of Outstanding Educator of America. In addition to The Good Life, Burton Porter is the author and/or editor of numerous books and articles including The Great Perhaps (Rowman and Littlefield), What the Tortoise Taught Us (Rowman and Littlefield), Philosophy Through Film (Sloan Publishing), The Head and the Heart (Humanities Books), The Voice of Reason (Oxford University Press), Philosophy Through Fiction and Film (Prentice Hall, Sloan Publications), Religion and Reason (St. Martin's Press), Personal Philosophy (Harcourt Brace), Reasons for Living (Macmillan Publishing), Philosophy, A Literary and Conceptual Approach (Harcourt Brace), and Deity and Morality (Routledge, Allen and Unwin).In addition to his print publications, Dr. Porter has several books on-line at Kindle and Nook including The Moebius Strip, Black Swans and White Tigers, Lab' Rats, The Gadfly, and Forbidden Knowledge - Things We Should Not Know. Klappentext God created man in his own image; but did man perhaps return the compliment? The question of God's existence has been a pivotal issue for every civilization. Those with faith in God want assurance that their belief is justified, and atheists want confirmation that God is nowhere to be found. When we reflect on religion, we want to know the reasons for belief in God, or whether belief is only a comforting delusion. In an age of science, will religion persist or will it be edged out of our consciousness and become a historical curiosity? Burton Porter approaches the notion of God in an open, yet critical way, examining the argumentation used by centuries of human society to support or reject the existence of God. With minimum assumptions and maximum objectivity, Porter debates whether the religious view does, in fact, diagram reality. He examines the roles that God and religion have played in the ethics, art, and actions of many diverse cultures to conclude that, at the very least, the consideration of the existence of a higher power is fundamental to us all. Zusammenfassung Burton F. Porter explores the philosophical question of the existence of God in an open! yet critical! way! examining the argumentation used by centuries of human society to support or reject divinity. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction: What Has Athens To Do With Jerusalem? Chapter 1. When Religion First Trembled into Expression Chapter 2. National Religions of the Ancients Chapter 3. The Nature of the Western God Chapter 4. An Array of Alternative Beliefs Chapter 5. Classic Arguments For God's Existence - And Their Criticisms Chapter 6. The Evidence of Common Sense Chapter 7. If God is Good, Why Do People Suffer? Chapter 8. Other Explanations That Have Been Proposed Chapter 9. How Can Religious Claims Be Established? Chapter 10. Famous Challenges to Faith Chapter 11. The Stormy Relations between Science and Religion Chapter 12. How Religion Relates to Society Chapter 13. Immortality: A Diversity of Beliefs Chapter 14. Religion Today - Its Multiple Forms...
