Excellent Beauty : : The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of the World / / Eric Dietrich.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Dietrich, Eric,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (208 p.)

Flipping convention on its head, Eric Dietrich argues that science uncovers awe-inspiring, enduring mysteries, while religion, regarded as the source for such mysteries, is a biological phenomenon. Just like spoken language, Dietrich shows that religion is an evolutionary adaptation. Science is the source of perplexing yet beautiful mysteries, however natural the search for answers may be to human existence.Excellent Beauty undoes our misconception of scientific inquiry as an executioner of beauty, making the case that science has won the battle with religion so thoroughly it can now explain why religion persists. The book also draws deep lessons for human flourishing from the very existence of scientific mysteries. It is these latter wonderful, completely public truths that constitute some strangeness in the proportion, revealing a universe worthy of awe and wonder.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Author's Note -- Acknowledgments -- Who's in Charge of the World's Mysteries? -- CHAPTER ONE. The Traveler to Excellent Beauty: Invited Rather Than Drafted -- PART ONE. Of Spiritual Journeys -- CHAPTER TWO. What Is a Religion? -- CHAPTER THREE. The One Billion -- CHAPTER FOUR. The Traveler's Dark Night of the Sou -- APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 4. Statistics and Probability Meet Job -- PART TWO. The Biology of Religion, the Psychology of Morality -- Introduction to Part Two -- CHAPTER FIVE. Justifying the Ways of God to Man via Evolution -- APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 5. Yes, There Really Is Such a Thing as a Coincidence -- CHAPTER SIX. Does God Want You Dead? -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Good Without Gods -- PART THREE. The Journey in Tatters -- CHAPTER EIGHT. Beyond Atheism: The Religion Illusion -- CHAPTER NINE. The Janus-Faced Hominid -- PART FOUR. The Heretic's Way: Into the Mysterious Realm -- Introduction to Part Four -- CHAPTER TEN. Some Strangeness in the Proportion -- APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 10. A Compendium of Mysteries -- CHAPTER ELEVEN. The Beauty of Seeing More Than We Can Understand -- APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 11. Welcome to the Inscrutable -- CHAPTER TWELVE. The Personal Mystery and the Impersonal God -- CHAPTER THRIRTEEN. Summa Mysteriologica -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index