[Oe List ...] A review of Charles Taylor's "The Secular Society"

[Herman Greene]

Now the Dowd book is something to discuss. I know a lot about the book and
about Dowd. I think the concept of a marriage of science and religion is
flawed. He writes from the perspective of scientific materialism and his
work is more along the lines of "the conflation of science and religion."
In a recent trip to Chapel Hill, he said that we know longer need faith
because we have scientific fact. See this blog post by Michael:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-michael-dowd/new-theists-knowers-not-believers_b_1586301.html
.
Where he writes:*A new breed of theist is emerging around the globe.
We are religious
naturalists <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_naturalism>: Reality is
our God, evidence is our Scripture, integrity is our religion, and
contributing toward a healthy future is our mission.*

Now this is an incomplete response and there is much more to be said,
including some positive things about Michael's approach. By the way, in
some senses I am a religious naturalist, but along the lines of process
theology. See
Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion
(Cornell Studies in the Philosophy
of...<http://www.amazon.com/Reenchantment-without-Supernaturalism-Philosophy-Religion/dp/0801486572/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1373406412&sr=8-10&keywords=David+Ray+Griffin>
 by David Ray Griffin<http://www.amazon.com/David-Ray-Griffin/e/B000APTCK4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_10?qid=1373406412&sr=8-10>
(Nov
16, 2000). In the process approach there's plenty of transcendence as well
as immanence, and religious knowledge is not only what can be known through
the five senses and logic. There are other ways of knowing.

I imagine Harvey Cox's book is quite good. I've always appreciated his work.

Herman


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 5:36 PM, R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Herman,
>
> I read Brooks' article this morning somewhat hastily.  What I thought he
> missed was the subtle distinction between belief (intellectual assent) and
> faith ("you-bet-your-life" trust), which is a very healthy and informative
> conversation going on today in certain circles.  Whether he (Brooks) does
> justice to Taylor's book, I do not know, but on what appears to be the same
> subject I would recommend *The Future of Faith* by Harvey Cox and *Thank
> God for Evolution* by Michael Dowd.  Dowd's book, which I suspect you are
> familiar with, is about the marriage of science and religion, which he
> explains thoroughly and, for my money, quite convincingly.
>
> Randy
>
> *No change without action, no action without thought.*
> -Anonymous
>
>   *From:* Herman Greene <hfgreenenc at gmail.com>
> *To:* OE Listserv <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 9, 2013 4:22 PM
> *Subject:* [Oe List ...] A review of Charles Taylor's "The Secular
> Society"
>
>  It's no doubt hard to do a book review in the constraints of a NYC op-ed
> column.
>
> David Brooks tries, but I'm not tuning in to the richness of his review.
> Still I thought this may be of interest to you who taught about an urban,
> scientific and secular world.
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/opinion/brooks-the-secular-society.html?hp
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> Herman F. Greene
> 2516 Winningham Road
> Chapel Hill, NC 27516
> 919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
> hfgreenenc at gmail.com
>
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-- 
__________________________________________________
Herman F. Greene
2516 Winningham Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
hfgreenenc at gmail.com
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