Why We Believe: Understanding Ourselves in a Complex World

(Hardback)

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Belief: surely its a relic from the past, a hangover from a superstitious age that is totally out of sync with todays rational, science-led culture. The dominant narratives of our age dismiss any form of belief as lying somewhere on a dark spectrum between weird and toxic. But as our world grows ever more confusing, our societies atomised, contemplating something larger than ourselves could not be more essential. Elegant and thought-provoking, Why We Believeargues that accepting the unknown is not a failure of rational thought, but an existential necessity. Bestowing community, consolation and the ability to negotiate uncertainty, believing in what we cannot prove is intellectually emboldening and spiritually enriching. As the discriminatory rhetoric regarding people of faith slowly recedes, here is a manifesto for the re-enchantment of the Western mind.

Author Bio

Alister McGrath is emeritus Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. Among his many books, translated into 27 languages, are Dawkins God and C. S. Lewis: A Life. Before turning to theology, he was a committed Marxist and a student of the natural science with a PhD in molecular biophysics.