Why Religion Matters

Huston Smith, the author of the classic bestseller The World's Religions, delivers a passionate, timely message: The human spirit is being suffocated by the dominant materialistic worldview of our times. Smith champions a society in which religion is once again treasured and authentically practiced as the vital source of human wisdom.

Huston Smith is internationally known and revered as the premier teacher of world religions and for his bestselling book The World's Religions. He was the focus of a five-part PBS television series with Bill Moyers, and has taught at Washington University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of California, Berkeley

Acknowledgments

xi

Preface

xiii

Introduction

1

(6)

Part One: Modernity's Tunnel

7

(128)

Who's Right About Reality: Traditionalists, Modernists, or the Postmoderns?

11

(12)

Modernity's Cosmological Achievement

Postmodernism's Fairness Revolution

The Traditional Worldview

The Great Outdoors and the Tunnel Within It

23

(19)

Worldviews: The Big Picture

The Decisive Alternative

Weighing the Alternatives

Sweetening the Sour Apple

How Much Is at Stake. Conclusion

The Tunnel as Such

42

(17)

The Flagship Book

The Tunnel in Question

A Disqualified Universe

Conclusion

The Tunnel's Floor: Scientism

59

(20)

The Flagship Book

Tracking Scientism

Spinoza's Conatus

Of Rocks and Pebbles

From Warfare to Dialogue

Colonizing Theology

The Tilt of the Negotiating Table

The Tunnel's Left Wall: Higher Education

79

(24)

The Flagship Book

What Happened

The Pull of Science on Other Disciplines

From Nonbelief to Disbelief

The Ineffectiveness of the Theological Response

The New Professionalism. Conclusion

The Tunnel's Roof: The Media

103

(18)

The Flagship Book

Kansas Update

The General Picture

Who Pays the Piper? Conclusion

The Tunnel's Rights Wall: The Law

121

(14)

The Flagship Book

Employment Division v. Smith

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Marginalizing Religion

Handling Creationism

Conclusion

Part Two: The Light at the Tunnel's End

135

(144)

Light

137

(8)

The Physics of Light

Light Subjectively Experienced

Conclusion

Is Light Increasing: Two Scenarios

145

(9)

God Is Dead. The Eyes of Faith

Clearing the Ground

Discerning the Signs of the Times

154

(20)

Straws in the Wind

Counterculture and the New Age Movement

Four Modern Giants Revisited

Three Sciences and the Road Ahead

174

(13)

Physics

Biology

Cognitive Psychology

Terms for the Detente

187

(18)

A Glimpse of David Bohm

Science Rightly Defined

The Limits of Science

Division of Labor

The Cow That Stands on Three Legs

This Ambiguous World

205

(8)

Life's Cosmic Inkblot

A Sidewise Glance at the Social Scene

The Big Picture

213

(21)

The Great Divide. Subdivisions

A Hierarchical Reality

Topdown Causation and the Multiple Degrees of Reality

Return to the Inkblot

Spiritual Personality Types

234

(21)

Characterology

Ubiquity

The Atheist: There Is No God

The Polytheist: There Are Many Gods

The Principle of One-Way Mirrors

The Monotheist: There Is One God

The Mystic: There Is Only God

Spirit

255

(24)

The Self/World Divide

Tacit Knowing

Spirit and Its Outworkings

Consciousness and Light

Happy Ending

Epilogue

We Could Be Siblings Yet

272

(7)

Index

279

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials