
The Abraham DilemmaA divine delusion
George Graham
Print publication date: Aug 2015
ISBN: 9780198728658
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Abstract
The Abraham Dilemma: A Divine Delusion focuses on the topic of religious delusion - on the disorder's causes, contents, consequences, diagnosis and treatment. The title argues that we cannot understand a religious delusion without appreciating three facts. One is that religiosity or spirituality is a part of human nature, whether it takes theistic or non-theistic forms. Another is that religious delusion is something to which we are all vulnerable. The third is that the delusion is not best understood by reducing it to brain chemistry, or by insisting that it is empirically false. It is best understood by examining its harmful personal and moral consequences - consequences that nearly unfolded when the biblical patriarch Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac in response to a command, he thought, from God.
Table of Contents
- Front Matter
- Chapter 1 No One Left But God
- Chapter 2 Religious Belief and Belief in Delusion
- Chapter 3 Modes of Morals Made
- Chapter 4 Spiritual Sense and Sensibility
- Chapter 5 Theistic Pragmatics and Personal Well-Being
- Chapter 6 The Elements of Religious Delusion
- Chapter 7 Straight from Crooked Wood
- End Matter