Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't
Language: English
Published by Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2004
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Montana Book Company, Fond du Lac, WI, U.S.A.Montana Book Company
AbeBooks seller since June 6, 2002
Condition: Used - Near fine
US$ 14.00
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
156 pp. Tightly bound. Corners not bumped. Text is free of markings. No ownership markings. Near fine dust jacket. This copy is smyth sewn. Smyth sewing is a method of bookbinding where groups of folded pages (referred to as signatures) are stitched together using binder thread. Each folded signature is sewn together individually with multiple stitches and then joined with other signatures to create the complete book block. This is the traditional and best method of bookbinding.
Seller Inventory # 094988
- Title
- Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't
- Author
- Slone, D. Jason
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, New York, NY
- Publication year
- 2004
- Condition
- Near Fine
- Dust jacket
- Near Fine Dust Jacket
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0195169263
- ISBN 13
- 9780195169263
- Dimensions
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Why do religious people believe what they shouldn't--not what others think they shouldn't believe, but things that don't accord with their own avowed religious beliefs? This engaging book explores this puzzling feature of human behavior.
D. Jason Slone terms this phenomenon "theological incorrectness." He demonstrates that it exists because the mind is built it such a way that it's natural for us to think divergent thoughts simultaneously. Human minds are great at coming up with innovative ideas that help them make sense of the world, he says, but those ideas do not always jibe with official religious beliefs. From this fact we derive the important lesson that what we learn from our environment--religious ideas, for example--does not necessarily cause us to behave in ways consistent with that knowledge.
Slone presents the latest discoveries from the cognitive science of religion and shows how they help us to understand exactly why it is that religious people do and think things that they shouldn't. He then applies these insights to three case studies. First he looks at why Theravada Buddhists profess that Buddha was just a man but actually worship him as a god. Then he explores why the early Puritan Calvinists, who believed in predestination, acted instead as if humans had free will by, for example, conducting witch-hunts and seeking converts. Finally, he explains why both Christians and Buddhists believe in luck even though the doctrines of Divine Providence and karma suggest there's no such thing.
In seeking answers to profound questions about why people behave the way they do, this fascinating book sheds new light on the workings of the human mind and on the complex relationship between cognition and culture.
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Montana Book Company
Fond du Lac, WI, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since June 6, 2002
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Montana Book Company
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