
To Light the Flame of Reason
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The book argues that we need to reawaken the basic values and ideals that defined the original age of enlightenment. We need to accept the idea that the world we inhabit is part of nature, and that it has no trace of supernatural or magical forces. Ethical questions should be detached from religion. This doesn't mean that the questions become any easier
- just that ideas are tested and judged without being profoundly tainted and constrained by religious dogmas.
Such a form of secular humanism builds on the power of free thought - the power to investigate and understand the natural world. Although not everything can be investigated or understood, the sincere quest for knowledge and understanding establishes a flexible, nondogmatic attitude toward the world. Curiosity and openness lie at the core of such an attitude. The scientific method of careful and open- minded testing, as well as science's creative and reflective ways of thinking, provides key tools. What clear, science-inspired thinking helps us to understand, among many other things, is that a person can be good and can be motivated to carry out morally good actions without ever bowing to, or being limited by, supposedly divine forces.
To Light the Flame of Reason will appeal to adults who are trying to figure out how to deal with the ever-increasing daily bombardment of conflicting messages about what is right, true, sensible, or good, and it should appeal even more to teenagers and university students who are struggling to find a believable and reliable philosophy of life that can help guide them in their choices of what and whom to trust, and how to act, both on the personal and the social level.
Today, more people have greater access to information and knowledge than ever was dreamt of before, and more people are concerned about the world situation. More people have the chance, through their own actions, to make a difference.
Each one of us, as an individual, matters. It is thus vitally important that each of us should choose, in a conscious and reflective manner, our own views of reality, of the world, and of humanity. And this means that it is crucial for us all to train ourselves in the art of thinking clearly.
Christer Sturmark along with Pulizer Prize winning author Douglas Hofstdter argue that we must refocus our efforts on cultivting a secular society, and in doing so, we will rediscover the values and ethics that are so foreign in today's society.
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Content
- Intro
- CONTENTS
- FOREWORD
- FOREWORD
- PRELUDE. Concerning Yesterday's World and Today's World
- Part I. THE ART OF THINKING CLEARLY
- CHAPTER ONE. TO MEET THE WORLD WITH AN OPEN MIND: Concerning the Tools and Compass Needed in the Quest for Knowledge
- CHAPTER TWO. I BELIEVE THAT I KNOW: Concerning Reality, Knowledge, and Truth
- CHAPTER THREE. BELIEFS BASED ON GOOD REASONS: Concerning the Grounds That Underlie One's Convictions
- CHAPTER FOUR. WHAT IS SCIENCE? Concerning Theories, Experiments, Conclusions, and Science's Essence
- CHAPTER FIVE. GHOSTS IN THE HEAD: Concerning Our Wonderful but Easily Fooled Brains
- CHAPTER SIX. A NATURAL WORLD: Concerning Naturalism, Agnosticism, and Atheism
- CHAPTER SEVEN. BEING GOOD WITHOUT NEEDING GOD: Concerning Goodness, Evil, and Morality
- CHAPTER EIGHT. NEW AGE BELIEFS AND THE CRISIS OF REASON: Concerning People's Beliefs in Strange Ideas
- Part II. THE PATHWAY TO A NEW ENLIGHTENMENT
- CHAPTER NINE. WHEN RELIGION RUNS OFF THE RAILS: Concerning Fanaticism, Extremism, and Christian-Style Talibanism
- CHAPTER TEN. THE BATTLE OVER OUR ORIGINS: Concerning Evolution, Creationism, and Anti-science
- CHAPTER ELEVEN. THE HISTORY OF IDEAS: Concerning the Roots of Secular Enlightenment
- CHAPTER TWELVE. SECULAR VOICES IN OUR DAY: Concerning Awe, Politics, and Religion
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN. ENLIGHTENMENT: Concerning Freedoms, Rights, and Respect
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN. WHAT SHOULD WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN? Concerning Faith, Science, and How Schools Talk about Life
- AFTERWORD AND WORDS OF THANKS
- NOTES
- INDEX
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