Adventure in Human Knowledges and Beliefs [Paperback]

What are scientific theories? Do they provide knowledge of reality? What does it mean to call ourselves atheist, theist, or agnostic? Do these words describe the complexity of belief? In Adventure in Human Knowledges and Beliefs, readers are adjudicators who measure the acceptability of knowledges and beliefs. Andrew Ralls Woodward leads readers through an adventure which includes the philosophy of science, religious studies, and theology. Chapters are concise, but thorough, including introductions to the works of pertinent scholars. Woodward presents readers with philosophical and theological tools used to create a mental knowledge bar, a measuring bar for knowledge, as well as a science and religion compatibility system between knowledge and belief communities. The conflict of science and religion is approached in a neutral fashion from the outside making Adventure in Human Knowledges and Beliefs a valuable resource for teenagers, adults, and working professionals from diverse ages and career backgrounds.Andrew Ralls Woodward is a doctoral student and junior fellow at the University of Torontos Trinity College. He is writing a thesis about how the philosophy of science might be used as a model for religious knowledge. Woodward holds degrees in engineering chemistry and theological studies. For additional information about Woodward's work, see www.andrewwoodward.ca.

Contents

Prologue
This Book and Acknowledgments

Part I: Knowledge or Knowledges? Belief or Beliefs?
I The Adventure
II Knowledges
III Beliefs
IV Belief as Trust

Part II: Scientific and Religious People
V Religious Language
VI Some Unexpected Surprises
VII Faces of Religion / Faces of Science
VIII Knowledge and Belief Communities

Part III: Adjudicators
IX Causes and Explanatory Forces
X The Knowledge Bar
XI Ancient Forms of Knowledge
XII The Current Landscape

Epilogue
What then is reality?

Glossary of Strange Slc6