Faith In Nature

Illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good,” from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies. People love what’s natural: it’s the best way to eat, the best way to parent, even the best way to act—naturally, just as nature intended. Appeals to the wisdom of nature are among the most powerful arguments in the history of human thought. Yet Nature (with a capital N) and natural goodness are not objective or scientific. In this groundbreaking book, scholar of religion Alan Levinovitz demonstrates that these beliefs are actually religious and highlights the many dangers of substituting simple myths for complicated realities. It may not seem like a problem when it comes to paying a premium for organic food. But what about condemnations of “unnatural” sexual activity? The guilt that attends not having a “natural” birth? Economic deregulation justified by the inherent goodness of “natural” markets? In Natural, readers embark on an epic journey, from Peruvian rainforests to the backcountry in Yellowstone Park, from a “natural” bodybuilding competition to a “natural” cancer-curing clinic. The result is an essential new perspective that shatters faith in Nature’s goodness and points to a better alternative. We can love nature without worshipping it, and we can work toward a better world with humility and dialogue rather than taboos and zealotry.

The human impulse to religion--the drive to explain the world, humans, and humans’ place in the universe – can be seen to encompass environmentalism as an offshoot of the secular, material faith in human reason and power that dominates modern society. Faith in Nature traces the history of environmentalism--and its moral thrust--from its roots in the Enlightenment and Romanticism through the Progressive Era to the present. Drawing astonishing parallels between religion and environmentalism, the book examines the passion of the movement’s adherents and enemies alike, its concern with the moral conduct of daily life, and its attempt to answer fundamental questions about the underlying order of the world and of humanity’s place within it. Thomas Dunlap is among the leading environmental historians and historians of science in the United States. Originally trained as a chemist, he has a rigorous understanding of science and appreciates its vital importance to environmental thought. But he is also a devout Catholic who believes that the insights of religious revelation need not necessarily be at odds with the insights of scientific investigation. This book grew from his own religious journey and his attempts to understand human ethical obligations and spiritual debts to the natural world. CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2005

Although mental illness has not been eradicated, the move to equate mental illness with a physical legitimate illness has resulted in greater understanding on many aspects as to the particular course of the disease. In spite of the difficulties that remain, mental health treatment has come a long way. Faith in the Field provides a historic, sociological, theological, and research-based perspective on the treatment and study on mental health. It points out the challenges within the field and confronts the political, socioeconomic, theological, scientific, and cultural adversities facing advances in mental health treatment. It also attempts to help eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness and those who suffer from it. Combining approaches from psychiatry, psychology, sociology, theology, and nursing, this study aims for a middle ground upon which to build a levee that might ameliorate existing barriers to treatment. Author Sabas Hernan Flores Whittaker, building on his thirty-year career in health care, offers a unique outlook on this timely topic. This multidisciplinary study considers numerous aspects of mental health treatment from various perspectives, seeking a unified approach that could benefit all.

In the pages of this book, the challenge of nonbelievers is boldly met with surprising answers which ultimately upend the modern debate between faith and science in the public square. Primarily utilizing the truths of nature known to all humans through science, math, and logic, an analysis of nature clearly and convincingly demonstrates that all the evidence and widely accepted theories of science can only be truly understood through faith in God. It turns out that the nonbelievers, not people of faith, are the ones actually practicing a mythological fantasy misrepresenting the truth of science. Chief among all their delusional dogmas is a theory of evolution governed by the principle of survival of the fittest. This principle is far from good science when even a grade school child knows that no matter how fit one may be, nothing will survive. Death, like taxes, is inevitable. All the efforts to regulate faith in the courts, to secularize human sexuality, or promote the separation of God and state are little more than a modern version of the Tower of Babel, a fantasy about humans storming the heavens. For all disciplines of science are predicated upon a priority in nature for human survival which can only be justified by faith in God. That, if there is no God, both science and human life have no real meaning or true purpose; and yet none of us lives that way. Which truly means everyone, even those with the hardest heart, are called by God through nature to an abiding faith.

"The History of the Fleet Street House": 20 p. at the end of v. 18.

The emancipation of the natural sciences from religion was a gradual affair during the last four centuries. Initially many of the leading scientists were churchmen indicating a symbiosis between faith and reason. Due to the increasing specialization in the sciences this close connection came to an end often leading to antagonism and mutual suspicion. This book traces this historical development with its twists and turns in both Europe and North America. It depicts the major players in this story and outlines their specific contributions. The main focus is on the 19th and 20th centuries with figures such as Darwin and Hodge, but also Beecher and Abbott in the 19th century. In the 20th century the narrative starts with Karl Barth and moves all the way to Hawking and Tipler. Special attention is given to representatives from North America, Great Britain, and Germany. In conclusion important issues are presented in the present-day dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. The issue of design and fine-tuning is picked up, and advances in brain research. Finally technological issues are assessed and the status of medicine as a helpmate for life is discussed. An informative and thought-provoking book.