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The influence of religion on science
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The influence of religion on science
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The big question: Why the world Exists
Jim Holt likes asking questions, rather big ones. In the book, 'Why does the world exist?', he takes on one of the biggest questions in his conversation with scientists and theologists. Jim Holt raises the central question Why is there something rather than nothing. He questions the origin of everything in this book. In the book, Jim Holt, himself wants to know how nothingness, a state in which nothing exists, gives rise to the universe in which all things exist. The book goes into detail about the mystery of existence. Not just our existence, but everyones and everything. To come up with an answer to this perplexing question, Holt interviews various people. Holt travels across the world, to England, France and United States to find answers to the mystery of existence. He interviews religious people as well as atheists, physicists and philosophers and Platonist. Holt visits each of these people posing the question, Why does the world exist? And Why is there something rather than nothing? He writes about their responses to this question. The answers the various theologists and philosophers give us a vivid glimpse of the speaker, but do not solve the riddle of the existence.
In the book, Jim Holt interviews people from theologists like Richard Swinburne, to philosophers of science such as Adolf Grunbaum, from theoretical physicists like David Deutsch, Regular physicists such as Steven Weinberg, to Platonist’s like Roger Penrose. In my essay, I have chosen to look at the ideas established by the philosopher Adolf Grunbaum as well as the theologist of Swinburne. Jim Holt describes the exchanges between them as an 'intricate metaphysical ping pong match.' Both of these theologists are very ...
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Bakewell, Sarah. ""Why Does the World Exist"" Review. n.d.: n. pag. The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Dyson, Freeman. "What Can You Really Know? by Freeman Dyson." What Can You Really Know? by Freeman Dyson. The New York Review, 10 Nov. 201110. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Holt, Jim. "Chapter 4/the Great Rejectionist." Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story. New York: Liveright Pub., 2012. N. pag. Print.
Holt, Jim. "Chapter 6: The Inductive Theist of North Oxford." Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story. New York: Liveright Pub., 2012. N. pag. Print.
Myers, Jenn. ""The Pain Scale"- A Distinctive Writing Style." Jenmyers93. N.p., 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Roth, Michael. "Review of Jim Holt's Why Does the World Exist?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
This essay will argue that the statement “Cordwainer Smith’s story, ‘Alpha Ralpha Boulevard’, is an existentialist text,” is incorrect because Alpha Ralpha Boulevard exhibits elements that do not correlate with existentialist philosophy.
8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
The debate between existentialism and the rest of the world is a fierce, albeit recent one. Before the "dawn of science" and the Age Of Reason, it was universally accepted that there were such things as gods, right and wrong, and heroism. However, with the developing interest in science and the mechanization of the universe near the end of the Renaissance, the need for a God was essentially removed, and humankind was left to reconsider the origin of meaning. John Gardner’s intelligently written Grendel is a commentary on the merits and flaws of both types of worldview: the existentialist "meaning-free" universe, and the heroic universe, where every action is imbued with purpose and power. Indeed, the book raises many philosophical questions in regards to the meaning of life as well as to the way humans define themselves. Additionally, Gardner portrays continual analysis, and final approval, of existentialist viewpoints as one observes that the main character, Grendel, is an existentialist.
Firchow, Peter. The End of Utopia: A Study of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1984.
Krauss, Lawrence Maxwell, and Richard Dawkins. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. New York, NY: Free, 2012. 7-8. Print.
But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” This build on the essential idea of existentialism being in “a world that is stripped of all comforting illusions, explanations, and guidelines, and an existence that is essentially solitary and personally challenging. The absurdity arises in the paradoxical confrontation between the human hunger and yearning for meaning, purpose, and explanation and an awareness of the meaninglessness or the meaning-neutrality of a universe that cannot provide a grand design or a set of directions for living.” Albert Camus, defends his theory and writings by accepting the fact that many of existentialism questions are unable to be answered due to the nature of the philosophy understanding that it’s not comprehendible through reason. He even argues towards other existentialist who seek to answer the questions proposed by using transcendence through God as a cure for
We may nevertheless say that existentialism is a form of phenomenological philosophy that relies on certain reflective methods of studying human consciousness instantiated in the individual, society, and culture, which emerged as a popular general movement characteristic of 20 century European thought represented thought represented across many disciplines including literature, the humanities, and the social sciences. Existential psychology rejects the mechanistic views of the Freudians and instead sees people as engaged in a search for meaning (Trull & Prinstein, 2013, p. 382), therefore an existential psychotherapist may attribute the cause of the person’s anxiety to lost meaning of life. As Trull and Prinstein (2013) stated, the ultimate goal of existential psychotherapy is "to help the individual reach a point at which awareness and decision making can be exercised responsibly" (p. 383). The role of an existential psychotherapist is to enable the client to come closer to experience. By experiencing self, the client can learn to attach meaning and value to life. Sometimes the therapist will confront the client with questions “that force the client to examine the reasons for failure to search for meaning in life” (Trull & Prinstein, 2013, p.
Pereboom, Derk. "Why We Have No Will and Can Live Without It." Feinberg, Joel and Russ Shafer-Landau. Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning , 2013. 443-455. Print.
Guignon, B. C. and Pereboom, D. (eds). (2001). Existentialism: Basic Writings. Indianapolis, IN: Hacket Publishing.
classicmoviescripts/script/seventhseal.txt. Internet. 4 May 2004. Blackham, H. J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. New York: Harper, 1952. Choron, Jacques. Death and Western Thought. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
The Question Behind the Question is a book that begs the question of personal accountability. Too often we go through life without power because when things happen we look to point the finger. This book empowers the individual by seeking to change the way that we respond. When we take matters into our own hands we can determine our own reality.
In 1947, I retired from my journalist career and continued to write fiction and playwrights for the theatre (Simpson). Although I primarily consider myself a writer instead of a philosopher and I deny being an existentialist, the philosophy I most agree with is indeed existentialism. As one will find in my novel, The Stranger, the main character Meursault views the world and situations through an outside perspective, extreme detachment, and a lack of empathy. His characters tend to view the world as an outsider because I personally grew up in many groups and communities without ever truly being integrated with them (Simpson).
eLibrary.com - a free online library. 1995. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Second 18 February 2014. Deslattes, Wayne. “Science Just Reveals The Scope Of God’s Work”; Re: Randalls Lord.
Ross, Kelly L. "Existentialism." The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series. Kelly L. Ross, Ph.D., 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Existentialism considers that any external existences, ranging from material existence, to spiritual existence, such as religion, morality, and ideology are meaningless because the existences of these issues could not be established without the identification of people’s will (Webber, 2012, 3). As indicated by Sartre (1943, 310), “Each existence and external power does not exist originally”. The statement of Sartre shows that the existentialism denies original being of any external existence. Reversely, the existentialism believes that what exists originally in the universe is our “being”, which actually highlights the existing value of human’s “being”. Based on this illustration, existentialists argue that since human is the only original “being” in the world, any other existences are factually constructed by human’s creativity activities and the being of external existences is relied on the identification of human on them. Therefore, in the view of existentialism, any external existences are nothingness because their beings are decided and depended on consciousness of human. Furthermore, the existentialists deem that although there are not any other external existences in the world except for human, human should exercise its irrational instinct to create values, which is because people’s rational thinking is relied on external