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Description of  Opening Doors: Thought from (and of) the Outside

1934542067 pdf Rethinking Religion makes a special effort to reach readers who are either hostile to or indifferent to religionwith the aim not of converting them, but of encouraging them to rethink religion. In the last few years a number of best-selling books by writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have been credited with establishing the so-called New Atheism as a force to be reckoned with. Watsons book opens by delivering a broadside against Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris, convincingly arguing that while they may deserve some credit for opening the subject up to the general public we should turn to a number of much less well known thinkers (Derrida, Levinas, Agamben) and bring them into conversation with such novelists as D.H.Lawrence and Joseph Conrad if we are looking for true illumination. Even though he writes from a position outside of any organized religion, part of Watsons argument is that we are deluding ourselves if we believe that we are not in one way or another implicated in religion. The choice we face is not religion or no religion: it is which religionone of the traditionally recognized religions or one of those (patriotism, sports, career etc.) that usually dont recognize themselves as religions? Read more