The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View

225 Pages·2017·1.042 MB·English

by  Tim Crane

THE MEANING OF BELIEF

THE MEANING OF BELIEF
Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View
Tim Crane
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2017
Copyright © 2017 by the President and
Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Crane, Tim, author.
Title: The meaning of belief : religion from an atheist’s
point of view / Tim Crane.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard
University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017014817 | ISBN 9780674088832
(alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Belief and doubt. | Atheists— Attitudes. |
Faith. | Psy chol ogy, Religious. | Religious adherents.
Classification: LCC BD215 .C823 2017 | DDC 202 / .2— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2017014817
Jacket design: Jill Breitbarth
Jacket art: The Seven Sacraments (oil on panel), Rogier van der
Weyden (1399–1464)/Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium/©Lukas-Art in Flanders VZW/
Photo: Hugo Maertens/Bridgeman Images
To my parents

Contents
Preface ix
1. Religion and the Atheist’s Point of View 1
2. The Religious Impulse 35
3. Identification 80
4. Religion and Vio lence 118
5. The Meaning of Tolerance 161
Notes 195
Index 205

Preface
As its title says, this book is concerned with the
meaning of religious belief rather than its truth.
So, unlike many recent contributions to the cur-
rent public debate on religion, it will not discuss
in any g reat detail the truth or falsehood of par-
tic u lar forms of atheism or theism. Nor w ill it
attempt, as some recent atheist books have done,
to identify the good bits in religious belief and
sanitize them for atheistical purposes. Rather, the
book’s aim is to discuss what, in the broadest pos-
si ble sense, religion means to people and what in-
tellectual, ethical, and practical attitudes atheists
themselves should take toward the phenomenon
of religion and toward t hose who are religious.
ix