Create Your Own Religion

Create Your Own Religion
Author: Daniele Bolelli
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1938875028

Create Your Own Religion is a call to arms--an open invitation to question all the values, beliefs, and worldviews that humanity has so far held as sacred in order to find the answers we need to the very practical problems facing us. Writer, philosopher, and professor of comparative religion, Daniele Bolelli, leads the reader through three thousand years of mythology, misogyny, misinformation, and the flat-out lies about "revealed truth" that continue to muddle our ability to live a peaceful life, free of guilt and shame and the ultimate fear of death. "Our worldviews are in desperate need of some housecleaning," says Bolelli. "We enter the 21st century still carrying on our backs the prejudices and ways of thinking of countless past generations. What worked for them may or may not still be of use, so it is our job to make sure to save the tools that can help us and let go of the dead weight."

How to Start Your Own Religion

How to Start Your Own Religion
Author: Philip Athans
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2012-05-18
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1440538824

Yes, world domination and eternal adoration can be yours! "The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion." —Attributed to L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology Wouldn't you like to control countless worshippers with a single word? To call forth bountiful offerings of gold and silver? Wouldn't you love to make your acolytes bow in awe of your greatness? Starting a new religion can be fun and profitable. You'll laugh along with Philip Athans (founder, leader, and sole member of the Church of Phil), as he shows you how to: Gather the flock and keep 'em coming back for more Organize mysterious and complex rituals Interrogate (or just ridicule) the hell out of nonbelievers Recruit celebrity spokespeople, from Tom Cruise to Uma Thurman If you've ever felt the need to sacrifice on an altar beneath a blood-red moon, or just make Friday a holy day (three-day weekend, anyone?), this is the only sacred creed you need. Live long and prosper.

A Religion of One's Own

A Religion of One's Own
Author: Thomas Moore
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2014-01-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0698148592

The New York Times bestselling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow-up to his classic Care of the Soul. Something essential is missing from modern life. Many who’ve turned away from religious institutions—and others who have lived wholly without religion—hunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religion’s strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of One’s Own, bestselling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion. Two decades ago, Moore’s Care of the Soul touched a chord with millions of readers yearning to integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. In A Religion of One’s Own, Moore expands on the topics he first explored shortly after leaving the monastery. He recounts the benefits of contemplative living that he learned during his twelve years as a monk but also the more original and imaginative spirituality that he later developed and embraced in his secular life. Here, he shares stories of others who are creating their own path: a former football player now on a spiritual quest with the Pueblo Indians, a friend who makes a meditative practice of floral arrangements, and a well-known classical pianist whose audiences sometimes describe having a mystical experience while listening to her performances. Moore weaves their experiences with the wisdom of philosophers, writers, and artists who have rejected materialism and infused their secular lives with transcendence. At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, A Religion of One’s Own points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.

Start Your Own Religion

Start Your Own Religion
Author: Timothy Leary
Publisher: Ronin Publishing
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781579511012

START YOUR OWN RELIGION embodies the Timothy Leary's core attraction—expansive religious (personal) freedom. Become the highest version of yourself! The purpose of life is religious discovery. return to the temple of God—your ow body. Get of out your mind and get high. Religious living is conscious here-and-now aliveness. He urges readers to drop out, turn on tune in. Drop out and detach from external social drams. Turn on with a sacrament that returns you on to your body. Tune in and be reborn. Leary's message thrilled the youth of the 1960s and it is still appealing today.

God on Your Own

God on Your Own
Author: Joseph Dispenza
Publisher: Wiley + ORM
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2010-12-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1118040988

In this spiritual self-help memoir, a former Roman Catholic monk recounts his journey away from religion toward his own personal spirituality. After spending eight years in a monastery, Joseph Dispenza walked away from his life as a monk—and the religion of his youth—in search of a different kind of spiritual path. Outside the confines of organized religion, Dispenza was able to create a spiritual life that gives direction and meaning to all he does and all he is. God on Your Own is a book for anyone who has left (or is thinking of leaving) organized religion but wants to continue on a spiritual path. Dispenza, a noted author and retreat leader, provides a spiritual road map for those who want to make the transition from conventional religion toward a richer and more satisfying direct relationship with the Source, without rules, dogmas, or doctrines. Throughout the book, Dispenza offers wise, compassionate guidance, speaking as one seeker to another. He has made this journey himself, gleaning spiritual truth from across traditions and practices.

Religious Intolerance in America, Second Edition

Religious Intolerance in America, Second Edition
Author: John Corrigan
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1469655632

The story of religion in America is one of unparalleled diversity and protection of the religious rights of individuals. But that story is a muddied one. This new and expanded edition of a classroom favorite tells a jolting history—illuminated by historical texts, pictures, songs, cartoons, letters, and even t-shirts—of how our society has been and continues to be replete with religious intolerance. It powerfully reveals the narrow gap between intolerance and violence in America. The second edition contains a new chapter on Islamophobia and adds fresh material on the Christian persecution complex, white supremacy and other race-related issues, sexuality, and the role played by social media. John Corrigan and Lynn S. Neal's overarching narrative weaves together a rich, compelling array of textual and visual materials. Arranged thematically, each chapter provides a broad historical background, and each document or cluster of related documents is entwined in context as a discussion of the issues unfolds. The need for this book has only increased in the midst of today's raging conflicts about immigration, terrorism, race, religious freedom, and patriotism.

Fields of Blood

Fields of Blood
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2014-10-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0385353103

A sweeping exploration of religion and the history of human violence—from the New York Times bestselling author of The History of God • “Elegant and powerful.... Both erudite and accurate, dazzling in its breadth of knowledge and historical detail.” —The Washington Post In these times of rising geopolitical chaos, the need for mutual understanding between cultures has never been more urgent. Religious differences are seen as fuel for violence and warfare. In these pages, one of our greatest writers on religion, Karen Armstrong, amasses a sweeping history of humankind to explore the perceived connection between war and the world’s great creeds—and to issue a passionate defense of the peaceful nature of faith. With unprecedented scope, Armstrong looks at the whole history of each tradition—not only Christianity and Islam, but also Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. Religions, in their earliest days, endowed every aspect of life with meaning, and warfare became bound up with observances of the sacred. Modernity has ushered in an epoch of spectacular violence, although, as Armstrong shows, little of it can be ascribed directly to religion. Nevertheless, she shows us how and in what measure religions came to absorb modern belligerence—and what hope there might be for peace among believers of different faiths in our time.

God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great
Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2008-11-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1551991764

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Religion

50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Religion
Author: Daniele Bolelli
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1934708763

This compendium of obscure facts about the world’s religions highlights the political, cultural, and philosophical aspects of the history of religion. If you’re waiting for the world’s “Holy Men” to tell you the truth about their religions, do you suppose they’ll mention that: The Tao Te Ching was only created because Lao Tzu was thrown in jail by a disciple who didn’t want to let him leave town without writing down his teachings? “Passover” celebrates God killing all firstborn Egyptian kids while Jewish homes were “passed over” by the angel of death? Shinto, a natureloving, mellow religion, was transformed by the Japanese government into a nationalistic ideology promoting “holy” war? Adding to its popular “50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know” series, Disinformation has teamed with Daniele Bolelli—writer, professor of comparative religion, and renowned martial arts practitioner and philosopher—to tackle an ever more serious and important topic: popular misconceptions about religion. Among other revelations: Carpocrates, an early Christian, argued that sex orgies were a key to heaven. Prostitution was a religious duty in Mesopotamian temples. The two major Chinese religions (Taoism and Confucianism) are completely at odds with each other and yet are often practiced together. Despite having persecuted Jews for two thousand years, Christian fundamentalists are Israel’s biggest supporters. Capturing just the right balance of in-depth knowledge, respect, humor, and irreverence, Bolelli takes an ecumenical approach to the task, revealing surprising, shocking, and little-known facts about the “big three” religions but also many more, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and, of course, the increasingly popular nonreligion: atheism.

World Religions and Cults Volume 1

World Religions and Cults Volume 1
Author: Bodie Hodge
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1614584605

Religions in today’s culture seem to be multiplying. Have you ever wondered why certain religions believe and practice what they do? Or how they view the Bible? This volume delves into these and other engaging questions, such as: How can a Christian witness to people in these religions? Do these other religions believe in creation and a Creator? How do we deal with these religions from a biblical authority perspective? Many religions and cults discussed in this first volume openly affirm that the Bible is true, but then something gets in their way. And there is a common factor every time—man’s fallible opinions. In one way or another the Bible gets demoted, reinterpreted, or completely ignored. Man’s ideas are used to throw the Bible’s clear teaching out the window while false teachings are promoted. This book is a must for laymen, church leaders, teachers, and students to understand the trends in our culture and around the world where certain religions dominate, helping you discern truth and guard your faith. When you understand a religion’s origins and teachings, you are in a better position to know how to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as you take the good news to those in false religions.