Throne and Altar

Why do we regard certain things as “sacred”?  Why should anyone believe in God?  Where does such an idea even come from?  Why do religious believers always bring God into discussions about right and wrong?  Is it credible that God would send revelations to just a few people and force the rest of us to take their word for it?  I examine all of these questions in the essay below.  It’s a bit of a monster (19 pages), but these are big questions, so we shouldn’t expect single-sentence or even single-paragraph resolutions to them.  They also happen to be the most important questions, so I think readers will find them well worth thinking through.

This essay is dedicated to my brother, who inspired me to start it.

View full essay In_defense_of_religion (19 page PDF file)

or view individual parts:

1. The meaning of religion and the idea of the sacred–Part I
2. The nature of God and the inferrence of His existence–Part II
3. The relationship of God to morality and goodness–Part III
4. The reasonableness of supposing that God has revealed Himself in history–Part IV