Is God A Delusion? – A Reply to Religion′s Cultured Despisers

In a wide-ranging discussion incorporating profound philosophical insights, Is God a Delusion? argues that today's vocal religious critics have fixated on religion in its narrowest form. And in doing so they have failed to consider a religion whose essence is found not in inflexible doctrines, "infallible" holy books, or calcified institutions, but in a distinctive type of consciousness that points the way to a transcendent good beyond the world. With a philosophical nod to the revolutionary 19th-century theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, the text defends those who find in religion the fulfillment of an ancient and profoundly human desire: the hope that somewhere beyond the universe that science can observe lies a deeper reality, one characterized by love and wisdom. A reality we call God.