A Chaos of Delight: Science, Religion and Myth and the Shaping of Western Thought

by Dobson; Geoffrey

• ISBN13: 9781845530198
• ISBN10: 1845530195
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2014-09-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book is a comprehensive tour guide into the succession of ways humans have constructed order and meaning about the world and their place in it. The journey examines how different cultures, from the early Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks to present-day western society, have looked at the same phenomena and devised totally different worldviews, ranging from deep mythopoeic supernatural reflections to purely physcial ones. What emerges from this exploration is that the most certain thing about human knowledge in general and western science in particular, is its uncertainty, Importantly, this does not do away with religion, but emphasizes from a cross-cultural perspective that one's religious views are framed by articles of faith derived from history and that within its highly prescribed boundaries, there exists a system that is just as dynamic as modern science.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Science, religion and myth: making sense of the world	1	(22)
Life among the gods, part I: the Sumerians -- service and supplication	23	(32)
Life among the gods, part II: ancient Egyptians -- optimism and opportunity	55	(37)
The Presocratics: from myth to philosophical reason	92	(48)
Classical philosophy: different roads to truth	140	(46)
Early Christianity: the historical road to one God	186	(33)
Medieval Christendom: faith and reason	219	(38)
The triumphant rise of Western science: methodologies, mathematics and measurement	257	(43)
The Big Bang: starlight to superstrings	300	(15)
Origins of life: from molecules to machines	315	(24)
Humankind's evolutionary origins and emergence of mind	339	(31)
Tradition at the crossroads: seeking unity in diversity	370	(5)
Notes	375	(62)
Bibliography	437	(26)
Index	463