An elegant and smoothly written series of lectures delivered by Carl Sagan in 1985 at the University of Glasgow. Carl talks about the origins of religious beliefs, and even has a chapter entitled, "The God Delusion." I wonder if Richard Dawkins was in the audience and received his inspiration for his book of the same title. Sagan gives examples of things I have intuited for many years: the origin of religion was an attempt by primitive peoples to explain things they knew they could not do, and therefore concluded that those things must be produced by a vastly superior being; that in many early societies, life was pretty crummy, but order and obedience was maintained by the promise of a much better life in some version of heaven (and, of course punishent for the disobedient in some version of hell); and, most interestingly he directly addresses the "problem of evil." Highly recommended for rationalists, free-thinkers, and anyone who has an open mind about god(s) and religious beliefs.
--Chiron, 2/18/07
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