RE: Book Recommendations
July 21, 2020 at 4:50 pm
(This post was last modified: July 21, 2020 at 4:56 pm by GrandizerII.)
(July 20, 2020 at 9:36 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(July 20, 2020 at 8:05 pm)Grandizer Wrote: Honestly some of the books to read for a beginning atheist should also include books written by religious thinkers regardless of whether you agree with them or not. This is to help keep things in perspective and expose oneself to what people really think instead of reading critiques that may end up strawmanning them at times. Helps with improving critical thinking skills as well
The great religious figures whom we all benefit from reading are difficult. It takes time to get what Dante or William Blake are saying. And this is not something that people in sound-bite culture can manage.
Doesn't have to be classical stuff really. Just reading works by modern religious thinkers is good enough imo (for the reasons I stated). Whether Feser or even William Lane Craig or those hailing from other religions (like Islam or Buddhism).
ETA: Doesn't have to be perfect understanding obviosly, just this allows for a clearer understanding of what others believe even though there will still remain some misunderstandings. Feser himself is said, by some other types of Thomists, to have misunderstood some aspects of what Aquinas said in his writings. So the expectation certainly isn't that we will do better than him at understanding this stuff.
