The Spirit of Religion

The current volume explores a variety of topical themes within the general field of religion -- defined as the search for the truth concerning the nature of one's relationship with Being/Reality. Among the topics explored are: Evolution, the origins of faith, conceptual viruses, suffering, irreligion, the new atheism, nihilism, sacredness, the nature of the self, mythology, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, free will, epistemology, and spiritual abuse. All of the foregoing topics are critically examined against a backdrop that helps orient the discussion. More specifically, most human beings wonder, in one way or another, about the nature of reality ... that is, they seek to deal, as best they can, with the reality problem. The Final Jeopardy challenge refers to the task of trying to work toward providing a best-effort final response to the reality problem that resonates with, and reflects to varying degrees, the character of reality, before the sands in the hourglass of time run out in a person's life.