Books by Brights
Totality Beliefs and the Religious Imagination
Author: Anthony Campbell
ISBN-10: 140920314X
ISBN-13: 978-1409203148
To Purchase: Amazon US / Amazon UK
Description:
There seems to be a widespread notion that belief is, in itself, a good thing, but in this book Anthony Campbell argues that, for at least some people, freeing oneself from all belief systems brings a huge sense of relief. He illustrates this by describing his own experience of Roman Catholicism and Transcendental Meditation. He also looks at the evidence for miraculous cures for cancer and at ideas about the soul, with particular reference to survival. And he has a discussion of how religions are transmitted, which he thinks depends on story-telling and language as much as on formal belief. This is a wide-ranging book with a lot of ideas.
About the author:
Anthony Campbell is a physician, now retired, who spent many years in the practice of complementary medicine before coming to the conclusion that this, like religion, is based on belief systems. He discusses this as well, with reference to the reality of illness and suffering that is recognized by Theravada Buddhism.
For a review of the book by Taner Edis, see http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/taner_edis/totality.html.
