Reviews for Amazing Questions Kids Ask about the Bible

The average rating for Amazing Questions Kids Ask about the Bible based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-27 00:00:00 Angelia Senters This book is pretty heavy in its philosophy for a general readership, but worth the slog. Dacey argues that the problem with modern secular liberalism stems from what he calls the Liberty Fallacy: that because matters of conscience are matters of individual Liberty, they're also not open to question or criticism. This fallacy results in ethical waffling and a reluctance to criticize ideas from other cultures. By contrast, Dacey argues that religious belief is private, but conscience must be open and up to debate. He weaves a long and interesting discussion of the issue, exploring the way that open societies have fostered respect for human beings and a separation of church and state, and that closed societies often violate those two elements. He also suggests that regardless of personal reasons, public debate ought to function from a consequentialist perspective, namely that discussions about ethics and morals should focus on the human impact of those decisions. He argues for an ethics of the golden rule. Two interesting things emerge at the end of the book.The second to last chapter is a warning call to Europe, particularly, about fundamentalist Islam. Dacey argues that in refusing to debate conscience decisions made due to religious reasons, secular liberals are giving away their culture. He suggests that fundamentalist religious countries are railing against secularism, and Europe doesn't get it. The secular, open society has met its antithesis. It comes in many forms: Salafist jihad, clerical totalitarianism, the rule of sharia law. What unites them is the willing sacrifice of freedom and human rights before a sacred order and their dependence on Islam for their existence. And yet there are millions of secular liberal Muslims, and potential alternative interpretations of the faith abound. One would think that secular liberals would be at the center of this struggle. Instead, reluctant to "impose" their values on others, fearful of the taint of American imperialism, most are submerged into silence. The result? Public discussion of Islam tends to veer between chauvinistic denunciations by conservative Christians … and useless overgeneralizations by politicians. Words are liberals' first weapon of choice. Unfortunately, they now find themselves facing something they've sworn they not to talk about-religion. If it is to rise to the historical moment and engage with both faces of Islam, secular liberalism needs a new self-understanding. (185) And then, in Chapter 11, he cites Open Source as a key model for modern knowledge generation. Ha! The traditional model of conscience is a mirror of revelation. Not a voice from an angel in a cave or a burning bush, but a revelation from within, a "still, small voice." But from where? In the picture of conscience developed in this book, the model is not a revelation but a network. The network of open source ethics is a public, collaborative and critical enterprise that builds up a storehouse of shareable answers to challenges faced by a community. The sound of conscience is the clamor of conversation, not the eerie whisper of revelation.(202) And finally: If secular liberalism is to continue to stand for reason and freedom, the separation of religion and state, personal autonomy, equality, toleration, and self-criticism, secular liberals must stand up for these values in public debate. This means returning conscience to its proper place at the heart of secular liberalism. Matters of conscience-including religion and values-are open. Like the sciences and open source methods, they are fit subjects of public discussion, they are guided by shared, objective, evaluative standards, and they are revisable in light of future experience. The point of open, secular society is not to privatize or bracket questions of conscience, but to pursue them in conversation with others. Like a free press, conscience is freed from coercion so that it may perform a vital public function: reasoning together about questions of meaning, identity, and value. (209-210). I give this four out of five stars because it's pretty dense, and might be a slog for the casual reader.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-27 00:00:00 Guvenc Mustafa I'm giving this book a 3 as an average score; some parts are pretty good and worth reading (ex, the chapter "original virtue"), and others are not.