Table of Contents
Preface to the second edition 1
Part I Why We Believe 9
1 Starting Out 11
2 Why Religion Is Fundamental 22
3 But Which Religion? 30
4 How We Believe 39
5 Good And Bad Beliefs 49
6 How Beliefs Change 58
7 Childish Beliefs 68
Part II How Credible Is Religion? 77
8 Why Religion Is For Grown-Ups 79
9 Could God Be There? 88
10 The Universe As God? 96
11 The Bigger Picture 103
12 Is God Good? 112
13 Why Good Religions Are The Same 123
Part III How We Became Christian 133
14 How To Read The Bible 135
15 How Myths Are Constructed 146
16 From Mother God To Father God 154
17 The Shepherds' God 164
18 The Warriors' God 171
19 The Captives' God 181
20 Time Out 192
21 The Prophets' God 198
Part IV A New Religion? 207
22 The New Prophet 209
23 Yet Another Virgin Birth 217
24 The Kingdom Of God 222
25 The Evil Of Wealth 234
26 Losing The Way 242
27 Turning A Man Into A God 251
28 Miracles Everywhere 260
29 How Real Is The Resurrection? 266
30 How To Read The Resurrection 276
Part V The Early Christians 281
31 What Did The First Christians Believe? 283
32 Different Early Beliefs 289
33 Where Original Sin Came From 297
34 What The Second Century Christians Believed 305
35 How The Bible Came To Be 312
36 The Turning Point 320
37 How To Ruin A Good Religion 327
38 The Religion Of Empire 336
Part VI The Way Forward 343
39 The Damage We Do 345
40 Why Aren't Christians Better People? 357
41 The Confusion We're In 364
42 Moving On 375
43 A Glimpse Of The Sacred 384
44 The Choices We Face 395
Part VII Fanciful Thinking 401
45 The Dangers Ahead 403
46 Stories For Today 411
47 The Church We Need 420
48 An Image For Now 428
49 A New Trinity 436
50 The Future We Follow 443
51 If We Survive 450
Afterword 458
Brief timeline of some of the events mentioned 466
Reading List 470
