Make Reference To Barbara Ehrenreich’s Living With A Wild God

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Barbara Ehrenreich’s Living With A Wild God
Barbara Ehrenreich is a nonbeliever and a spiritual skeptic, but in her book “living with a wild god” and the author highlights her teenage years where she sought to search for the truth in a supreme deity. The author mentioned that her background was closely linked with atheism, but she was isolated and inquisitive that she did not fully fit in with other children. If a mystical experience had in the past influenced Ehrenreich’s thoughts and philosophical outlook, then looking back provides insights on her understanding about the place of religion and God in a society. Christopher Hitchens dismissed and bashed the role of religion in a society, but supernatural explanations cannot entirely be dismissed in place of science when talking about mystical experiences.
Christopher Hitchens is skeptical that any of the religions were relevant to man and it is no surprise that he shows deep resentment, by making allegations without offering proof and dismissing anything supernatural. While Ehrenreich expresses skepticism, she is willing to explore beyond what she understands and believes based on her experience in life, highlighting the need to look more keenly into the place of religion. Stating everything against religion and implicitly in favor of religion irrelevance is linked to Hitchens’ tone as the author’s aim is to attack is religion. Avowed atheists are no different from fanatical fundamentalists who pay attention to only certain aspects of religion and are unwilling to debate or engage with those different from them.
Explaining everything about religion using science is a futile exercise as religious people are believers who have faith and not everything can be scientifically proven. Ehrenreich (91) pointed out her experiences that she did not experience prophetic voices, but rather what she considered. Hitchens argument is that if there is no scientific explanation about a phenomenon then that idea or thing is incorrect and irrelevant as is the case with many aspects of religion. Despite considering himself a free thinker and scientist, Hitchens ignored that even some of the renowned scientists were not free from prejudices and superstitions, and some were even inspired by questions about God and religion. For instance, as Isaac Newton was an alchemist despite being known as scientists and this indicates that belief and search for deeper meaning in life influenced his worldview.
Ehrenreich relied on scientific tradition to explore her experience, which may have been mystical, but she does not offer conclusions on the nature of that experience. The author was willing to accept that mythical encounters do exist unlike Hitchens dismisses such a notion and his work tries to prove why Ehrenreich’s experience are not linked to religion or belief. Hitchens errs in arguing that someone can account for something real by relying on the Scripture, because his position then means that he was biased against anyone who is religious that he was no longer objective in his analysis. Hitchens hostile towards religion and does not have any respect or consideration for divinity, belief and religion, unlike Ehrenreich who was willing to consider different possibilities and explanations for her experience, which is consistent with the objective of seeking the truth
Focus on the intersection between belief and unbelief is a more thorough analysis on the place of God and religion in people’s life, than the dismissive account of religion that ignores the role of religion in a society and omits explanations that cannot be defended scientifically. Ehrenreich highlighted that her mystical experience was not merely is not merely a mental phenomenon or delusion, as she recounted that experience and what it meant in her teenage years. The author stated “when people run up against something inexplicable, transcendent, and, most of all, ineffable, they often call it “God,” as if that were some sort ...