What is one book (excluding religious texts) that has shaped your religious or philosophical beliefs the most?

For hell's sake stop begging for stars, it is getting me angry. Yeah maybe your questions are dam fabulous and interesting but stop asking for stars in each and every question. If people feel like staring then they would do it, don't push it,

Cutting through Spiritual Materialism

By

Chogyam Trungpa

This is a Buddhist text and it talks about the way in which human beings are driven to take spiritual works and inject their own egos into the message.

We do this mainly out of the fear of uncertainty.

From the Buddhist perspective the ultimate nature of reality is non-conceptual. Our problems arise in spiritual terms when we claim that any person or groups of people have in their minds the ultimate truth, when in fact most religious agree that the ultimate truth is beyond the scope of the human intellect.

This book not only touches on this topic, but also gives an in depth look at human psychology from the Buddhist perspective which is called Abhidharma.

Challenging and easy to read, I think this book would fit well on your shelf next to Candide.

Thank you for the question.

I can't say a single book exactly because the theme carries throughout the series, but I have to say without a doubt Odd Thomas. If I have to name a single book, its a tie between the first and the fourth, and his web episode online. (google Odd Thomas).

After that, it'd be the Sword of Truth series. (And not that Legend of the Seeker crap) either.

I'm Wiccan with a live and learn philosophy.

Edit: I hope contemporary fiction books are acceptable, you said no religious books, but not that they were required to be a discourse on a certain religion or belief.

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

ecumenical agnostic

For me two books by S.E. Hinton have played a huge influence in my spiritual developement

The Outsiders and Rumble Fish

i know the second one sounds stupid but trust me it has a very good message

but i am a christian

used to be somewhat of an agnostic

then i started seeing certain signs

tried explaining them off with science for as long as i could

until i just couldnt explain off anymore

big influence on my Christianity is me being psychic

the signs i see on a day to day basis, it just makes me wonder how people dont believe there is a God

and i know its the God of Abraham and Isaac because i have talked to one of his angels

but yeah back on subject, those books are amazing

Ethics for the New Milennium by HH the Dalai Lama.

I don't have a religion. I'm more a spiritual theist with interests in the real teachings of Christ (not Mainstream Christianity) and Buddhism mostly.

Christian.

Just about anything by C.S. Lewis, but particularly Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles Of Narnia. (You're never too old for Narnia.)

I was also profoundly affected by the novel Deadline by Randy Alcorn.

EDIT - I'll have to add my vote to lostrelic's. This Present Darkness was a great book. I also like Peretti's Prophet.

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jon Haidt

http://books.google.com/books?id=Tz4wVAp6qL0C&dq=H...

The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin,

Memory of evil, enticement to good, by Tzvetan Todorov.

Both helped a lot to shape my political and philosophical beliefs. As for my religious beliefs, I don't remember any book, besides the bible, that was really influential.

- I grew up as a catholic. Now I don't go to church and I feel as close to Christianity as to Buddhism.

Surprisingly, it was 2 books by religious authors. One was "when bad things happen to good people' by a jewish author and the other is "if grace is true', by 2 christian authors. I read them both during my MDiv studies, after losing my Christian faith. I found them both to be highly compelling and honest. I don't agree that there are any god/s....but IF there were to be god/s, these books point to the type of god/s they would have to be. I also love John Hicks philosophy and almost anything by Bart Erhman.

<<Atheist.

IJR, a Devout Atheist, is fond of the book, LAMB: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BIFF, CHILDHOOD PAL OF JESUS by Christopher Moore. Although it is meant as a humor novel, it does give an irreverent insight into how Jesus grew into his role as savior of mankind.

IJR never understand why others feel this answer deserves a THUMBS DOWN. GO beyond the humor of the book, and you may actuallylearn something valuable, something you can hold on to.