Phenomenology of Perception
In Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty examines the different associationist and intellectualist conceptions of perception. He rejects both of them on the grounds that they establish an overly rigid relation between stimulus and impression, and secondly, because the world is not entirely the work of a constituting subject. The body is not one object among […]
Permutation City
In the not-too-distant future, technology has given birth to immortality. The human mind can be scanned and downloaded into a virtual reality program to become a perfect electronic “Copy,” aware of itself. The bad news is, someone has blocked the bail-out option that allows a Copy, by law, to return to flash-and-blood life. From the […]
Paul: The Founder of Christianity
New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann continues his exploration of the life and teachings of Paul in this groundbreaking monograph, which synthesizes the research of his four previous books on Christianity’s leading apostle. As the subtitle of the present work makes clear, Lüdemann comes to the conclusion that Paul should be considered not only Christianity’s most […]
Paul
Table of Contents Preface Chronological Table Introduction PART ONE: LIFE AND WORK Paul’s Descent and Environment before Conversion Paul’s Persecution of the Church and His Conversion and Call First Missionary Activity The Apostolic Assembly in Jerusalem The First Journey to Cyprus and Asia, and the Conflict at Antioch The World-wide Scope of the Pauline Mission […]
Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion
Book Description Parenting Beyond Belief is a book for loving and thoughtful parents who wish to raise their children without religion. There are scores of books available for religious parents. Now there’s one for the rest of us. It’s hard enough to live a secular life in a religious world. And bringing up children without […]
Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind
Description Will there be a Rapture? Will Jesus return from heaven? Who is the Antichrist? Will all these things happen? They won’t, according to Robert M. Price. The great popularity of the Left Behind novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins attests to the strong appeal of apocalyptic beliefs in many conservative Christian communities. As […]
Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit
“Catholics have fallen out of the healthy old habit of reminding each other how sinful Popes can be,” notes Garry Wills in the introduction to Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. In his book, Wills alludes occasionally to the most egregious papal scoundrels: “In the tenth century a dissolute teenager could be elected Pope (John XII) […]
Outside, Looking In
The three Geminni brothers were of superior intellect, yet the trio followed downward spirals until only Gene, the oldest at age thirty with a wife and two daughters, was able to pull back on the wheel and end the nose dive for himself. His siblings never do find their way, and they end up broken […]
Out of God’s Closet
Description Faithful Catholic priest-become-atheist psychologist shows how he did—and how you, too—can unlearn childhood prejudices and superstitions, and really enjoy the modified Golden Rule. This book could have been titled The Book of Tolerance. The psychologist author recognizes that every child learns a lot of traditions and beliefs when too young to evaluate them. Such […]
Other Minds : Critical Essays 1969-1994
Over the past twenty-five years, Thomas Nagel has played a major role in the philosophico-biological debate on subjectivity and consciousness. This extensive collection of published essays and reviews offers Nagel’s opinionated views on the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and political philosophy, as well as on fellow philosophers like Freud, Wittgenstein, Rawls, Dennet, Chomsky, Searle, Nozick, […]
Origins of Life
How did life on Earth originate? Did replication or metabolism come first in the history of life? In this updated and expanded second edition of Origins of Life, Freeman Dyson examines these questions and discusses the two main theories that try to explain how naturally occurring chemicals could organize themselves into living creatures. Dyson analyzes […]
Original Intent
Davis, an attorney and an associate editor of the Journal of Church and State, argues that Rehnquist’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s prohibition against an establishment of religion is at odds with what the framers had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.
Onward Christian Soldiers?
Christian Coalition members have money, influence, power, and a willingness to show up at the ballot box and vote. The Christian Coalition is credited with a major role in the Republicans astonishing sweep of 1996 electoral successes and which foreshadowed their status as major players in state-level Republican politics and the Republican National Convention of […]
Ontological Arguments and Belief in God
This book is a unique contribution to the philosophy of religion. It offers a comprehensive discussion of one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God: the ontological argument. The author provides and analyzes a critical taxonomy of those versions of the argument that have been advanced in recent philosophical literature, as well […]
Only Begotten Daughter
Murray Katz, the celibate keeper of an abandoned lighthouse near Atlantic City, has been blessed with a daughter conceived of his own seed and a holy ovum. Like her half brother Jesus, Julie Katz can walk on water, heal the blind, and raise the dead. But being the Messiah isn’t easy, and Julie, bewildered by […]
One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism
Western history would be unrecognizable had it not been for people who believed in One True God. There would have been wars, but no religious wars. There would have been moral codes, but no Commandments. Had the Jews been polytheists, they would today be only another barely remembered people, less important, but just as extinct […]
One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society
Based on the most extensive survey ever conducted of religion in America, this book delivers surprising revelations about the religious beliefs, practices, and affiliations of Americans and about the complex dynamics of a country that is paradoxically among the most religious and the most secular on Earth. Drawn from a random poll of a hundred […]
One Jesus, Many Christs: How Jesus Inspired Not One True Christianity, But Many
Book Description In One Jesus, Many Christs Gregory Riley reveals that–from the very beginning–there was not just one true Christianity, but many different Christianities. Riley shows that early Christianity harbored major doctrinal differences about all aspects of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and divinity. United by passionate allegiance to Jesus as hero, these early, doctrinally diverse […]
On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians
Although the works of many early critics of the Church were burned by Christian emperors or were otherwise destroyed in the second and third centuries, the major work of the Greek philosopher, Celsus, is an exception. His polemical attack on the beliefs and practices of Christianity, On the True Doctrine, written around 178 A.D., is […]
On the Road
Kerouac’s novel On the Road ushered in the Beat Generation of 1950s America. Like Gide’s The Immoralist, Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical characters literally run from themselves in the doomed attempt to escape the realization of life’s absurdity. When the routinization of life is stripped away, revealing only the bare facticity of existence, different people react in many […]
On The Nature of Things
With the passion of a true poet, Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99-55 B.C.E.) expounds the most coherent and eloquent system of materialism surviving from the ancient world. Developing the atomic theory of his master, Epicurus, Lucretius discusses the motion of atoms, natural phenomena, sensation, free will, and the soul’s relation to the body. Most importantly, […]
On the Nature and Existence of God
Gale’s book is introduced as a critical response to the analytic arguments offered by Plantinga, Swinburne, Alston, and others. He begins by discussing several atheological arguments, which he uses to clarify the nature of God’s attributes instead of refuting God’s existence. He then proceeds to refute different versions of ontological, cosmological, religious-experience, and pragmatic arguments […]
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
The definitive statement of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, written by the preeminent Rand exponent and scholar. Illustrated with excerpts from her published works, complete with an abundance of new material that Rand communicated only in private conversation with Peikoff, this book illuminates Objectivism — and its creator — with brilliant clarity.
Nothing: Something to Believe In
Book Description “It’s like this–all my friends are something. Vanessa is a Unitarian, Michelle is Catholic, Lucy is Presbyterian … so I just want to know–what am I?” “We’re nothing.” My father was looking right at me; he had a pleasant, friendly kind of an expression. “Nothing,” he said again. “That’s right,” said my mother. […]
Notes from the Underground
“I am a sick man, full of bile and spite. I think there is something wrong with my liver,” begins Dostoevsky’s haunting novella narrated in the first-person by a man who is at odds with himself. This classic work shocked and inspired Nietzsche who went on to develop his own existential philosophy. At less than […]
Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle to Succeed
Book Description Not the Impossible Faith is a tour de force, dissecting and refuting the oft-repeated claim that Christianity could not have succeeded in the ancient world unless it were true. Dr. Carrier surveys a whole range of topics regarding the origin of Christianity and its cultural context, demonstrating that its success has entirely natural […]
Not by Design: The Origin of the Universe
This book makes a compelling case for the idea that the universe didn’t come about through the handywork of some magical space pixie. The naysayers will throw about their arguments from incredulity while kicking & screaming but, in the end, even they (if anything like a rational mind still inhabits their bodies) will be forced […]
Nonbelief and Evil
Nonbelief and Evil is a fascinating, thorough, and persuasive presentation of two arguments for the nonexistence of God: the arguments from evil and nonbelief. Moreover, Drange defends his arguments against virtually every theistic response imaginable.
Noah’s Flood
The tale of a massive, devastating flood appears not only in the Bible but also in other ancient writings, often in similar terms, suggesting that it records a real and singularly memorable event. Ryan and Pitman, who are senior scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, think the event might have been a huge and […]
