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 […]
No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe
Book Description Rejecting belief without evidence, a scientist searches the scientific, theological, and philosophical literature for a sign from God–and finds God to be an allegory. This remarkable book, written in the layperson’s language, leaves no room for unproven ideas and instead seeks hard evidence for the existence of God. The author, a sympathetic critic […]
No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith: The Mormon Prophet
The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages […]
Nightfall
On a planet with six suns, night is about to fall for the first time in two thousand years. The planet Kalgash is on the brink of chaos — but only a handful of people realize it. Kalgash knows only the perpetual light of day; for more than two millenia, some combination of its six […]
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
This is perhaps the most respected work on Nietzsche ever written. Thomas Mann called it “A work of great superiority over everything previous achieved in Nietzsche criticism and interpretation.”
New World New Mind : Moving Toward Conscious Evolution
This 1989 book discusses the emerging ability of mankind to alter the genomes of various species, up to and including Homo Sapiens itself.
New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon was revealed to church founder Joseph Smith on gold plates. Brent Lee Metcalfe and other important Mormon researchers present the linguistic, textual, archeological and other evidence which shows that that Book of Mormon was probably written in the 19th century based on the King James Version of the […]
Nemesis
In the twenty-third century pioneers have escaped the crowded earth for life in self-sustaining orbital colonies. One of the colonies, Rotor, has broken away from the solar system to create its own renegade utopia around an unknown red star two light-years from Earth: a star named Nemesis. Now a fifteen-year-old Rotorian girl has learned of […]
Nausea
This is a literary, not a philosophical work, but it deals with issues fundamental to the human quest for meaning and with the question of our relation to being. Sartre paints a portrait of a life lived in reaction to the seeming absurdities underlying the most fundamental metaphysical principles. The reaction is poetic: in place […]
Naturalism Without Foundations
This volume considers in depth and carefully a cluster of issues central to contemporary philosophical and social scientific investigation while utilizing methods and conceptualizations at the very cutting edge of philosophy.
Naturalism and Religion
This elucidation and defense of naturalism argues that an uncompromising secular orientation is the best framework for the search for meaning and interprets religion in purely naturalistic terms. Part One seeks to demonstrate that religious symbols arise from facts about human beings and the societies in which they live, specifically our needs, fears, and aspirations. […]
Natural Atheism
From the Introduction “I was born an Atheist. All humans are born Atheists. No baby born into the world arrives with specific religious beliefs or knowledge. Such beliefs and knowledge must be acquired, which means that they must first exist before and apart from the new life and that they must be presented to and […]
Mystery of Mysteries : Is Evolution a Social Construction
With the recent Sokal hoax-the publication of a prominent physicist’s pseudo-article in a leading journal of cultural studies-the status of science moved sharply from debate to dispute. Is science objective, a disinterested reflection of reality, as Karl Popper and his followers believed? Or is it subjective, a social construction, as Thomas Kuhn and his students […]
Muslim Women Reformers: Inspiring Voices Against Oppression
Description We are dealing with an influential fundamentalist international that has a clear strategy. In order to secure women’s rights, we need a democratic international of women otherwise we have absolutely no chance of conquering this beast. Not only Algerian, but Sudanese, Iranian, and Afghani women know what I am talking about. They know the […]
Murder in Lecture Hall B
Description Now for something different: A novel by well-known author of nonfiction, Michael Martin… Professor Louis Jordon is a man of reason, and when you’re rational there’s no place for panicky superstitions or unfounded conclusions. That made him the perfect professor of Philosophy with an emphasis in Religions and Murder. It also makes his class […]
Mostly Harmless
In the fifth volume of the Hitchhiker series, Random, the daughter of Arthur Dent, leaves her remote home planet on the edge of the universe to set out on a odyssey in search of her ancestors’ native planet.
Mortal Minds: The Biology of Near Death Experiences
Book Description Dying is the last conscious experience undergone by each person. But what do the dying experience? In the last few decades a good deal of publicity has surrounded people who have been close to death and then reported intense experiences that seem to suggest a supernatural existence beyond death. Does the conscious mind […]
Mormon Polygamy: A History
An informative outline of the secret origins of Mormon polygamy, the peculiarities of the early practice, “unofficial” polygamous marriages at the turn-of-the-century and present-day fundamentalist Mormon groups which still practice polygamy.
Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
The best biography of Joseph Smith’s wife and a telling expose of polygamy in the Mormon church.
