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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
Quarantine
It all started on November 15, 2034: the night the impenetrable gray shield slid into place around our solar system. Some see the Bubble as the revenge of an insane God. Some see it as justice. Some even see it as protection. But it seems the earth is completely cut off from the universe–until a […]
Religion and Science
Russell recalls the the conflicts between science and traditional religion during the last four centuries. Examining accounts in which scientific advances clashed with Christian doctrine or biblical interpretations of the day, from Galileo and the Copernican Revolution, to the medical breakthroughs of anaesthesia and inoculation, Russell points to the constant upheaval and re-evaluation of our […]
Robert G. Ingersoll: A Life
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) was a complex figure – a brilliant lawyer and orator who courageously advanced the concept of freethought; a magnetic extrovert whose public esteem, eagerly sought, never earned him the private favors he so generously bestowed on others. Ingersoll was a staunch republican in the great tradition of Abraham Lincoln, and he […]
Scientists Confront Creationism
A collection of hard-hitting essays by leading scientists answers common creationist arguments against evolution.
Soldiers of God: White Supremacists and their Holy War for America
The most serious threat facing America today is the rise of violent, well-organized white supremacists within our own borders. Fueled by the explosive events at Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the Freeman stand-off in Montana, and intensified by the Oklahoma City bombing, these powerful groups wage a holy war against an oppressive government and the ever-darkening […]
Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science
Book Description From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Robert Park, the best-selling author of Voodoo Science, argues that it has. In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He […]
The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus
In their groundbreaking bestseller, The Five Gospels, Robert Funk and The Jesus Seminar offered their controversial analysis of what Jesus really said. Now, in The Acts of Jesus, these distinguished scholars reveal their startling assessment of what Jesus really did — and didn’t — do. Publishers Weekly calls the Jesus Seminar “one of the most […]
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies–How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
Description Bestselling author Michael Shermer’s comprehensive and provocative theory on how beliefs are born, formed, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished. In this work synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist, historian of science, and the world’s best-known skeptic Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come […]
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism
Description In this volume, eighteen of the world’s leading experts in their fields present original essays, relevant to both philosophy and religion, on various aspects of atheism: its history (both ancient and modern) defense, and implications. The topic is examined in terms of its implications for a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, religion, feminism, […]
The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version
This new edition should become an indispensable tool for students of the Jesus tradition and others interested in the development and interpretation of Christian scripture. Gathered together in one volume are new English translations of all the known gospels–canonical and extracanonical, complete and fragmentary–from the first centuries of the Christian era. Each translation is preceded […]
The Elegant Universe
There is an ill-concealed skeleton in the closet of physics: “As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right.” Each is exceedingly accurate in its field: general relativity explains the behavior of the universe at large scales, while quantum mechanics describes the behavior of subatomic particles. Yet the theories collide […]
The Extreme Right: Freedom and Security at Risk
From the Oklahoma City bombing to the Vladimir Zhirinovsky phenomenon in Russia, manifestations of extremism remain a feature of the post-Cold War era, presenting a danger to both established and emerging democracies. This timely volume examines the threats to freedom and security posed by right-wing extremism in established democracies and by the blend of left- […]
The Fundamentals of Extremism (Paperback)
On September 11, 2001, Americans witnessed horrific carnage inspired by religious extremism. We saw that religious fundamentalists will stop at nothing to reign terror on those they regard as their enemies. In our response, we began to focus on the oppressive treatment of women and children in other parts of the world where religious fundamentalism […]
The Hitchhikers’s Guide to the Galaxy
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway. Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend, researcher Ford Prefect. Together they hitch a ride to parts unknown, encounter creatures unheard of, and take part in comic adventures unparalleled.
The Jesus Myth
“In The Jesus Myth, the latest in G.A. Wells’s series of eagle-eyed scrutinies of the Gospels and of contemporary New Testament scholarship, the author once again takes the role of the Diogenes of the theologians. Charitable yet unflinching, Well’s analysis forces one to the inevitable conclusion that the apologists for the historical Jesus are less […]
The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q & Christian Origins
A reconstructed collection of sayings attributed to Jesus reveals Jesus as a Jewish sage who was later mythologized into the “Christ” revered by the world’s Christian communities.
The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and in Practice
What’s next–The Girl Scouts: The Untold Story? How could anybody write a debunking book about Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity order? Well, in this little cruise missile of a book, Hitchens quickly establishes that the idea is not without point. After all, what is Mother Teresa doing hanging out with a dictator’s wife […]
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution contains essays by Rand on politics, focussing on the New Left. The “New Left” is a rather vague term created by the media in the 1960’s to refer to a new liberal movement characterized by concern with the environment, racism and state oppression. The members of this movement often […]
The Philosophy of Humanism
Released by Humanist Press in its degenerized eighth edition, this powerful book is the definitive study of the history and growth of the humanist movement in North America. Renowned philosopher and activist Corliss Lamont offers a vigorous argument for humanism and provides an affirmative, intelligent guidebook for shaping a better life in today’s complex world.
The Question of Humanism
For centuries, humanists have celebrated and cherished the limitless potential of humankind and its irrepressible spirit. For its efforts to develop rational solutions to human problems rather than invoking supernatural intervention, humanism has been rewarded with a rich and distinguished heritage whose contributors include many of the brightest minds of intellectual history. Advocating reason, critical […]
The Selfish Gene
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel’s work was rediscovered, we turn it […]
The Trigger
From Arthur C. Clarke, bestselling author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Creator Of The Rama Series, and Michael Kube-Mcdowell comes a breathtaking new novel of bold scientific speculation and edge-of-your-seat suspense: a riveting thriller in which the fate of humanity depends on whose finger is on…The Trigger. It is the ultimate antiweapon. A device […]
The Whole Shebang
Plenty of books try to explain the origin of the universe, but despite the ascendance of the Big Bang theory, numerous details of that theory remain in flux as new observations are made and new hypotheses formed (and then confirmed or rejected). Timothy Ferris’s The Whole Shebang is an up-to-date account of the various mechanisms […]
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy describes what the Vatican did–or did not do–to help Jews in Italy in World War II. Author Susan Zuccotti, who has written two other books about the Holocaust, demonstrates that little help of any kind came from Popes Pius XI and XII or their […]
Western Atheism: A Short History
Thrower’s excellent little tome (at 151 pages) introduces you to the major currents of atheistic thought within Western Civilization. It makes a great addition to your home library.
Who Wrote the Gospels?
The names we associate with the gospel writers are all second century guesses. If this comes as a surprise, welcome to the cutting edge of modern biblical scholarship. According to Helms, the gospels were written to convert or confirm their highly colored arguments of powerful authors, not just transparent windows upon the historical Jesus. If […]
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
UFO abductions… television psychics… creationism… Holocaust denial. Faced with the rapid changes and anxiety of modern life, many people are turning to the alluring comforts of pseudoscience and the occult. In Why People Believe Weird Things, science historian Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and director of the Skeptics Society, explores the very human […]
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? In this landmark volume, Professor Hawking shares his blazing intellect with nonscientists everywhere, guiding us to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe. Hawking, who has earned an international reputation as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein, shares […]
A Second Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism
As the influence of religion increasingly insinuates itself into society, aided by media messages touting the personal and social advantages of Christian-defined moral virtues, the need to express well-developed criticism of religious propaganda and to support clearly-stated secular ideals assumes a new urgency. Freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and rationalists will rejoice to discover that Dr. […]
An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
David Hume’s aim in writing An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) was to introduce his philosophy to a European culture in which many educated people read original works of philosophy. He gives an elegant and accessible presentation of strikingly original and challenging views about the limited powers of human understanding, the attractions of scepticism, the […]
