A magisterial work of social history, Life After Death illuminates the many different ways ancient civilizations grappled with the question of what exactly happens to us after we die. In a masterful exploration of how Western civilizations have defined the afterlife, Alan F. Segal weaves together biblical and literary scholarship, sociology, history, and philosophy. A […]
As the religious right has increased in both power and visibility, there has been a commensurate growth in the prominence of Christian media. In this important and timely collection, the best minds in media studies, sociology, political science, religious studies, and gay and lesbian studies come together to paint a revealing portrait of conservative Christian […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Feldman, a professor of law, builds a persuasive case against the “dominant story of the separation of church and state.” The first claim of that story, that “the separation of church and state stands as a constitutional principle that promotes democracy and equally protects the religious liberty of all,” obscures the extent to which the […]
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) has been described by Richard Popkin as the key intellectual figure at the outset of the eighteenth century. Examinations of libraries from the period show him to have been by far the most successful author of the century, and his Historical and Critical Dictionary is in fact the philosophy best-seller of all […]
“My soul would be an outlaw,” begins the storyteller in this short tale of the timeless war between Conformity and Rebellion, in the guise of the Master Timekeeper (a.k.a. the Ticktockman) and the renegade Harlequin. In a completely regulated society, where being a minute late here and there shortens your life accordingly, the Ticktockman is […]
This powerhouse anthology contains essays by leading scientists, philosophers, and other scholars, including Stephen Jay Gould, Isaac Asimov, Kenneth Miller, Ashley Montagu, Sidney W. Fox, and Michael Ruse. Also included is the text of the 1982 court ruling by U.S. District Judge William Overton in the famous Arkansas case.
Written less than 15 years after the end of World War II, when anti-Communist paranoia was reaching fever-pitch in the United States, this book is very much a product of its time. Originally planned for a juvenile audience, Starship Troopers has become a classic of hard science fiction, albeit a controversial one. Heinlein creates a […]
In the 28 years since Roe v. Wade legal in the United States, the right of women to secure a safe abortion has been under almost constant assault. In court after court, community after community, state after state, anti-abortion forces have fought long, bitter, too-often violent battles to shut down access to safe, legal abortions. […]
So many books published these days seem to deliberately ignore the forest for the trees, or the leaves, or the chloroplasts, or the chemistry of biopigments. Readers interested in big questions usually have to make do with the obligatory summing-up at the end, in which the author tries to justify his or her narrow interest […]
Watson examines the Christian Coalition in the context of religious and political history in the United States, offering theories that help to explain its purpose, its popularity, and its power. He argues that the main motives for its existence are a longing for the restoration of America to a “purer,” homogeneous nation under God and […]
Electronics engineer Dan Davis has finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot with extraordinary abilities, destined to dramatically change the landscape of everyday routine. Then, with wild success just within reach, Dan’s greedy partner and greedier fianc’e trick him into taking the long sleep — suspended animation for thirty years. They never […]
Leonard Levy’s classic work examines the circumstances that led to the writing of the establishment clause of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion….” He argues that the framers of the Constitution intended to prohibit government aid to religion even on an impartial basis, thus refuting the “nonpreferentialists,” who […]
When Judith Hayes started writing her monthly Internet column, The Happy Heretic, in 1996, she never imagined how great the response would be. Within the first year, she received e-mail messages from readers in forty countries, many expressing in some way her favorite reader reaction: “You know I never really thought about that before!” It’s […]
Description A young man’s struggle to find his path in a world of human illusion and error is the theme of The Infernova. A novel in verse, this secular parody of Dante’s classic takes the reader through a new Hell—an abyss devised not to punish those damned by Christian doctrine, but rather those greater agents […]
Mossner’s Life of David Hume remains the standard biography of this great thinker and writer. First published in 1954, and updated in 1980, it is now reissued in paperback, in response to increased interest in Hume.
Does America, as George W. Bush has proclaimed, have a special mission, derived from God, to bring liberty and democracy to the world? How much influence does the Christian right have over U.S. foreign policy? And how should America deal with violent Islamist extremists? In The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary […]
Philosopher Delos McKown ridicules the claim that creationism is as plausible as the theory of evolution. He points out the inconsistencies and fallacies of creationism, and exposes the danger creationism poses to science education.
Description The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a rich and vibrant anthology that captures the poetry and excitement of scientific thought and discovery. Boasting almost one hundred articles and book excerpts, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a breathtaking celebration of the finest writing by scientists—the best such collection in print—packed […]
Kent offers a naturalistic explanation for the origin of the Christian faith: namely, that the first experiences of Jesus were bereavement hallucinations. Includes a discussion of the Habermas-Flew Debate on the Resurrection.
In his third and final investigation into the science of belief, bestselling author Michael Shermer tackles the evolution of morality and ethics. A century and a half after Darwin first proposed an ‘evolutionary ethics,’ science has begun to tackle the roots of morality. Just as evolutionary biologists study why we are hungry (to motivate us […]
The world’s most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time–a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision. With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core […]
Human beings have the unique ability to view the world in a detached way: We can think about the world in terms that transcend our own experience or interest, and consider the world from a vantage point that is, in Nagel’s words, “nowhere in particular”. At the same time, each of us is a particular […]
This book attempts to guide people of all religious and nonreligious persuasions toward a genuine humanistic spirituality. The author writes, “Perhaps this is the soft underbelly of a book exposed to the modern world: to say that one can be happier and more valuable without a ‘beyond’ … that one can not only learn to […]
An honest account of a father’s loss and his plea for reconciliation, this book is also a definitive scholarly work on recovered memory therapy and is widely hailed by professional psychologists.
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