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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
The Dunwich Cycle : Where the Old Gods Wait (US 1996 Paperback)
In the Dunwiches of the world the old ways linger. Safely distant from bustling cities, ignorant of science, ignored by civilization, dull enough never to excite others, poor enough never to provoke envy, these are safe harbours for superstition and seemingly meaningless custom. Sometimes also they shelter truths that have seeped invisibly across the centuries. […]
The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin’s Soul
Evolution is a fact: of that there can be no dispute. But, writes Richard Morris in this lively overview of modern biology, scientists have been arguing about most other aspects of Darwinian thought for generations, and the battle is growing ever fiercer with the advent of “evolutionary psychology” and other new approaches. Following the biologist […]
The Forgery of the Old Testament
Is the creation story in Genesis nothing more than a botched version of Babylonian myth? Are the Jesuits really educated men? In these three classic essays — “The Forgery of the Old Testament,” “The Myth of Immortality,” and “The Lies of Religious Literature” — Joseph McCabe (1867 – 1955), ex-priest and the “world’s greatest scholar,” […]
The Jesus Dynasty : The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity
Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. The story is surprising, controversial, and exciting as only a long-lost history can be when it is at last recovered. In The Jesus […]
The Light of Other Days (Abridged Audio Cassette)
The crowning achievement of any professional writer is to get paid twice for the same material: write a piece for one publisher and then tweak it just enough that you can turn around and sell it to someone else. While it’s specious to accuse Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke of this, fans of both […]
The Mind Made Flesh – Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution
This book, by the author of Leaps of Faith: Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation, collects together a series of controversial essays that probe what we think we know on a variety of topics. Dealing with the complex issues of evolutionary psychology in terms that most well-educated lay people can comprehend is no […]
The Necessity of Atheism
The great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), best known for such masterpieces as “Ode to the West Wind” and “Prometheus Unbound,” also expressed his ideas on religious oppression in works of impassioned prose. The Necessity of Atheism and Other Essays features five anti-religious tracts by Shelley: “On Christianity,” “The Necessity of Atheism” (which resulted […]
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (1996 Paperback)
All the terms one would expect to find in a comprehensive dictionary of philosophy can be found in this expertly researched reference, plus many terms and concepts not ususally found in such reference works. Capsule biographies of nearly 500 individuals, from the pre-Socratics through such major figures as Aquinas, Lady Anne Finch, Nietzsche, and Einstein, […]
The Psychology of Religion: Theoretical Approaches
Theory in the psychology of religion is in a state of rapid development, and the present volume demonstrates how various positions in this field may be translated into original foundational work that will in turn encourage exploration in many directions. A number of new contributions are collected with previously published pieces to illustrate the diversity […]
The Second Sex
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir posed questions many men, and women, had yet to ponder when the book was released in 1953. “One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should …,” she says in this comprehensive treatise on women. She weaves […]
The Symbolic Species (1998 Paperback)
Subtitled “The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain,” Deacon’s book traces the origin of language back to the developmentof the human pair bond and shows how langugage propelled human brain evolution. Highly recommended!
The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin’s Journal of Researches
When the Beagle sailed out of Devenport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. It was to last five years and transform him from an amiable and somewhat aimless young man into a scientific celebrity. Even more vitally, it was to set in motion the […]
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance, it immediately convinced many of its readers and captivated the imagination of […]
Walden
An American classic that hails from the nineteenth-century Transcendentalism movement rather than existentialism. However, Thoreau addresses several themes that are of interest to existentialists as well. How does one avoid too much compromise in conforming to others’ expectations while still retaining personal identity and freedom? Thoreau outlines his carpe deim prescription for an authentic life: […]
Who Is Jesus?: Answers to Your Questions About the Historical Jesus
This fascinating book makes the results of a lifetime of scholarship readily available to nonspecialists who want to meet the historical Jesus. Eminent biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan collaborates with pastor Richard G. Watts to rediscover the life, the work, and the message of the Man from Galilee. The authors explain the person and teachings […]
Why I Am Not a Muslim
Appalled by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, Ibn Warraq offers in response a reasoned examination of the world’s second largest religion. Having been raised as a Muslim himself, Warraq has personal experience with Islam as well as a thorough knowledge of Islamic scholarship. Warraq presents a critical analysis of the life of Muhammad, the factors […]
A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism
Provides the fullest formulation of a comprehensive physicalist view to date, evaluates the empirical standing of physicalism in unprecedented detail, and provides a self-contained and thesis-driven discussion, accessible to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. A Physicalist Manifesto is the fullest defense yet of the comprehensive physicalist view that, in some important sense, everything is physical. […]
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
The United States government is actively monitoring terrorist cells affiliated with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network in eleven cities, from Florida to Boston to Denver to Houston. But al Qaeda is hardly our only threat. Hamas, formed in 1987, was run by top Palestinian officials in America from its earliest days, and has tentacles […]
At the Mountains of Madness
A complete short novel, At the Mountains of Madness is a tale of terror unlike any other. The barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless–or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures…and the carved stones tens of millions of years old…and, finally, the mind-blasting […]
Axiomatic
Australian writer Greg Egan presents 18 of his short stories from the early 1990s in this collection. The blurb on the cover says “Science fiction for people who like science fiction,” and experienced and new sci-fi fans alike will agree. The ideas and world-building are light years ahead of the pack. Highlights include: “The Hundred […]
Beyond Contact
Subtitled: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations In Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations, author Brian McConnell examines what goes into the search for intelligent life in space. The book explains the science and technology behind the search, from the physics of inter-stellar laser and radio communication, […]
But Is It Science?
This book is a collection of essays on the history and development of Darwinian theory, demarcation criteria that separate scientific theories from pseudoscientific theories, and the 1982 trial on the Arkansas “equal time” law.
Churches Ad Hoc: A Divine Comedy
Description With its eighty-six duotone illustrations and a foreword by Kern Trembath (Assistant Chairman, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame) this is a humorous look at churches in America by photographer Herman Krieger. Comment “Among the best examples of satire on the Internet.” — J. Michael Raymond, Editor, Contemporary Satire “This is a fun […]
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment explores a simple, yet profound theme in the human condition. Can someone consciously and without remorse carry out the perfect murder and get away with it? What does it mean to get away with murder? The eyes of God might not be upon the moral offender, but what do we do about […]
Decline of the West (Vol. 2)
Since its first publication in two volumes between 1926-28, this work has ranked as one of the most widely read and most talked about books of our time. Spengler probes the origin and “fate” of our civilization, presenting a world view based on the cyclical rise and decline of cultures. Time magazine calls it “an […]
Divine Hiddenness : New Essays
This book collects together all of the papers on Divine Hiddenness delivered at a conference held by the Society of Christian Philosophers in Portland, Oregon. This conference was also attended by several atheists, some of whom delivered papers which are included in this collection. So, this book should be considered as an excellent and complete […]
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
This is the most extensive reference in print that presents proposed solutions to numerous arguments against Biblical inerrancy, presented in the order in which the “problems” appear in the Bible, including a full index. Skeptics should always be aware of how fundamentalists reconcile various Biblical contradictions and other problems before using such problems in debates, […]
Expanded Universe
A collection of fiction and non-fiction.
For the New Intellectual
No synopsis available.
Giovanni’s Room
This somewhat autobiographical novel addresses issues of dealing with the “other” that were of equal concern to Sartre. Baldwin succeeds in telling a gripping tale while exploring the complex problems of interpersonal relationships and the desire to escape from one’s own freedom.
