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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
The Miracle of Theism
This (posthumous) volume contains a comprehensive review of the principal arguments for and against the existence of God. It ranges from the classical philosophical positions of Descartes, Anselm, Berkeley, Hume et al., through the moral arguments of Newman, Kant and Sidgwick, to the recent restatements of the classical theses by Plantinga and Swinburne. It also […]
The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism
Writen long before “Day 9-11,” this book explores in depth the new terrorist movement that the United States has now declared war against. In the shock and horror of the recent attack, the prior (and less successful) 1993 attack goes largely unmentioned. However, as the evidence mounts that the recent attack was sponsored by the […]
The Philosophical and Theological Foundations of Ethics
Contains chapters on (among other things) the nature and objectivity of morality, morality without religion, and morality with religion. The book is written at an intermediate level, so that it is accessible to laymen but there is plenty of meat for the scholar as well. Anyone interested in the relationship between religion and morality will […]
The Quest for the Historical Muhammad
More than one hundred years ago Western scholars began to investigate the origins of Islam, using the highest standards of objective historical scholarship of the time. Their aim was to determine what could be known about Muhammad and the rise of early Islam quite apart from the pious and totally unobjective traditions preserved by the […]
The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life
Book Description The open, secular society is in retreat. From Washington to Rome to Tehran, religion is a public matter as never before, and secular values–personal autonomy, toleration, separation of religion and state, and freedom of conscience–are attacked on all sides and defended by few. The godly claim a monopoly on the language of morality […]
The Trial of God : A Play
Set in a medieval European village where three itinerant Jewish actors put God on trial to answer for His silence during a pogrom, a powerful drama considers historical and especially post-Holocaust issues surrounding faith. While interred in Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel witnessed a trial. While such things are not unusual, this trial was. It was unusual […]
The Wasp Factory
‘Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: “Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That’s […]
Trilobite!
Subtitled: Eyewitness to Evolution With his new book Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, Richard Fortey confirms his status as one of the best communicators of science around today. His hugely enjoyable previous book, Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth, was shortlisted for the 1998 Rhone-Poulenc science book prize, […]
Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage: Sample Ceremonies for Celebrants, Officiants, and Ministers
Written by Rev. Amy Long, with contributions from a variety of other authors, this book represets the spectrum of different faiths and belief systems. The book has a black, leatherette cover with gold foil printing. It’s elegant and professional. The must have book for any celebrant, officiant or minister! Over 270 pages of new wedding […]
Who Was Jesus?
In Who Was Jesus?, G.A. Wells presents a survey of critical scholarly findings on the New Testament, in each case explaining the reasons for the scholars’ conclusions, and describing those issues where scholars still disagree. By lucidly recounting the principles on which New Testament criticism is based, this book enables readers to make up their […]
Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism
Is Darwinian evolution established fact, or a dogma ready to be overtaken by the next scientific revolution? The intelligent design movement argues the latter. Why Intelligent Design Fails assembles a team of physicists, biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and archaeologists to examine intelligent design from a scientific perspective. They consistently find grandiose claims without merit. Contributors […]
A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America: Essays on Religion, Science, Morality, and the Bush Administration
Book Description In his new book, A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America: Essays on Religion, Science, Morality, and the Bush Administration, (a collection of his newspaper opinion columns–highly critical of religion, faith, and the Bush administration–published between 2002 and 2006), John Bice demonstrates that it is possible to present religious criticism from an unapologetically […]
A Rebel to His Last Breath: Joseph McCabe and Rationalism
A Rebel to His Last Breath is the first biography of Joseph McCabe (1867-1955), a former Catholic priest who became one of the best-known champions and a prolific popularizer of freethought and rationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. McCabe’s encyclopedic curiosity, rigorous scholarship, and unswerving intellectual honesty led him through a tumultuous […]
An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism
This anthology fills a conspicuous gap in the discussion of religion and theism. The issues that theology addresses, the meaning of life, the existence of God, the truth of the Bible, the possibility of life after death, are so important to people that they ought to examine both sides of these fundamental questions. The atheist […]
Atheism: A Philosophical Justification
A detailed and scholarly justification of atheism. Contains an outstanding appendix defining terminology and usage in this (necessarily) tendentious area. Argues both for “negative atheism” (i.e. the “non-belief in the existence of god(s)”) and also for “positive atheism” (“the belief in the non-existence of god(s)”). Includes great refutations of the most challenging arguments for god.
Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
This is the most recent and most extensive apologetics reference work ever written. Geisler is a prominent apologist who writes from an Evangelical perspective on virtually every subject conceivable: persons, issues, movements, concepts, arguments of all kinds are all addressed. For secularists who want to know what tunes the Devil is playing, this is the […]
Beyond the Body
Susan Blackmore’s Beyond the Body provides a comprehensive historical overview of out-of-body experience (OBE) research. She surveys anecdotal case studies, including cross-cultural comparisons of OBEs, and concludes that there are no essential experiential differences between spontaneous OBEs and voluntarily-induced OBEs. Blackmore considers how common OBEs are in the population at large, reviews proposed techniques for […]
Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Widely acclaimed as the most authoritative and accessible one-volume dictionary available in English (and now with translations into Chinese, Korean, Russian, Italian, and Spanish underway) this second edition offers an even richer, more comprehensive, and more up-to-date survey of ideas and thinkers written by an international team of 436 contributors. This second edition includes the […]
Close Encounters With the Religious Right
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C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion
Book Description C. S. Lewis was one of the most influential Christian apologists of the 20th century. An Oxford don and former atheist who converted to Christianity in 1931, he gained a wide following during the 1940s as the author of a number of popular apologetic books such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem […]
Deconstructing Jesus
Arguing that perhaps Jesus never existed as a historical figure, Price maintains an agnostic stance, while putting many puzzles and scholarly debates in a new light. He also incorporates neglected parallels from Islam, the Baha’i Faith, and Buddhism. Deconstructing Jesus provides a valuable bridge between New Testament scholarship and early freethinkers in a refreshing cross-fertilization […]
Does God Exist?
In a lively debate, which includes questions from the audience, Christian philosopher and ethicist J.P. Moreland and Kai Neilsen, one of today’s best-known atheist philosophers, go head to head on the fundamental issues and questions that have shaped individual lives, races, and nations throughout history. After the debate, several contributors from both sides chip in […]
Eternal Hostility : The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy
Frederick Clarkson’s Eternal Hostility provides a chilling road map to a growing movement whose roots go back to the founding days of the country. Clarkson asks the reader to consider what it would be like if having an abortion was punishable by death, if gays and lesbians were thrown into jail, or if our constitutional […]
Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion
Guthrie proposes that religion is basically an outgrowth of the natural human propensity, probably hardwired in by evolution, to interpret vague or random appearances anthropomorphically. That is, we naturally tend to see faces in clouds or the image of Jesus in a spaghetti ad. This makes perfect sense from an evolutionary viewpoint since it would […]
Forward the Foundation
A stunning testament to ISaac Asimov’s creative genius, Forward The Foundation is a the Foundation saga’s dramatic climax — the story Asimov fans have been waiting for. An exciting tale of danger, intrigue, and suspense, Forward The Foundation brings to vivid life Asimov’s best loved characters: hero Hari Seldon, who struggles to perfect his revolutionary […]
God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science
This book is a collection of essays by nearly two-dozen different contributors on all sides of the debate about whether the designs of a theistic God are the best explanations for the observations of scientists. The contributors are of the highest quality, including: Michael Behe, William Lane Craig (Does God Exist: The Craig-Flew Debate, and […]
Gospel Fictions
In this slim and readable book, Helms analyzes the most familiar and powerful stories about Jesus, and suggests that the Gospels are works of narrative art, contrived and creative interpretations, the supreme fictions of our culture.
House Of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth
A controversial look at the therapy profession today. Noted psychological research scientist Dawes critically examines some of the most cherished clinical assumptions and therapeutic methods now in use. In addition, he takes issue with many of the treatment methods commonly used in therapy practices.
Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture
Showalter takes on the history of mass cultural hysteria, from witch hunts to mesmerism, and discusses today’s versions–ranging from chronic fatigue or Gulf War Syndrome to recovered memories–and the attendant publicity.
Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics
The last decade saw the arrival of a new player in the creation/evolution debate–the intelligent design creationism (IDC) movement, whose strategy is to act as “the wedge” to overturn Darwinism and scientific naturalism. This anthology of writings by prominent creationists and their critics focuses on what is novel about the new movement. It serves as […]
