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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
Think : A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for “anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them,” Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major […]
Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior
No matter what we do, however kind or generous our deeds may seem, a hidden motive of selfishness lurks — or so science has claimed for years. This book, a detailed case study of scientific change, tells us differently. In Unto Others philosopher Elliott Sober and biologist David Sloan Wilson demonstrate once and for all […]
What Is Atheism? A Short Introduction
Many questions and concerns arise when believers question the purpose and meaning they suspect is lacking in the lives of nonbelievers. Douglas Krueger contends that atheism is a powerful alternative to religion, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood because people harbor preconceived ideas about atheism. This concise introduction to the subject has […]
Why Christianity Must Change or Die
John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, argues that if Christianity is to survive in the modern age of science, it must shed some of its traditional beliefs. See why this book has traditional Christians in such a tizzy!
Wisdom Without Answers
Wisdom Without Answers is a simple yet profound introduction to philosophy ideal for those unfamiliar with philosophy. Rather than introducing the reader to a lot of complicated philosophical jargon, Kolak and Martin delve into several traditional philosophical problems in small separate chapters using a Socratic questioning style. This small book probes deep issues in a […]
1984
War is peace.Freedom is slavery.And Big Brother is watching… Thought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have become part of our national vocabulary because of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, the story of one man’s nightmare odyssey through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but individual […]
A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church
Over the past few years, a relentless crescendo of revelations about Catholic priests molesting children has riveted the nation’s attention and raised urgent, previously unthinkable questions: Just how widespread is child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy? Why hasn’t the Catholic church done more to stop it? In A Gospel of Shame, authors Elinor Burkett and […]
Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism
Abusing Science is a manual for intellectual self-defense, the most complete available for presenting the case against Creationist pseudo-science. It is also a lucid exposition of the nature and methods of genuine science. The book begins with a concise introduction to evolutionary theory for non-scientists and closes with a rebuttal of the charge that this […]
Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe, and Japan
As the millennium approaches, there is renewed interest in Apocalyptic visions. Over the years, several groups, or cults have brought the idea of the Apocalypse into the media. In this important and timely work, Apocalypse Observed analyzes five of the most notorious cults of recent years. John R. Hall, along with Philip D. Schuyler and […]
Atheism Explained: From Folly to Philosophy
Book Description Atheism Explained explores the claims made both for and against the existence of God. On the pro side: that the wonders of the world can only be explained by an intelligent creator; that the universe had to start somewhere; telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and other paranormal phenomena demonstrate the existence of a spirit world; […]
Belief or Non-Belief? A Confrontation
“‘Belief or Nonbelief’ is a short but challengingbook, an exchange of letters between Umberto Eco, the Italian novelist and scholar, and Carlo Maria Martini, the Roman Catholic cardinal of Milan. A newspaper in Milan asked the two men to write to each other (and published the results) because they represent the believer and the nonbeliever, […]
Black Holes and Baby Universes
Readers worldwide have come to know the work of Stephen Hawking through his phenomenal million-copy hardcover best-seller A Brief History of Time. Bantam is proud to present the paperback edition of Dr. Hawking’s first new book since that event, a collection of fascinating and illuminating essays, and a remarkable interview broadcast by the BBC on […]
Challenging the Verdict: A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ
In the face of modern critical scholarship, which is steadily eroding the historical reliability of the Gospels and their presentation of Jesus, conservative writers have been making valiant attempts to reestablish confidence in the Christian record and doctrine. The most prominent of these, in popular exposure and commercial success, has been Lee Strobel, in his […]
Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Religion
This book comes highly recommended by our own Jeffery Jay Lowder, largely based on the reputation of the principal editor, Michael Peterson, as managing editor of the journal Faith and Philosophy, published by the Society of Christian Philosophers. This book is newly published, and offers an overview of the key debates in modern philosophy of […]
Darwin (Third Edition)
“The best Darwin anthology on the market” (Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard) has just become better, in this newly revised version of the now classic Norton Critical Edition, first published in 1970.
Dial-An-Atheist Greatest Hits from Ohio
This is a collection of short tape messages that were used on the author’s Dial-An-Atheist phone service over the span of a few years.
Drawing Out Leviathan: Dinosaurs and the Science Wars
For some years the “Science Wars” have raged in academe and in the press. Unlike the usual academic tempest in a teapot, the stakes in this controversy are high. The standing of science in our culture turns on the outcome. Will science continue to occupy a position of authority or will it be demoted to […]
Evangelicals at the Ballot Box
Evangelical Christians have fast become one of the most organized political power blocs of the decade. Who are these mainly Protestant, “born-again” voters and how have they changed the face of American politics? Evangelicals At The Ballot Box, veteran political analyst Albert Menendez’s ground-breaking study, reveals the voting patterns of various evangelical denominations to focus […]
Faith and Freedom: Religious Liberty in America
Former U.S. District Judge Marvin E. Frankel examines the most dramatic of the Supreme Court cases of the last half century concerned with the Constitutional right to religious freedom. The author “argues that the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state must be kept almost unbreachable if religious liberty is to be preserved.”
Freethought Across the Centuries
The freethought movement has long needed a solid textbook for academic and personal reading lists. A work that could supplement classroom and independent studies on the nature of religion and its historical role in the cultures, societies, and governments of human history, ancient and modern. Dr. Gerald Laure’s Freethought Across The Centuries is a wonderful […]
God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter
Description At the dawn of the twenty-first century, dizzying scientific and technological advancements, interconnected globalized economies, and even the so-called New Atheists have done nothing to change one thing: our world remains furiously religious. For good and for evil, religion is the single greatest influence in the world. We accept as self-evident that competing economic […]
Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor
The vicious dictator of a future world seeks refuge in the prehistoric past; a fast-gun sheriff refuses to lay up his weapon when his days of power are ended; sharp, small teeth horribly show what can happen to a stoolie; and in the year 2074, a consumer upgrades his mutant housebeast for this year’s model. […]
How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science
One hundred years ago social scientists predicted that belief in God would decrease by the year 2000. “In fact … the opposite is has occurred,” Shermer writes in his introduction. “Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzche […]
Immortality
Book Description Is there life after death or do we simply cease to exist? Few questions wreak havoc with our deepest held beliefs and strongest emotions more than this one. The answers given over the centuries reach to the very core of who we are and what it means to be human. Cutting through the […]
Inversions (US 2000 Hardcover)
The world of Inversions is a planet with two suns, but otherwise it’s a recognizable fantasyland of knights, princes, sieges, love, and treachery. Two travelers from distant lands reach two different kingdoms and become the close associates of two monarchs. As personal physician to King Quience, Doctor Vosill fights a two-front war: mistrust of her […]
Jesus : One Hundred Years Before Christ
The overwhelming majority of the hundreds of books dealing with the origin of Christianity have been written by theologians presenting interpretations of what the Gospels and Acts tell us about Jesus and the early Church. By contrast,I deal with the subject as a historian, asking, which are our sources? when were they written? how reliable […]
Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists
Between an introduction and an appendix provided by Babinski, a former Christian fundamentalist turned agnostic, more than thirty others, including well-known cotemporary religious writers such as Harvey Cox and Sam Keen, explain how and why they first embraced, and later abandoned, their Christian fundamentalist belief. Beginning with an essay entitled “Fundamentalism’s Grotesque Past,” this fascinating […]
Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition
The history of Western philosophy has generated powerful and influential theories about the nature of the world and humankind’s place in it. Since the ancient Greeks, the compelling search for the fundamentals of all existence has led some to espouse philosophical idealism (a belief in unchanging conceptual universals), while others have held to an equally […]
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 […]
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 […]
