This jarring first-person account of intimidation, terrorism, and murder–all in the name of God–exposes an underside to the Religious Right that is not part of the face these groups typically show to the public. What Reiter reveals about the antiabortion underground–where the willingness to take up arms is viewed as a sacred virtue and the […]
This elucidation and defense of naturalism argues that an uncompromising secular orientation is the best framework for the search for meaning and interprets religion in purely naturalistic terms. Part One seeks to demonstrate that religious symbols arise from facts about human beings and the societies in which they live, specifically our needs, fears, and aspirations. […]
The definitive statement of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, written by the preeminent Rand exponent and scholar. Illustrated with excerpts from her published works, complete with an abundance of new material that Rand communicated only in private conversation with Peikoff, this book illuminates Objectivism — and its creator — with brilliant clarity.
“Catholics have fallen out of the healthy old habit of reminding each other how sinful Popes can be,” notes Garry Wills in the introduction to Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. In his book, Wills alludes occasionally to the most egregious papal scoundrels: “In the tenth century a dissolute teenager could be elected Pope (John XII) […]
It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emporer Cleon, First of that Name, sits uneasily on the Imperial throne. Here on Trantor, the great multi-domed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. It is a world so intricately woven that pulling one thread would […]
This important volume contains three spirited debates, “Rome or Reason,” “Controversy on Christianity,” and “The Limits of Toleration,” between the great American freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 – 1899) and leading churchmen and public figures of his own day. The combatants are Cardinal Edward Manning; British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone; lawyer and Catholic activist […]
Ionesco’s Rhinoceros is a play hailing from the “Theatre of the Absurd” during 1960s France that deals with issues of conformity, socialization, and the dissemination of memes in a metaphor that quite literally invokes the “herd instinct.”
Book Description In recent years a noticeable trend toward harmonizing the distinct worldviews of science and religion has become increasingly popular. Despite marked public interest, many leading scientists remain skeptical that there is much common ground between scientific knowledge and religious belief. Indeed, they are often antagonistic. Can an accommodation be reached after centuries of […]
“It’s easy to imagine a TV sitcom making fun of a character who visits psychics and astrologers and channels Sarah Bernhardt,” opines Wendy Kaminer, “but virtually impossible to imagine it laughing at anyone who takes the Bible literally and believes that someone named Jonah once lived in a whale.” She goes on to demonstrate that, […]
Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge […]
Beneath the histories of religious traditions – from biblical wars to crusading ventures and great acts of martyrdom – violence has lurked as a shadowy presence. Images of death have never been far from the heart of religion’s power to stir the imagination. In this wide-ranging and erudite book, Mark Juergensmeyer asks one of the […]
In this provocative book, Finke and Stark challenge popular perceptions about American religion. They view the religious environment as a free market economy, where churches compete for souls. The story they tell is one of gains for upstart sects and losses for mainline denominations. A brilliant and revolutionary analysis of the social history of American […]
Six bone-chilling tales of bizarre beauty and awesome horror lurk in the dark of the soul, waiting to be called upon by the demons of nightmares, and let loose in the frightened mind. Only H.P. Lovecraft could conjure up these testaments to evil that will live inside of you forever….
Anyone interested in the debate over the evidential argument from evil simply must have this book. It includes two influential but distinct formulations of the argument — those by William Rowe and Paul Draper — followed by a number of essays written in response to one another. The list of authors who contributed to the […]
Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah? Did he promise to return and usher in a new age? How did Jesus envision the Kingdom of God? The Five Gospels answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 […]
A leading scholar of Islam analyzes the challenge of political Islam, offering insight into the sources and diversity of Muslim politics, and surveys the key Islamic movements and crises in the world today.
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 […]
Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos […]
The Gambler’s Fallacy, the Dirty Hands Argument, Wittgenstein’s Beetle in the Box–philosophical terms can be both intriguing and baffling. Now, eminent philosopher Simon Blackburn offers the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of philosophy available in a single volume. Nearly 3,000 entries cover everything from Aristotle to Zen. Line drawings.
Every academic, community, and freethought library needs one good text on the psychology of religion. The collaborative efforst of Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger, and Gorsuch have resulted in just such a comprehensive volume. The Psychology Of Religion covers the psychological nature and funcitions of religion, religion in childhood, religious socialization and thought in adolescence and young […]
Does science provide objective, impartial knowledge about nature and reality, or do social and cultural influences determine its course? Are scientific claims, practices, and theories contrary to religion? From creationists on the right to postmodernists on the left, intellectuals are waging war over the role and future of science in our society. In SCIENCE WARS […]
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!
God is dead. “Died and fell into the sea. ” That’s what Raphael, a despondent angel with luminous white wings and a blinking halo, tells Anthony Van Horne on his fiftieth birthday. Soon Van Horne is chared with captaining the supertanker Carpco Valparaiso (flying the colors of the Vatican) as it tows the two-mile-long corpse […]
Book Description The struggle for the soul of Europe today is every bit as dire and consequential as it was in the 1930s. Then, in Weimar, Germany, the center did not hold, and the light of civilization nearly went out. Today, the continent has entered yet another “Weimar moment.” Will Europeans rise to the challenge […]
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