The second volume of the spectacular science-fiction thriller evolving from the works of Arthur C.Clarke, grandmaster of science fiction and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.. Her code name is Sparta. Her beauty veils a mysterious past and abilities of superhuman dimension-the product of advanced biotech engineering. When a team of scientists is trapped in […]
When did atheism first appear in America? Why did many of the Founding Fathers become deists? Are atheism and deism a threat to the Christian, Jewish, and Moslem religions? The book not only attempts to answer these questions, but also explores the influence of such philosophers as Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius and Voltaire on American leaders. […]
They were the men most trusted: Father Geoghan, Father Birmingham, Father Shanley, Father Trupia, and hundreds of others. They were the rulers of the Catholic Church: Cardinal Law, Cardinal Egan, Cardinal Mahony, and others. They had all taken vows to live by the gospel and to care for their parishioners. And they were believed. Now, […]
Book Description For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why–and how–it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a […]
What makes Canada tick? How does its church-state situation compare with that of the United States? Do Canadians enjoy as much religious liberty as Americans? These questions and others are answered in this brief overview of how religion affects education, law, and politics in Canada.
Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of “intelligent design” creationism. They examine the movement’s “Wedge Strategy,” which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of “intelligent design theory,” they highlight its threat to public education and […]
Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich is required reading for anyone interested in existentialism. We follow the protagonist through the story of his life to discover some startling truths about the meaning of life and the purpose of death. If death is not an event in life, as Wittgenstein maintains, then eternal life belongs to those […]
Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness “Distress,” or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He’s on his way to the artifical island of Stateless, where the world’s top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein’s outmoded legacy. […]
Kierkegaard’s brilliance lies in his ability to take such deeply personal experiences–love, lust, sorrow–and comment universally in a way that is at least unmatched in philosophy and probably in all of literature. He understood life in a way that seems obvious but is in fact merely fundamental to us all. The book is a collection […]
Diplomat Byr Gen-Hofoen has been selected by The Department of Special Circumstances to investigate a 2,500-year-old mystery–the reported existence and sudden disappearance of a star 50 times older than the universe itself. The only way to break the silence is to steal the soul of a long-dead starship captain who first encountered the star, and […]
Question: Who made us? Answer #1: God made us. Answer #2: Evolution made us. Which is it? What is the true answer to the age-old question of where we came from? Is it even possible to know for sure? In Finding Darwin’s God, Kenneth R. Miller offers a surprising resolution to the evolutionism vs. creationism […]
The Ramans return in the third saga of extraterrestrial contact–a riveting odyssey of a future Eden. The phenomenon begun in Rendezvous with Rama and carried on in Rama II continues in a masterpiece of technological extrapolation–an exhilarating adventure into the heart of both the universe and humankind.
Book Description After 19 years as an evangelical preacher, missionary, and Christian songwriter, Dan Barker “threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there.” Barker, who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (America’s largest organization of atheists and agnostics), describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from […]
Book Description Mrs. Green is teaching her daily science class one day when suddenly she receives terrible news: A popular student named Amanda has been struck by a car on her way to class and is now hospitalized with serious injuries. “Let’s all pray for Amanda,” says one earnest classmate. “Surely God will make her […]
The late Isaac Asimov narrates a collection of five of his most popular science fiction stories written during the 1950s–“The Last Question,” “The Immortal Bard,” “Someday,” “The Jokester,” and “The Ugly Little Boy.”
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 […]
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