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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Incantations of black magic unearthed unspeakable horrors in a quiet town near Providence, Rhode Island. Evil spirits are being resurrected from beyond the grave, a supernatural force so twisted that it kills without offering the mercy of death!
The Creationists
This is a history of creationism from the age of Darwin to the present. The author discusses such thinkers as George Frederick Wright, George McCready Price, and John C. Whitcomb, organizations like The Religion and Science Association, The Deluge Geology Society and The Creation Research Society, and creationism in the churches.
The End of Christianity
Description In this successor volume to his critically acclaimed first anthology, The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, John Loftus—a former minister and now a leading atheist spokesperson—has assembled a stellar group of respected scholars to continue the critique of Christianity begun in the first volume. The contributors include Victor Stenger, Robert Price, Hector Avalos, Richard […]
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Description They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers. Behind the scenes at every National Prayer […]
The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture
Description Dr. Darrel Ray, psychologist and lifelong student of religion, discusses religious infection from the inside out. What makes religion so powerful? How does it weave its way into our political system? Why do people believe and follow obvious religious charlatans? What makes people profess deep faith even as they act in ways that betray […]
The Humanist Alternative
The contributors to this volume were asked the following questions: The term “Humanism” is widely used, as are the terms “ethical” Humanism, “scientific” Humanism and “religious” Humanism. What is Humanism? Can you define it? If there is in your judgment no clear definition in the literature, you may wish to propose one. You may also […]
The Last Temptation of Christ
Hailed as a masterpiece by critics worldwide, The Last Temptation of Christ is a monumental reinterpretation of the Gospels by one of the giants of modern literature. Nikos Kazantzakis, renowned author of Zorba the Greek, brilliantly fleshes out the story of Christ’s passion, giving it a dynamic spiritual freshness. Kazantzakis’s Jesus is gloriously divine, yet […]
The Making of the Messiah: Christianity and Resentment
“This book presents a picture of the origins of Christianity very different from anything that has been published before,” writes Robert Sheaffer in the Introduction to The Making of the Messiah. “Many Christians will find this book as offensive as Moslem fanatics did Salman Rushdie’s ‘blasphemous’ Satanic Verses.” Sheaffer has provided fascinating reading for all […]
The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience
How does the mind experience the sacred? What biological mechanisms are involved in mystical states and trances? Is there a neurological basis for patterns in comparative religions? Does religion have an evolutionary function? This pathbreaking work by two leading medical researchers explores the neurophysiology of religious experience. Building on an explanation of the basic structure […]
The Origin of Satan
Pagels’ lucid history of the social construction of Satan is not only a wealth of historical information, but also a source of important insights into the demonization of “intimate enemies” that has marked the history of Christianity. Pagels writes that she began with the assumption that Christian discourse about invisible beings, including Satan and other […]
The Portable Voltaire
Satirist, novelist, poet, dramatist, historian, moralist, critic, courtier, and correspondent, champion of reason and fanatical adversary of fanaticism, a darling of kings with the unfortunate habit of turning them into enemies, François Arouet de Voltaire is one of the few writers to have imposed his name on an entire epoch. It is entirely appropriate that […]
The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry
Although Christianity is anchored to the doctrine of the resurrection, historical research shows that from a historical standpoint Jesus was not raised from the dead. In the thorough explanation and discussion of the primary texts dealing with the claimed resurrection of Christ, New Testament expert Gerd Ludemann presents compelling evidence to show that the resurrection […]
The Small Book
When the author and his wife started Rational Recovery in 1986, their program met the huge demand for an alternative to 12-step recovery programs. The Small Book — as opposed to AA’s The Big Book — is the secular guide for people who want to recover through self-reliance, not through dependence on religion, sponsors, or […]
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide
It’s safe to say that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of the funniest science fiction novels ever written. Adams spoofs many core science fiction tropes: space travel, aliens, interstellar war–stripping away all sense of wonder and repainting them as commonplace, even silly. This omnibus edition begins with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the […]
There’s Something About Mary: Essays on Phenomenal Consciousness and Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument
Book Description In Frank Jackson’s famous thought experiment, Mary is confined to a black-and-white room and educated through black-and-white books and lectures on a black-and-white television. In this way, she learns everything there is to know about the physical world. If physicalism–the doctrine that everything is physical–is true, then Mary seems to know all there […]
Universes
Universes asks ‘Why does our universe exist?’ In order to answer that most fundamental of question, this author examines the philosophical as well as the scientific arguments for ‘fine tuning’; that is, the theory that the cosmos is specifically suited to produce life. The result is one of the most powerful versions of the ‘argument […]
Why Be Moral?
Noted philosopher Kai Nielsen offers an answer to this fundamental question – a question that reaches in to grasp at the very heart of ethics itself. Essentially, this innocent inquiry masks a confusion that so many of us get caught in as we think about moral issues. We fail to realize that there is a […]
Wings Of Illusion: The Origin, Nature, and Future of Paranormal Belief
Synopsis Unavailable
A Dictionary of Philosophy
This 400 page dictionary is a real bargain. The editor Antony Flew has done a great service for philosophy lovers. Flew is one of the best known specialists of linguistic philosophy. In this carefully researched work he assists readers to clarify meanings and understand known and well known terms and issues on philosophy.
About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution
“With wit and clarity, the author of more than 20 popular science books, including God and the New Physics and The Last Three Minutes, now explores the riddle of time, examining the consequences of Einstein’s theory of relativity and offering startling suggestions about what recent research may reveal. 50 line drawings.”
Anthem
Available for the first time in trade paperback–this provocative book is “an anthem sung in praise of man’s ego”–from the legendary author Ayn Rand. Anthem has long been hailed as one of Ayn Rand’s classic novels, and a clear predecessor to her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In Anthem, Rand examines a frightening […]
Atheism, Ayn Rand & Other Heresies
An interesting collection of essays on atheism, Ayn Rand, and other issues including “My Path to Atheism,” “Philosophies of Toleration,” “The Righteous Persecution of Drug Consumers,” “Children’s Rights in Political Philosophy.”
Belief and Make-Believe: Critical Reflections on the Sources of Credulity
Synopsis Unavailable
Biology and the Foundation of Ethics
There has been much attention devoted in recent years to the question of whether our moral principles can be related to our biological nature. This collection of new essays focuses on the connection between biology and foundational questions in ethics. The book asks such questions as whether humans are innately selfish, and whether there are […]
Challenges to the Enlightenment
A collection of essays on philosophical, scientific, and social issues posed by challenges toliberal social and political traditions inherited from the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History
Constantine’s Sword is a sprawling work of history, theology, and personal confession by James Carroll (the author of An American Requiem, among many others). Carroll begins his landmark project by describing contemporary Catholic remembrances of the Holocaust and the Church’s intolerable legacy of hostility towards Jews. He then surveys Catholic anti-Judaism beginning with the New […]
Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution
In a chest of drawers bequeathed by his grandmother, author Randal Keynes found the writing case of Charles Darwin’s beloved daughter Annie, who died at the age of ten. Within the box, among the typical keepsakes of a Victorian girlhood, were the notes Darwin kept throughout Annie’s illness and the eloquent and devastating eulogy he […]
Destroying the World to Save It
Subtitled: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism Since earliest history, prophets and gurus have foretold the world’s end, but only the nuclear age has made it possible for a megalomaniac guru with an apocalyptic vision to bring his prophecy to pass. Robert Jay Lifton offers a case in point in this chilling […]
Ethics Without God
A forceful refutation of the claim that one cannot behave morally without believing in God. However, Nielsen’s book leaves much to be desired: he does not address the issue of whether objective morality is more plausible on theism than on atheism.
Failed God: Fractured Myth in a Fragile World
Description On a 2001 trip to the cathedrals of Europe, anthropologist John Rush and his wife entered St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice and encountered a mosaic depicting Jesus surrounded by mushrooms with an Amanita muscaria cap in his hand. Examining the space with new eyes, they discovered images of mushrooms and mind-altering plants all over […]
