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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True
Description Magic takes many forms. Supernatural magic is what our ancestors used in order to explain the world before they developed the scientific method. The ancient Egyptians explained the night by suggesting the goddess Nut swallowed the sun. The Vikings believed a rainbow was the gods’ bridge to earth. The Japanese used to explain earthquakes […]
The Most Dangerous Man in America
One of the most powerful and potentially dangerous religious/political movements in American history has been built by right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson. The Christian Coalition (broadcasting fundamentalism and extreme politics to an audience of millions via the “700 Club”) wields a mighty sword within the Republican party in at least 25 states. And GOP national leaders […]
The Non-Existence of God: An Introduction
Is it possible to prove or disprove God’s existence? Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: in The Non-Existence of God, Nicholas Everitt considers the best of the contemporary arguments, and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God’s existence. Everitt’s conclusion is […]
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
Book Description From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages–with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever […]
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
This sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy finds Arthur Dent, reluctant space adventurer, joining Zaphod Beeblebrox –two-headed former president of the galaxy –Zaphod’s dead great-grandfather, sexy cadet Trillian, and paranoid Marvin in the search for the ruler of the Universe
The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken
When H. L. Mencken talked, everyone listened — like it or not. In the Roaring Twenties, he was the one critic who mattered, the champion of a generation of plain-speaking writers who redefined the American novel, and the ax-swinging scourge of the know-nothing, go-getting middle-class philistines whom he dubbed the “booboisie.” Some loved him, others […]
The Truth About Everything: An Irreverent History of Philosophy
While attempting to bring order and structure to the history of philosophy, professionals in modern universities have apparently lost sight of what philosophy really is. So says Matthew Stewart, who has discovered that in the professors’ well-intended pursuit of the truth and knowledge, this area of thought has been dissected, organized into a series of […]
Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology
Written debate between William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith on the theological and atheological implications of modern cosmology.
Unintelligent Design
Spurred on not only by the quasi-scientific agenda of the so-called intelligent design theorists, who seek to prove the existence of God mathematically, but also by his personal contact with otherwise rational scientists, physicist Mark Perakh sets out to reveal the falsity of the claims of neocreationism with a thorough, carefully-detailed series of arguments aimed […]
What Evolution Is
Gathering insights from his seven-decade career, the renowned biologist Ernst Mayr argues that evolution is now to be considered not a theory but a fact–and that “there is not a single Why? question in biology that can be answered adequately without a consideration of evolution.” Mayr, emeritus professor of zoology at Harvard University, has long […]
Why Atheism?
George H. Smith, defender of reason and personal liberty, examines the following issues: the positive dimensions of atheism; the burden of proof; the nature of religious experience; problems in proofs of God’s existence; the ethics of Jesus; sex and guilt; Christian values in American society; religion and culture; the lure of “afterlife”; concepts of heaven, […]
Why We Still Need Public Schools
A collection of 25 essays by educators, historians, politicians, clergy, and social commentators who all believe that church-state separation is constitutionally impregnable.
A Celebration of Humanism and Freethought
A unified call to reason, tolerance, and freedom of expression in opposition to the forces of ignorance, supernaturalism, superstition, and dogmatism. The words of A Celebration of Humanism and Freethought is a remarkable collection of compelling ideas and impressive art that deserves a place on every bookshelf.
A Song of Stone
A European nation not unlike Bosnia: Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses. The war is ending, perhaps ended. But for the castle and its occupants, a young lord and lady, the trouble is just beginning. Fearing an invasion of soldiers, the amorous […]
Answering Islam
Christian apologist Norman L. Geisler and former muslim Abdul Saleeb team up to provide a comprehensive, systematic philosophical comparison of Islam and Christianity. Although freethinkers will obviously find much to disagree with in the portions of this book which attempt to “prove” Christianity, the insights of the anti-Islam sections alone make this book valuable to […]
Atheism and Theism
The issue of whether or not there is a God is one of the oldest and most widely disputed philosophical questions. It is a debate that spreads far across the range of philosophical questions about the status of science, the nature of mind, the character of good and evil, the epistemology of experience and testimony, […]
Being and Time
Heidegger has been criticized for his participation in the Nazi party and one could draw a direct connection from his politics to his idea of the herd-instinct philosophy of “falling into the they.” We fall into the “they” to avoid the anxiety of separation. “There is no I, only the one.” Human interaction usually lacks […]
Biogenesis: Theories of Life’s Origin
Biogenesis provides an up-to-date discussion of the origin of life, including experimental strategies, theories, models, and controversies. The book includes an historical overview, from the Greek philosophers to contemporary scientists.
Casting the First Stone
Christian lay reader, antiquarian bookseller and mystical philosopher Gilbert examines the battle lines that have been drawn between orthodoxy and non-orthodoxy, tradition and “alternative” innovation, religious fundamentalism and the “New Age” and looks at the activities of intolerant extremist pressure groups whose aim is to impose their own restrictive values and belief systems on all […]
Consciousness Explained
The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available in paperback. The author of Brainstorms and coauthor of The Mind’s I proposes an original model of consciousness based on new scientific fact and theory.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew
Description This accessible, engaging, and timely book brings together philosophy and evolutionary psychology in a way that will open up debate between the two disciplines. Is religion compatible with evolution? Is religious faith intellectually flawed? Steve Stewart-Williams addresses these and other fundamental questions raised by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Drawing on philosophy, biology and the […]
Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science
Denying Evolution aims at taking a fresh look at the evolution-creation controversy. It presents a truly “balanced” treatment, not in the sense of treating creationism as a legitimate scientific theory (it demonstrably is not), but in the sense of dividing the blame for the controversy equally between creationists and scientists–the former for subscribing to various […]
Doubting Darwin?: Creationist Designs on Evolution
Book Description The debate about what to teach as science in our schools has reached the boiling point, both inside and outside the classroom. From Young Earth to Intelligent Design creationism, the intrusion of political and religious ideals is damaging the integrity of our public education system. Doubting Darwin? puts the dispute into its scientific […]
Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong
Mackie argues that morality is subjective and therefore invented rather than discovered.
Fading Faith: The Rise of the Secular Age
Description A historic transition is occurring, barely noticed. Slowly, imperceptibly, religion is shriveling. Pope Benedict XVI laments that “Europe has developed a culture that, in a manner unknown before now to humanity, excludes God from the public conscience.” In Denmark and Sweden, fewer than 5% of adults are in church on a typical Sunday. In […]
Freedom Evolves
Daniel C. Dennett is a brilliant polemicist, famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies. Over the last thirty years, he has played a major role in expanding our understanding of consciousness, developmental psychology, and evolutionary theory. And with such groundbreaking, critically acclaimed books as Consciousness Explained and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize […]
God is Dead: Secularization in the West
Christianity in the democracies of the “first” world has been declining in power, popularity and prestige since 1900. However, many commentators, social scientists as well as church leaders, try and minimize the extent of this change. They maintain that religious sentiment remains strong despite declining levels of church involvement, and insist that secularization is an […]
Hal’s Legacy : 2001’s Computer As Dream and Reality
If you loved “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you’ll be delighted by this book that asks “How realistic was HAL?” Contributions by various scientists include essays on supercomputer design with regard to speech synthesis, common sense reasoning, emotions, lip reading and even playing chess. As the authors explore what is science fantasy and what is technological […]
How to Think Straight About Psychology
How to Think Straight About Psychology is a concise and easy-to-read “handbook” that evaluates the most important concepts and issues in psychology. Written in an engaging and nontechnical style, this acclaimed book, now in its fifth edition, highlights the essential concepts of falsifiability, operationism, experimental control, converging evidence, and correlational versus experimental studies, as well […]
I, Robot
“To you, a robot is a robot. Gears and Metal; Electricity and positrons. – Mind and iron! Human-made! If necessary, human-destroyed. But you haven’t worked with them, so you don’t know them. They’re a cleaner, better breed than we are.” — Dr. Susan Calvin, 2057 A.D. In a brilliant, chilling series of nine related short […]
