Tentatively scheduled books
for the upcoming months
Sponsored link.
Note:
We feel that these books will be of interest to everyone:
Those who follow a conservative Christian faith group should find the books helpful when prostelytizing religious liberals and secularists. It is important to know what unsaved people believe and why they believe it.
Agnostics, Atheists, and other secularists should find the books helpful because they may increase their understanding of their own beliefs.
Everyone may benefit from these books because they combat with reason the high levels of homphobia, Islamophobia, Atheist phobia, etc. in the culture.
"I learned an enormous amount from this splendid book." -- Richard Dawkins, Author of the New York Times bestseller The God Delusion
"Extremely tough and impressive...a great book...a huge addition to the arsenal of argument." -- Christopher Hitchens, Author of the New York Times bestseller God Is Not Great
"Marshalling converging arguments from physics, astronomy, biology, and philosophy, Stenger has delivered a masterful blow in defense of reason. God: The Failed Hypothesis is a potent, readable, and well-timed assault upon religious delusion. It should be widely read." -- Sam Harris, Author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
"As a former evangelical, who has studied almost every religion at least in a cursory manner, I am convinced that a personal, religiously affiliated, or intervening god does not exist and is a mere psychological projection. However, I had still remained somewhat agnostic toward the concept of a deistic god. Stenger shows that modern physics can indeed answer such seemingly hard questions as 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' rather convincingly. This book weakened my position of agnostic deism from 'maybe' to 'probably not' because complete naturalism seems to be the best and most likely explanation." Review by Thomas Adam L.
About the Author:
Victor Stenger (Lafayette, CO) is adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of Has Science Found God?, The Comprehensible Cosmos, Timeless Reality, The Unconscious Quantum, Physics and Psychics, Not by Design and The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe Is Not Designed for Us.
About the book:
The title says it all. The author attempts to show the non-existence of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic concept of God. The review on Amazon.com shows that the book received only a mediocre rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. But a closer examination of the almost 200 reviews showed that almost equal numbers of readers gave a 4,3,2 and 1 rating. The book is obviously disliked by many theists, and loved by many agnostics and atheists.
The book you must read to understand the Islamist crisis—and the threat to us all. Robert R. Reilly’s eye-opening book masterfully explains the frightening behavior coming out of the Islamic world. Terrorism, he shows, is only one manifestation of the spiritual pathology of Islamism.
Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.
The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as:
Why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development
Why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world
Why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousand years
Why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon
Delving deeper than previous polemics and simplistic analyses, The Closing of the Muslim Mind provides the answers the West has so desperately needed in confronting the Islamist crisis.
""Muslim American women are the subject of endless discussions regarding their role in society, their veils as symbols of oppression or of freedom, their identity, their patriotism, their womanhood. Yet the voices and life experiences of Muslim American women themselves are rarely heard in the loud rhetoric surrounding the question of Muslims in America. Finally, in I Speak for Myself, 40 American women under the age of 40, share their experiences of their lives as Muslim women in America. While their commonality is faith and citizenship, their voices and their messages are very different.
Readers of I Speak for Myself are presented with a kaleidoscope of stories, artfully woven together around the central idea of limitlessness and individuality. A common theme linking these intimate self-portraits will be the way each woman uniquely defies labeling, simply by defining for herself what it means to be American and Muslim and female. Each personal story is a contribution to the larger narrative of life stories and life work of a new generation of Muslim women.
There are approximately six million Muslims living in the United States and over one billion around the world. While the events of 9/11 certainly engaged Americans with the religion of Islam, many enduring stereotypes continue to belittle the Muslim American experience; this often leads to a monolithic interpretation of Islam. Such a treatment is especially inappropriate when reflecting on the Muslim American identity, which is by far one of the most culturally, ethnically, and socially diverse of any in the Islamic world. Women of the Muslim community in America could be described as both patriots and practitioners (of faith). Their experiences call for a body of literature that reflects how they celebrate and live Islam in distinctive ways.
In the wake of the current rising tide of Islamophobia (see Time Magazine, Aug. 30, 2010), I Speak for Myself is a must read for Americans seeking understanding of Islam from young women who were all born in the USA.
"What is the future of the Christian tradition as it confronts the challenges and opportunities of the global age? That question, addressed by authors from around the globe, leads in turn to more questions. What elements of a traditional Christian faith can be carried forward in an authentic contemporary faith: The Bible as Sacred Scripture? Life after death? Sin and guilt? Reward and punishment? How do we make an earth-centered vision the heart of a faith for the second axial age? And many more. Contributors include: John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop Emeritus of Newark, New Jersey; Robert W. Funk, Founder of the Jesus Seminar; Eugenie Scott, Director of the Center for Science Education; Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh & Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Retired; Lloyd Geering, Emeritus Professor of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; Don Cupitt, former Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England; Anne Primavesi, Fellow of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, Birkbeck College, University of London; and Fellows of the Jesus Seminar."
The myth that the Bible forbids homosexuality—the myth of “God versus Gay”—is behind some of the most divisive and painful conflicts of our day. In this provocative, passionately argued, and game-changing book, scholar and activist Jay Michaelson shows that not only does the Bible not prohibit same-sex intimacy, but the vast majority of its teachings support the full equality and dignity of gay and lesbian people, from the first flaw it finds in creation (“It is not good for a person to be alone”) to the way religious communities grow through reflection and conscience. In short, Michaelson observes, religious people should support equality for gays and lesbians—not despite their religion, but because of it.
With close readings of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, the latest data on the science of sexual orientation, and a sympathetic, accessible, and ecumenical approach to religious faith, Michaelson makes the case that sexual diversity is part of the beauty of nature and that the recognition of same-sex families will strengthen, not threaten, the values religious people hold dear. This is an important book for anyone who has wrestled with questions of religion and homosexuality: parents and pastors, believers and skeptics, advocates of “gay rights” and opponents of them. Whatever your views on religion and sexual diversity, God vs. Gay is a plea for a more compassionate, informed conversation—and a first step toward creating one.
Page Translator: