About this product: Leading apologists Dr. Norman Geisler and Alex McFarland (President of Southern Evangelical Seminary) look at the big questions of life. Does God exist? What kind of God exists? How can I know this God who exists? The pamphlet provides a comprehensive yet understandable examination of what atheists and agnostics believe and also explains the evidence for the biblical God.
About this product: In this selection of his most important writings, renowned scientist and philosopher Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) discusses his views on the demonstrative evidence of evolution, the physical basis of life, naturalism and supernaturalism, agnosticism and Christianity, and the Christian tradition in relation to Judaic Christianity.
About this product: Many books that challenge religious belief from a skeptical point of view take a combative tone that is almost guaranteed to alienate believers, or they present complex philosophical or scientific arguments that fail to reach the average reader. Guy P. Harrison argues that this is an ineffective way of trying to encourage people to develop critical thinking about religion. In this unique approach, Harrison concisely presents fifty commonly heard reasons that people often give for believing in a god. Then he raises legitimate questions regarding these reasons, showing in each case that there is much room for doubt.
From religion as the foundation of morality to the authority of sacred books, the compelling religious testimony of influential people, near-death experiences, theories from intelligent design, and much more, Harrison respectfully describes each rationale for belief and then politely shows the deficiencies that any good skeptic would point out. He also offers something in return--a hopeful and optimistic view of science, the universe, and humanity without the divisiveness, prejudice, and hatred caused by conflicting religious doctrines.
Drawing on his experiences as a nonbeliever and his extensive travels around the world, Harrison makes poignant arguments that are sure to inspire thought-provoking discussions. Whether you're a believer, a complete skeptic, or somewhere in between, you'll find his review of traditional and more recent arguments for the existence of gods refreshing, approachable, and enlightening.
About this product: For about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees--in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, as he ministered to various congregations and taught at Christian colleges, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith, brought on by emotional upheavals in his personal life as well as the gathering weight of the doubts he had long entertained.
In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, Loftus carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The bulk of the book is his "cumulative case" against Christianity. Here he lays out the philosophical, scientific, and historical reasons that can be raised against Christian belief. From the implications of religious diversity, the authority of faith vs. reason, and the problem of evil, to the contradictions between the Bible and the scientific worldview, the conflicts between traditional dogma and historical evidence, and much more, Loftus covers a great deal of intellectual terrain. For every issue he succinctly summarizes the various points of view and provides references for further reading. In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering.
This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion.
About this product: The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world.
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind is a bare-bones toolkit designed to empower anyone willing to sufficiently apply themselves to the task to quickly recognize the true human situation, to achieve individual psychic/spiritual liberation from it, and to subsequently take on an enlightened leadership role in the much-needed, near-future awakening of the greater human species.
This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artists paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
About this product: 1906. This book contains Volumes 1 and 2 of the original works. Found within are the Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen in the years 1896-1898. These lectures do not form a systematic treatise. They only attempt to discuss in a popular way certain assumptions of modern science which have led to a widespread, but more or less tacit, rejection of idealistic views of the world. Partial Contents: mechanical theory; relation of abstract dynamics to actual phenomena; molecular mechanics its indirectness; molecular mechanics, ideals or matter; theory of energy; mechanical evolution; biological evolution; theory of psychophysical parallelism; conscious automation theory; refutation of dualism; experience as life; unity of individual and universal experience; spiritualistic monism.
Thirteen-year-old Danny Bates is obsessed with becoming a Catholic priest, and he enters Southport, Wisconsin’s, Resurrection Seminary in 1957. But a tragic fire in Chicago ignites doubts about the God Danny is so eager to serve, and he falls in love with Jessica Fernettan, his best friend Pat’s twin sister. As Jessica urges both Danny and Pat to leave the seminary, and with the Church in a period of dramatic change following its second Vatican Council, the young seminarians face agonizing choices. In a powerful and sensitive account of competing personal values, To Become a Priest—a Love Story follows the intertwined lives of Danny, Pat, and Jessica over the next forty years to a memorable ending at the place where their story began.
“An engrossing account of the seminary and priesthood during this period, with the best depiction of the troubled terrain of sexual longing among seminarians that I have read.” —Raymond Hedin, author of Married to the Church Professor of American Literature, Indiana University
“A conflict of fundamental values, and a great love story besides.” —Phillip Gaustad, author of The Ordnance
“An incredibly sweet story.” —Christine DeSmet, author of Spirit Lake University of Wisconsin-Madison