Best of
Atheism

2005

The Counter-Creationism Handbook


Mark Isaak - 2005
    And many people who support the teaching of evolution—students, teachers, parents, administrators—do not have the background to respond. They know that scientists have thoroughly dismantled these arguments, but they don't have a handy way of responding to these attacks. The Counter-Creationism Handbook is a one-stop resource for addressing over 400 of the most prevalent claims made by creationists. Each claim is followed by a succinct and scientifically valid rebuttal, and the book includes print and on-line resources for further reading and information. The Counter-Creationism Handbook:* Covers claims made about the disciplines of philosophy, biology, paleontology, geology, astronomy, physics and mathematics, history, and more.* Addresses the claims of Biblical creationism, intelligent design creationism, and some creationism based on non-Christian religions.* Includes an introduction on how to address creationists in different venues, how to deal with novel claims, and why accurate science is important.* Is organized thematically, with extensive cross-referencing.

What's God Got to Do with it? Robert Ingersoll on Free Thought, Honest Talk & the Separation of Church & State


Robert G. Ingersoll - 2005
    An outspoken and unapologetic agnostic, fervent champion of the separation of church and state, and tireless.

Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism


Richard C. Carrier - 2005
    A complete worldview is presented and defended, covering every subject from knowledge to art, from metaphysics to morality, from theology to politics. Topics include free will, the nature of the universe, the meaning of life, and much more, arguing from scientific evidence that there is only a physical, natural world without gods or spirits, but that we can still live a life of love, meaning, and joy.

Challenging the Bible: Selections from the Writings and Speeches of Robert G. Ingersoll


Robert G. Ingersoll - 2005
    Ingersoll. Editor and religious expert Dean Tipton has selected some of the best material from thousands and thousands of pages of Ingersoll's writings and recorded speeches that challenge the Bible and its followers. Challenging the Bible explores a wide variety of Bible-related topics and raises important questions that everyone should think about. The result is one penetrating book that best presents the various perspectives and objections against a religious text that has unquestionably been the most dominant influence in human history. Truly a must read for anyone ranging from conservative religious believers to liberal freethinkers, Challenging the Bible combines the insight and passion of Robert G. Ingersoll with the astute selection of Dean Tipton to create a truly special work in the genre of religious literature.

Thomas Paine From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'


Robert G. Ingersoll - 2005
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Illustrated Stories from the Bible (That They Won't Tell You in Sunday School)


Paul John Farrell - 2005
    Because it is extremely accurate -- even anatomically accurate -- in depicting the often shocking tales that make the bible an ethicist's nightmare Illustrated Stories From The Bible can be recommended for children no more than one could recommend the Bible itself. Each tale (illustrated by cartoonist Kathy Demchuck) is told in the wide-eyed, isn't-God-wonderful manner of the books usually employed to entice children into churches. Each story is followed, however, by a rationalist's ethical critique that draws upon the best modern scholarship concerning the Bible. Stories include: Elisha and the Bears; Jephtha's Daughter; Little Gershom's Penis; Uriah the Hittite; David's Census; Moses Helps God Understand; Slaughter Of the Midianites; Famine In Samaria; Where Giants Came From; Wives For the Benjamites; and When Jesus Drowned the Pigs.

How: A Day in the Life of a Young Humanist


Michelle Iturrate - 2005
    This delightful and relevant story is a must-have addition to the modern family's bookshelf. A helpful glossary includes definitions for evolution, humanist and the scientific method.

Begone Godmen


Abraham Kovoor - 2005
    Kovoor's encounters with assorted fakes attempting to cash on the credulity of their victims. It is a work of detection and exposure, as enjoyable a any thriller, and a warning against the bogus gurus the reader may come across

An Infamous Past: E.M. Cioran and the Rise of Fascism in Romania


Marta Petreu - 2005
    E. M. Cioran, the renowned Romanian-French nihilist philosopher and literary figure, knew this better than anyone. Alongside Heidegger, Sartre, Paul de Mann, and others, Cioran was one of the great scholars of the twentieth century to be seduced by totalitarianism: he experienced a most disturbing intellectual and moral drama. More than any other study of Cioran, Marta Petreu's intensive investigation of his life and work confronts the central problem of his biography: his relationship with political extremism. The scene of Cioran's excesses is Romania and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, a time of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, Nazism, and Stalinism. In an incendiary book published in the mid-thirties, Cioran openly praised Hitler and Lenin and compared the leader of the fanatical Romanian Iron Guard to Jesus himself. This book, The Transfiguration of Romania, is the focal element of Ms. Petreu's analysis, which she carries on to Cioran's posthumously published Notebooks, characterized by the regret and remorse of his twilight years. In straightforward and lucid prose, grounded in a wealth of documentary evidence, she provides the entire history of a painful individual and collective drama. For many of Cioran's yearnings would later be realized in Ceausescu's dictatorship of Romania--to the regret of the Romanian people. Norman Manea's Foreword reminds us of Cioran's stature in Western intellectual circles and explains the critical importance of An Infamous Past.

The System of Nature, Vol. 2


Paul-Henri Thiry - 2005
    His initial position determines all the rest of his argument. "There is not, there can be nothing out of that Nature which includes all beings." Conceiving of nature as strictly limited to matter and motion, both of which have always existed, he flatly denies that there is any such thing as spirit or a supernatural.

The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave


Robert M. Price - 2005
    A few critics have directly addressed some of the new arguments, but their response has been largely muted. The Empty Tomb scrutinizes the claims of leading Christian apologists and critiques their view of the resurrection as the best historical explanation.The contributors include New Testament scholars, philosophers, historians, and leading nontheists. They focus on the key questions relevant to assessing the historicity of the resurrection: What did the authors of the New Testament mean when they said Jesus rose from the dead? What historical evidence is needed to establish the resurrection? If there is a God, why would He resurrect Jesus? Was there an empty tomb? What should we make of the appearance stories? Apart from historical evidence, is belief in the resurrection justified?The Empty Tomb provides a sober, objective response to arguments offered in defense of Christianity’s central claim.

Seeing Through the Eye: Malcolm Muggeridge on Faith


Cecil Kuhne - 2005
    He shocked the world with his conversion to Christianity later in life. "St. Mugg", as he was affectionately known, was clear in his new-found faith: "It is the truth that has died, not God," and "Jesus was God or he was nothing." These wonderful selections of Muggeridge's writings and speeches cover a wide variety of spiritual themes, revealing his profound faith, great wit, and lively writing style. Topics include "Jesus: The Man Who Lives", "Is There a God?", "The Prospect of Death", "Do We Need Religion?", "Peace and Power", and many more."The counter-countercultural declaration of Mr. Muggeridge's conversion was especially eye-catching given the great legions traveling in the opposite direction. His larger public knew him through his work as a television host and critic. But all of literate England, and much of America, knew him as a learned and incisive journalist who had written Winter in Moscow, a searing exposé of Communism. His intellect and historical savoir-faire gave his criticisms a very long reach. In America he made regular appearances as book editor of Esquire magazine. No Englishman has a more mordant, more attractive wit."—William F. Buckley, Jr.From the Introduction