Richard Carrier is an expert in the history of the ancient world and a critic of Christian attempts to distort history in defense of their faith. Not the Impossible Faith is a tour de force in that genre, dissecting and refuting the oft-repeated claim that Christianity could not have succeeded in the ancient world unless it was true. Though framed as a detailed rebuttal to Christian apologist J.P. Holding (author of The Impossible Faith), Carrier takes a general approach that educates the reader on the history and sociology of the ancient world, answering many questions like: How did Christians approach evidence? Was there a widespread prejudice against the testimony of women? Was resurrection such a radical idea? Who would worship a crucified criminal? And much more. Written with occasional humor and an easy style, and thoroughly referenced, with many entertaining "gotcha!" moments, Not the Impossible Faith is a must-read for anyone interested in the origins of Christianity.

    Darrel Ray, psychologist and lifelong student of religion, discusses religious infection from the inside out. How does guilt play into religious infection? Why is sexual control so important to so many religions? What causes the anxiety and neuroticism around death and dying? How does religion inject itself into so many areas of life, culture, and politics? The author explores this and much more in his book The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. This second-generation book takes the reader several steps beyond previous offerings and into the realm of the personal and emotional mechanisms that affect anyone who lives in a culture steeped in religion. Examples are used that anyone can relate to and the author gives real-world guidance in how to deal with and respond to people who are religious in our families, and among our friends and coworkers.

    

    Though religions offer what appear to be explanations of various facts about the world, the scientist, as scientist, will not take such proposed explanations seriously. Even if no natural explanation were available, she will assume that one exists. Is this merely a sign of atheistic prejudice, as some critics suggest? Or are there good reasons to exclude from science explanations that invoke a supernatural agent? On the one hand, Dawes concedes the bare possibility that talk of divine action could constitute a potential explanation of some state of affairs, while noting that the conditions under which this would be true are unlikely ever to be fulfilled. On the other hand, he argues that a proposed explanation of this kind would rate poorly, when measured against our usual standards of explanatory virtue.

    The goal of this book is to try to get people to take intelligent design seriously. Monton maintains that it is legitimate to view intelligent design as science, that there are somewhat plausible arguments for the existence of a cosmic designer, and that intelligent design should be taught in public school science classes. In Chapter 1, after setting aside the culture wars that many people associate with the intelligent design movement, Monton discusses the issue of what exactly the doctrine of intelligent design amounts to. In Chapter 2 Monton discusses the ruling of Judge Jones in the recent Dover, Pennsylvania intelligent design trial, and he takes issue with his arguments for the claim that intelligent design is not science. In Chapter 3 Monton takes up four arguments for intelligent design that he thinks are somewhat plausible: an argument based on the fine-tuning of the fundamental constants of physics, an argument based on the beginning of the universe, an argument based on the improbability of life originating from non-life, and an argument that suggests that we're living in a computer simulation. In Chapter 4 Monton argues that it could benefit students' science education to see the arguments for and against intelligent design, and to be introduced to the philosophy of science issues that are key components of those arguments. Monton's position is unique and of great interest to people involved in this debate (especially from those favoring intelligent design). Relatively few people in philosophy of science have suggested that there are decent arguments for why intelligent design is science (indeed, most of the well known philosophers have argued the contrary - e.g., Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science. MIT Press, 1983).

    Stephen Meyer plays a "philosophical survival game," pitting four worldviews against one another in the quest to decide which one gives the best answers. Dr. Meyer examines the evidence and provides the tools needed for students to defend their faith and make it their own. This is the perfect resource for students preparing to enter college and a culture that may be hostile to their faith. ISBN: 1589973399ISBN-13: 9781589973398UPC: 700001013398

    The odds of meeting God there: Nil. THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE describes an afterlife that is consistent with known law and requires nothing more than physics. It demonstrates that an afterlife is possible based on reason, and supports the probability of an afterlife with an original and testable support for dualism -- the proposition that our mind and body are separate.An afterlife based on reason has profound implications. An afterlife that requires only physics requires no God; it makes the concept of God irrelevant and removes the 'God of the Gaps' completely. It enables us to prove that many religious conceptions of an afterlife are false, including the concepts of judgement, selectivity based on belief, and the existence of Heaven and Hell. It removes the concept of an afterlife from its religious associations, so humanists and other rationalists can examine it on its own merit. And an original and testable support for dualism could resolve a philosophical debate that's been going on for more than 2,000 years!"'Philosophy has had one arm tied behind its back by the absence of a law prohibiting an afterlife, and the other arm tied behind its back by the absence of any logical mechanism to support it. ... Until now.'"Entertaining and well reasoned, THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE is a significant contribution to philosophy and free thought.Author DAVID STAUME is a philosopher, secular humanist and public speaker. He is a member of rationalist and freethinking associations, is studying at the University of London, and can be contacted via the website www.ModernPhilosophy.com.

    Tobin shows the bible, with its numerous contradictions, historical errors and scientific inaccuracies, cannot be considered inerrant. He guides us through the intricacies of modern archaeology and comparative mythology, showing us that the much told stories in the Bible - Adam and Eve, Noah and Moses - are myths, invented by the ancient Hebrews under the influence of Babylonian beliefs. He demonstrates that the gospels, far from being eye-witness accounts, were written by authors unknown to us and were composed many decades after Jesus' death. He reveals that the stories regarding Jesus in the gospels are a combination of historical memory, legendary development and mythical fabrication. With the field of biblical scholarship increasingly packed with evangelicals - where the results of "research" are always in line with traditional church teachings - this book fills an important gap in the literature on Christianity and the Bible.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    In this book Ilkka Pyysi�inen shows how this methodology can profitably be used in the comparative study of beliefs about superhuman agents. He begins by developing a theoretical outline of the basic, modular architecture of the human mind and especially the human capacity to understand agency. He then goes on to discuss examples of supernatural agency in detail, arguing that the human ability to attribute beliefs and desires to others forms the basis of conceptions of supernatural agents and of such social cognition in which supernatural agents are postulated as interested parties in social life. Beliefs about supernatural agency are natural, says Pyysi�inen, in the sense that such concepts are used in an intuitive and automatic fashion. Two dots and a straight line below them automatically trigger the idea of a face, for example. Given that the mind consists of a host of such modular mechanisms, certain kinds of beliefs will always have a selective advantage over others. Abstract theological concepts are usually elaborate versions of such simpler and more contagious folk conceptions. Pyysi�inen uses ethnographical and survey materials as well as doctrinal treatises to show that there are certain recurrent patterns in beliefs about supernatural agents both at the level of folk-religion and of formal theology.

    As a masterwork of allegorical fantasy, it stands unequaled. As a survey of the true causes of human misery, it fails utterly, built as it was upon a medieval religious worldview divorced from reality. S.A. Alenthony's The Infernova is the new book that rectifies this error by turning the classic vision of the Christian hell upside-down. Retelling the poem from an atheist's perspective, the story parallels Dante's descent through nine infamous circles where increasingly pernicious sinners endure their symbolic punishments. The upper circles house the minor offenders: those who lacked clarity or promoted fallacious arguments. The middle levels incarcerate those who preyed upon-and profited from-irrationality: paranormalists, conspiracy theorists, astrologers, and their ilk. Lower and yet darker realms are reserved for religion's criminals, such as televangelist-frauds, pedophile-priests, and terrorists, while at the pit's nadir reside the legions of the world's prophets and a virtual menagerie of the countless gods born of their imaginations. Dante was famously accompanied on his journey by his revered hero, the Roman poet Virgil. In The Infernova, it is the satirical and irreligious gadfly Mark Twain who takes the role of guide and companion. As their odyssey continues, the dangers of irrational and mystical thinking grow more clear, and their dialogues and encounters with hell's residents provide a unique tableau on which to set out the arguments against supernaturalism. Mythological traditions have long used narratives and parables as vehicles to get their messages across. While secular writers have produced a steady stream of quality non-fiction recently, works of fiction and poetry are more rare. The Infernova addresses the paucity of atheist imaginative writing, and will be of interest to all manner of freethinkers, humanists, and skeptical persons looking for a different kind of deconstruction of the world's superstitions.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.