The Outline Of Science

Was it not the great philosopher and mathematician Leibnitz who said that the more knowledge advances the more it becomes possible to condense it into little books? Now this "Outline of Science" is certainly not a little book, and yet it illustrates part of the meaning of Leibnitz's wise saying. For here within reasonable compass there is a library of little books—an outline of many sciences. It will be profitable to the student in proportion to the discrimination with which it is used. For it is not in the least meant to be of the nature of an Encyclopædia, giving condensed and comprehensive articles with a big full stop at the end of each. Nor is it a collection of "primers," beginning at the
very beginning of each subject and working methodically onwards. That is not the idea.

The Psychology of Mans Possible Evolution

Through a series of five lectures, the Russian philosopher whose writings include Tertium Organum and most recently In Search of the Miraculous (October 1, 1949- p. 567) considers the "forgotten science of psychology". Disregarding the study of man as he is or seems to be, with which the modern schools concern themselves, he turns to the study of man as he may be, what man's evolution means and the question of whether there are special conditions necessary to achieve it.

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences. Pinker argues that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. The book was nominated for the 2003 Aventis Prizes and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Pinker argues that modern science has challenged three "linked dogmas" that constitute the dominant view of human nature in intellectual life:

• the blank slate (the mind has no innate traits) - empiricism
• the noble savage (people are born good and corrupted by society) - romanticism
• the ghost in the machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology)^[1] - mind/body dualism
  

The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind by Steven Pinker

As the title suggests, Pinker's The Language Instinct supports the theory that language is innate and that humans have a common "universal grammar". This is a major theme of his book. Another is the correction of common misconceptions about language and the refutation of popular "factoids" with no basis in reality. (A whole chapter is devoted to refuting the arguments of language "mavens", pedants who worry more about normative grammatical rules than clear writing or the realities of human language.) ButThe Language Instinct is actually a fairly comprehensive introduction to linguistics.

Pinker begins with a quick survey of the most obvious evidence for the innateness of language — the growth of creoles from pidgins, the existence of sign languages, the even distribution of

Is Human Nature Obsolete - Genetics, Bioengineering and the Future of Human Condition

Is Human Nature Obsolete? collects papers given in 2001 at a conference at the University of Scranton with an introduction and one paper written specifically for the anthology. Organizers and editors Harold Baillie and Timothy Casey asked the conference participants to address two questions:

(1)   Does the genetic engineering of humans require a new understanding of what it means to be human?

(2)   Does what we know already suggest there should be (and can be) effective limits to what can be done?

Baillie and Casey introduce the collection, summarizing each essay and conveying the tone of engaging and engaged conversation at the aforementioned conference.

As in many discussions of these topics, the focus shifts from genetic engineering in particular to take in germ line modification, cloning, various artificial insemination techniques, and abortion. I shall refer to this collection of topics by the termtechnological intervention in reproduction. The contributors also discuss the use of genetic and molecular techniques in other areas of medicine, and in agriculture, manufacturing, and body modification.

101 Contradictions in the Bible

Filled with Fascinating Quotes from the Most Famous Book in the World. Contradictions in the Bible Teaches us that even Perfection still needs work. Discover what the Bible says but we do not notice, understand in a new dimension what the Holy Book is Really telling you. Make up your own mind and decide. Are You a leader or a Follower?


To download this for free click here

Encyclopedia Of Evolution ( A must Read book )

The theory and facts of evolution have been part of modern science for almost 150 years, since the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and yet, the public at large—especially, but not only, in the United States—still has little understanding of evolution, with almost 50 percent of Americans rejecting the Darwinian view of the history of life outright. It is for this reason that Stanley Rice’s Encyclopedia of Evolution is a particularly welcome addition to the popular literature on evolution. Until recently, most professional scientists have simply not deemed it worth their time and effort to talk to the public about the nature and importance of what they do. Even some of the notable exceptions have been somewhat mixed blessings, from Stephen Jay Gould’s
tiresome politically motivated crusades against biological “interpretations” of the
human condition to Richard Dawkins’s equally misconceived all-out attacks on

The Art of Genes - How Organisms Make Themselves

 Over the past twenty years there has been a revolution in biology: for the first time we have begun to understand how organisms make themselves. The mechanisms by which a fertilised egg develops into an adult can now be grasped in a way that was unimaginable a few decades ago. Yet this revolution has been a curiously silent one. Our new picture of how organisms develop has been inaccessible to all but a small community of biologists. This is largely because the jargon and technical complexities have prevented many of the new and exciting findings from being communicated to a wider audience. Moreover, as scientists have concentrated on unravelling the
details of the story, many of the broader implications of our new found knowledge have remained unvoiced. In my view this is particularly unfortunate because the study of development provides one of the most fertile meeting grounds for science, art and philosophy.

Origins of Life

How did life on Earth originate? Did replication or metabolism come
first in the history of life? In this extensively rewritten second edition,
Freeman Dyson examines these questions and discusses the
two main theories that try to explain how naturally occurring chemicals
could organize themselves into living creatures.
The majority view is that life began with replicating molecules,
the precursors of modern genes. The minority belief is that random
populations of molecules evolved metabolic activities before exact
replication existed and that natural selection drove the evolution of
cells toward greater complexity for a long time without the benefit
of genes. Dyson analyzes both of these theories with reference to
recent important discoveries by geologists and biologists, aiming to
stimulate new experiments that could help decide which theory is
correct.

The Non-Existence of God

Is it possible to prove or disprove God’s existence?
Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over
the centuries: the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments;
arguments which invoke miracles, religious experience and morality; and
prudential arguments such as Pascal’s Wager. On the other hand are the
arguments against theistic belief: the traditional problem of evil; the logical
tensions between divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience and
eternity; and arguments from the scale of the universe.
In The Non-existence of God, Nicholas Everitt introduces and critically
assesses these arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge
play in the debate over God’s existence. He draws on recent scientific
disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implications of ‘big bang’ cosmology, and

Biblical Nonsense: A Review of the Bible for Doubting Christians

Biblical Nonsense is a broad look at the tremendous problem of associating divinity with the world’s most popular book. This part-philosophical, part-scientific overview explores the Bible’s divine treachery, scientific mistakes, historical errors, false prophecies, and comical absurdities.Biblical Nonsense also expands beyond these standard reasons for skepticism by tackling the rationale behind the emergence and perpetuation of Christianity, psychological and sociocultural reasons that drive Christians to cling to their beliefs, and illogical methods of argumentation invoked in the defense of the Bible.

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology Book Description

Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics--as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies. Illustrations.

How to Be a Good Atheist

The title of Nick Harding’s book How to Be a Good Atheist, could mean morally good or effective. What is offered covers what ‘atheism’ means, a brief history of it, a justification, and an attack on religion. It is a short (160 pages) addition to the current spate of anti-religious books by Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, etc. It is very clear and readable, though there are some stylistic and grammatical slips.
He seems to agree with the view of some writers, that there are five subsets of atheism: dogmatic, sceptical, critical, philosophical and speculative. I would rather see a spectrum, ranging from mere absence of belief in God or gods, to either a denial of their existence, or the view that since there is neither evidence nor logical argument in favour, and rather good reasons against, a negative result is the only tenable conclusion. There is a chapter on “What is wrong with religion?” – essentially, that it relies on faith – although Harding points out that some religions have no gods. His history of atheism is clear if necessarily very condensed. There is a spirited defence of atheism against the usual silly attacks, e.g. it is just another faith, lots of bad people like Hitler have been atheists (he wasn’t, and in any case it is irrelevant), atheists cannot be moral, if we lose religion we lose all our finer qualities, love, art, music, etc., we all “really” believe in God but atheists won’t admit it, and so on.

আলো হাতে চলিয়াছে আঁধারের যাত্রী

বাংলাভাষায় বিজ্ঞানের অন্যতম ক্লাসিক বই হিসবে বিবেচিত এবং পাঠকনন্দিত। অঙ্কুর প্রকাশনী থেকে প্রকাশিত এই বইয়ে ধারাবাহিকভাবে বিধৃত হয়েছে মহাবিশ্বের উৎপত্তির পর্যায়ক্রমিক বিবরণ। আজ থেকে প্রায় চোদ্দশ কোটি বছর আগে এক বিশাল বিস্ফোরণের মাধ্যমে কি ভাবে আমাদের এই মহাবিশ্বের উৎপত্তি হয়েছিলো, তার পর কিভাবে তা প্রসারিত হতে হতে আজকের অবস্থায় এসে পৌঁছেছে, সেই আকর্ষনীয় গল্পের অনুপম সাক্ষর এ বইটি। শুধু তাই নয়, এই বইয়ে উঠে এসেছে মহাবিশ্বের উৎপত্তির তত্ত্ব নিয়ে আধুনিক বিজ্ঞানীদের সর্বশেষ ধ্যান-ধারণাগুলো, যা বাংলাভাষায় দুর্লভ।


লেখকঃ অভিজিৎ রায়(মডারেটর, মুক্তমনা)


বইটি অনলাইনে পড়তে ক্লিক করুন এখানে মুক্তমনা
বইটি ডাউনলোড করতে ক্লিক করুন এখানে

All credit goes to Mukto-Mona

বিবর্তনের পথ ধরে- বন্যা আহমেদ

ডারউইনের বিবর্তন তত্ত্বের উপরে বাংলাভাষায় এই মুহূর্তে সম্ভবতঃ সর্বাধিক পঠিত এবং আলোচিত গ্রন্থ এটি। প্রকৃতিবিদ অধ্যাপক দ্বিজেন শর্মা এই বইটিকে ২০০৭ সালে বাংলা একাডেমী বইমেলার অন্যতম গুরুত্বপূর্ণ পুস্তক বলে অভিহিত করেছিলেন। অবসর প্রকাশনা থেকে প্রকাশিত এই বইয়ে জৈব বিবর্তনের বিভিন্ন তত্ত্ব অত্যন্ত আকর্ষনীয় ভঙ্গিতে শুধু উপস্থাপিতই হয়নি, সেই সাথে যারা বিভিন্ন প্রাচীন ধর্মীয় রূপকথার সড়ি ভেঙ্গে অধুনা ‘ইন্টেলিজেন্ট ডিজাইন’ নামক অপবিশ্বাসের আড়ালে আশ্রয় খুঁজছেন, এই বইটি তাদের জন্য এই বইটি এক শক্তিশালী চ্যালেঞ্জ হয়ে দাঁড়িয়েছে।

The End of Faith

This is most definitely a book you’ll either love or hate, because whether or not you’ll end up agreeing with Harris you’ll still be moved by his words. For good or bad.

The End of Faith is quite likely the most brutal and in-your-face criticism of religious faith I’ve ever read, and one thing is for sure: Harris is VERY convinced that the monotheistic faiths and their followers are our version of Mordor and its evil creatures determined to ruin the world as we know it. More or less every single page of the book contains one or more sneers (some of them quite funny, too) aimed at the insanity in believing ancient scriptures and ideas that cannot be proven empirically nor discussed rationally. In Harris’ universe, this world of ours will face utter ruin any day now, and the religions – especially Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – are all to blame.

Breaking the Spell - Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

If nowhere else, the dead live on in our brain cells, not just as memories but as programs--computerlike models compiled over the years capturing how the dearly departed behaved when they were alive. These simulations can be remarkably faithful. In even the craziest dreams the people we know may remain eerily in character, acting as we would expect them to in the real world. Even after the simulation outlasts the simulated, we continue to sense the strong presence of a living being. Sitting beside a gravestone, we might speak and think for a moment that we hear a reply.

In the 21st century, cybernetic metaphors provide a rational grip on what prehistoric people had every reason to think of as ghosts, voices of the dead. And that may have been the beginning of religion. If the deceased was a father or a village elder, it would have been natural to ask for advice--which way to go to find wateror the best trails for a hunt.

মহাবিশ্বে প্রান ও বুদ্ধিমত্তার খোঁজে

এই বইটি প্রাণের উৎপত্তি নিয়ে প্রাঞ্জল ভাষায় লেখা একটি বৈজ্ঞানিক গ্রন্থ। সাড়ে চারশ কোটি বছর আগেকার উত্তপ্ত পৃথিবী একসময় ঠান্ডা হয়ে কিভাবে প্রাণের স্ফুরণ ঘটার মত পরিবেশ তৈরি করেছিলো তার ধারাবাহিক উপাখ্যান পাওয়া যাবে এই গ্রন্থে। শুধু তাই নয় এই পৃথিবীর বাইরেও অন্য কোন গ্রহে কিংবা গ্রহানুপুঞ্জে প্রাণের বিকাশ ঘটেছে কিনা কিংবা এর সম্ভাব্যতাই বা কতটুকু সম্বন্ধেও একটি ধারনা পাবেন পাঠকেরা অবসর প্রকাশনা থেকে প্রকাশিত এই গ্রন্থ থেকে।

God Wants You Dead

This book is about the past, present, and future evolution of human ideas. Its primary emphasis is on parasitic collectivist ideologies. It examines where such ideas come from, how they harm us, and how we can remove them from our own minds and from the culture around us. Finally, it tells us the amazing things that will become possible for humanity when they are gone. Not only religions, but also nation states, racial groups, corporations and other collectives are targeted for observation and criticism.
This book will probably offend you, if you hold any icons to be sacred or are a
believer in any ideology that encourages group loyalty and action. When you get
to a part criticizing your favorite ideology, please just try to remember that we are
actually trying to be helpful.

Atheism - The Case Against God

This book is a hard hitting attack against belief in the Christian God as well as all other supernatural beings (called 'gods' in the book). Intended primarily for laymen and consequently relatively free from technical philosophical argument and jargon, this book might well be used in a beginning course in the philosophy of religion as a fair representation of contemporary atheistic thought. Students would, I believe, find it more provocative and challenging, than some other treatment that may be technically more sophisticated. The author's direct and forceful way of making his points has great appeal; clearly, it is a book written with deep intellectual passion.

However, there are some limitations to the book as an introduction to atheism and teachers of philosophy might wish to supplement it with other works. First, Smith's critical treatment of the standard arguments for the existence of God is incomplete. Variants of the cosmological and technological arguments are critically evaluated, but the ontological

Primates and Philosophers How Morality Evolved

It was not until a year and a half after his voyage on board the Beagle that Charles Darwin first came face to face with an ape. He was standing by the giraffe house at the London Zoo on a warm day in late March of 1838. The zoo had just acquired an orangutan named Jenny. One of the keepers was teasing her—showing her an apple, refusing to hand it over. Poor Jenny "threw herself on her back, kicked & cried, precisely like a naughty child," Darwin wrote in a letter to his sister. In the secret notebooks that he kept after the voyage, Darwin was speculating about evolution from every angle, including the emotional, and he was fascinated by Jenny’s tantrum. What is it like to be an ape? Does an orangutan’s frustration feel a lot like ours? Might she cherish some sense of right and wrong? Will an ape despair because her keeper is breaking the rules—because he is just not playing fair? Our own species has been talking, volubly and passionately, for at least 50,000 years, and it’s a fair guess that arguments about right and wrong were prominent in our conversation pretty much from the beginning. We started writing things down 5,000 years ago, and some of our first texts were

Superstition in All Ages

SUPERSTITION IN ALL AGES: A DYING CONFESSION

BY JEAN MESLIER

A Roman Catholic Priest, who at his death left as his “Last Will and Testament” this now famous manuscript as contained herein, entitled COMMON SENSE

This atheistic book was a work of by Baron d'Holbach's as but it was written under the name of Jean Meslier. It was originally published in French in 1772. Due to the severe restrictions on the press in the 18th century, d'Holbach published most of his work under the names of famous dead people. This book also includes a thirty-nine page abstract of the testament of John Meslier written by Voltaire. 

WHEN we wish to examine in a cool, calm way the opinions of men, we are very much surprised to find that in those which we consider the most essential, nothing is more rare than to find them using common sense; that is to say, the portion of judgment sufficient to know the most simple truths, to reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked by palpable contradictions. We have an example of this in Theology, a science revered in all times, in all countries, by the greatest number of mortals; an object considered the most

The Cambridge Companion to Atheism

In The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, eighteen of the world’s
leading scholars present original essays on various aspects of
atheism: its history, both ancient and modern, defense, and implications.
The topic is examined in terms of its implications for a wide range
of disciplines, including philosophy, religion, feminism, postmodernism,
sociology, and psychology. In its defense, both classical
and contemporary theistic arguments are criticized, and the
argument from evil and impossibility arguments, along with a nonreligious
basis for morality, are defended. These essays give a broad
understanding of atheism and a lucid introduction to this controversial
topic.

Why I am Not a Muslim

Few books about religion deserve the attribution "courageous." This book, I am
pleased to report, does. It is courageous because it is (as the term originally denoted)
full of heart (coeur) and courageous because it is an act of intellectual honesty
and bravery, an act of faith rather than of faithlessness. It will undoubtedly be
a controversial book because it deals personally and forthrightly with a subject
widely misunderstood by fheists and nontheists of various stripes. That subject is
the Islamic faith.
New religions depend for their sustenance on the energy of converts. Thus
Christianity in the first century of the common era and Islam in the sixth depended
on the enthusiasm of the newly persuaded. Each had its prophet, each its network
of zealous missionary-evangelists and later organization-minded hierarchs and
caliphs to drive and sustain the structures that faith invented. Christianity and

Why I am Not a Christian

Why I Am Not a Christian is an essay by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell hailed by The Independent as "devastating in its use of cold logic",^[1] and listed in the New York Public Library's list of the most influential books of the 20th century

Russell begins by defining what he means by the term Christian and sets out to explain why he does not "believe in God and in immortality" and why he does not "think that Christ was the best and wisest of men", the two things he identifies as "essential to anybody calling himself a Christian". He considers a number of logical arguments for the existence of God, including the cosmological argument, the natural-law argument, the teleological argument and moral arguments following what he describes as "the intellectual descent that the Theists have made in their argumentations". He also goes into specifics about Christian theology, alleging defects in Jesus's teaching and his moralcharacter, in particular because Jesus believed in hell and everlasting punishment. He argues ad absurdum against the "argument from design", and favors Darwin's theories:

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion

The philosophy of religion as a distinct discipline is an innovation of the last two hundred years, but its central topics--the existence and nature of the divine, humankind's relation to it, the nature of religion and its place in human life--have been with us since the inception of philosophy. Philosophers have long critically examined the truth of (and rational justification for) religious claims, and have explored such philosophically interesting phenomena as faith, religious experience and the distinctive features of religious discourse. The second half of the twentieth-century has been an especially fruitful period, with philosophers using new developments in logic and epistemology to mount both sophisticated defenses of, and attacks on, religious claims. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion contains newly commissioned chapters by 21 prominent experts who cover the field in a comprehensive but accessible manner. Each chapter is expository, critical, and representative of a distinctive viewpoint. The Handbook is divided into two sections.

Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind

This is a delightful book, in which de Sousa articulates some challenging convictions concerning the role of rationality in human thought, while also retaining and making deft use of some of his longest-held views.

De Sousa's title is literal.  He means to address the very question of why thought -- that is, rational thought -- is useful.  In offering an answer, de Sousa characterizes rationality and irrationality; describes the role of rationality in human action; explores those features of mind, such as emotions, that play important roles in rational action; explores some examples of systematic irrationality; and lays out some of the implications of evolution for the skills that enable rationality.  The end result is a surprisingly rich book given its brevity.

Throughout, de Sousa is careful to distinguish normative and descriptive senses of "rational" and "rationality."  He calls descriptive rationality thecategorial sense of "rationality."  This is the sense in which humans can be said to be rational animals.  Categorial rationality is characterized in part by thoughts that are a kind of computation, which de Sousa understands to be a process of manipulating digital representations.  This requires that we have a system of thought (that is, one or more brain modules) that has as its purpose taking representations as digital.

God, The Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory

In this book Niall Shanks aims to debunk thoroughly “intelligent design theory” (henceforth IDT). The aim of proponents of IDT, Shanks warns us (p. xi), “is to insinuate into public consciousness a new version of science – supernatural science – in which the God of Christianity (carefully not directly mentioned for legal and political reasons) is portrayed as the intelligent designer of the universe and its contents.” He thinks the answer to the two basic questions about IDT – “Is intelligent design theory a scientific theory? Is there any credible evidence to support its claims?” (p. xii) – is an emphatic “no.” Such a response, Shanks thinks, is urgent, because IDT is just the thin edge of a wedge; “at the fat end of the wedge lurks the specter of a fundamentalist Christian theocracy” (p. xii).

Such overblown rhetoric peppers Shanks’ book, particularly in the sections in which he engages in political and social analysis of IDT (“Introduction: The Many Designs of the Intelligent Design Movement” and “Conclusion: Intelligent Designs on Society”). It sours what is in other respects a helpful book. IDT certainly merits severe criticism, on social and political grounds as well as philosophical ones. But do we really need to be told page after page that IDT proponents are “extremist” and “fundamentalist”? Entitling a chapter “The Evolution of Intelligent Design Arguments” is a good bit of fun – payback, perhaps, for creationists who write about “the faith of the evolutionist” and “the church of Darwin” – but did Shanks really need to say design arguments “survive, like tenacious weeds, in the minds of men” (p. 19)? In his discussion of Christian morality (pp. 232-3) did he really need to drop references to “pedophile priests,” “twisted televangelists,” white supremacists, and Adolf Hitler? If you want to read this sort of thing, buy a copy of Hillary’s Scheme: Inside the Next Clinton’s Ruthless Agenda to Take the White House. I expect better from a philosophy book.

In Defense of Atheism :The Case against Christianity, Judaism and Islam

This book was an enjoyable read, but in the end Onfray did not prove his thesis. After the preface, which fished me in, the first third of the book was a bit of a slog. I have to admit after he used the word ontological three times in the first few pages, I had to get my dictionary to look it up.

The preface describes a trip to the middle east where he visited with desert nomads – ignorant people whose way of life, and thinking, had not changed in thousands of years. These people were the very model of the founders of monotheism. And, why would their insights into the world have any relevance to today. The short answer … it wouldn’t.

The second half of the book makes a damning case against the big three monotheisms. They are big fat targets that are incredibly easy to ridicule. But I don’t think he has made a convincing case for atheism. More on that later.

He spends a great number of pages lamenting the fact that atheism is a negative term “a” - “theism” ie. against or not theistic. The theisms all have positive names: the big three names in the subtitle, plus an endless list of nouns and proper nouns: deist, pantheist, monotheist, polytheist, animists, Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Calvinists, Shiite, Sunni, etc. He claims that language lacks a noun that describes our beliefs with a positive construction. He doesn’t deal with what I think are positive and suitable descriptors: realist, humanist, scientist, observationalist. But I will grant him that we do not commonly label people such as myself with a name other than “atheist".

A History of God

This is a very information-rich book. Armstrong tackles a history of the three major Western religions, covering the evolution of philosophy and theology in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam since the time of Abraham. Unless you've taken a particularly good history of religion course, you will likely learn quite a lot from A History of God, particularly if you were educated in the United States where the history of Islam and post-Christianity Judaism are sadly neglected.

The biggest problem with this book is that, sadly, it's not presented in a way that makes it easy to read. Despite the complexity of her interwoven history and the dizzying but necessary barrage of names and dates, the book is presented as relentlessly uninterrupted prose. Other than the chapter breaks between the eleven chapters and a few paragraphs of summary at the end of each chapter, the most decoration the prose receives is the occasional indented quote.

God: The Failed Hypothesis

Given how much science has had to say about nearly everything else in our lives and how successful science has been in transforming nearly every aspect of them, it is at the very least initially implausible that science can and should be excluded from debates about the existence of gods. Then there is the fact that theists themselves frequently trot out arguments that rely upon scientific data — or at least misrepresentations of scientific data — in order to bolster their positions. Finally, we must face the fact that any alleged god that matters will have some sort of impact on our lives, our planet, and our universe.

Only a completely irrelevant god could leave no trace or imprint whatsoever, so if there is a god and it does matter, then it should be detectable even by a science that is completely limited to observations about the natural, material world. Indeed, most believers — and especially adherents of the three prominent monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — posit precisely such a god that is active, detectable, and relevant to our material universe.

Atheism Explained

There are many books explaining atheism and arguing for it.
Most of them fall into one of two types . The first type takes for
granted a lot of technical language in philosophy of religion and
soon loses the ordinary reader. The second type is usually personal
in tone , seething with moral indignation against atrocities committed
in the name of God, unsystematic in approach, and occasionally
betraying ignorance of j ust what theists have believed.
Several books of both types are really excellent in their way, but
I'm trying something different. I explain atheism by giving an outline
of the strongest arguments for and against the existence of
God. My aim is to provide an accurate account of these argu
ments, on both sides, in plain English .
Following a Christian upbringing, I became an atheist by the
age of thirteen . For a few years, it seemed axiomatic that I ought
to do my bit to help convert the world to atheism. Then I became
more interested in social and political questions .

Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion

This is the first book in Blackwell’s “Contemporary Debates” textbook series. It is
designed to feature some of the most important current controversies in the philosophy
of religion. In the Western philosophical tradition, theism – the belief that an
omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God exists – has been the focus of much philosophical
debate and discussion. Although not a living religion itself, theism forms a
significant conceptual component of three living religions: Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. Moreover, beliefs within living religions – particularly beliefs of the historic
Christian faith – have also occupied the attention of philosophers of religion. So, in
staking out the territory for this book, we selected some issues related to classical
theism and some related to Christian faith in particular. Most Anglo-American philosophy is oriented toward the rigorous analysis of ideas, arguments, and positions – and this orientation certainly flourishes in the
philosophical treatment of religion. Since the analytic

Atheism and Theism ( A Debate )

 The original invitation to engage in a debate about atheism and theism
was appealing. Although our principal areas of philosophical activity lie
outwith philosophy of religion per se, we are each deeply engaged by issues
in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind which bear directly on such
questions as whether regularity and intelligibility have or need an explanation;
and if they need one, what the form of this might be. Beyond that, we are
each personally engaged by such questions as whether the fact that there
is anything at all indicates a supernatural cause, and whether intimations of
apparent meaning in human experience signify some objectively  transcendent point or purpose. As well as speaking and writing about such issues within professional
philosophical contexts, we have also reflected upon them in non-academic
fora, believing them to be among the most important questions for human
beings to try to answer. Although professional philosophers may be well

Belief in God - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

Two people have been more influential than any others in the development of
my thought on these topics. The first is John Kenyon, my undergraduate tutor
in Philosophy. The second is Richard Swinburne, my graduate supervisor.
Later in life, I have had the privilege and pleasure of knowing each of them as
colleagues and friends and neither has ever failed to improve my thinking in
my conversations with them. The questions to which this book addresses itself
were first put to me in a philosophically rigorous way by John; and he was the
first to guide me to care about trying to answer them in a similar fashion.
Anybody who is familiar with the work of Richard will recognize his influence
on almost every page of this book: on starting points, we are often in complete
agreement; on conclusions, less so. But in both their cases my debt is of course
not for the conclusions that I reach but for the questions that I ask and the
method by which I seek to answer them. If progress in Philosophy is marked
not so much by an accumulation of answers as by the improvement of one’s
questions, then these two have helped me most in what progress I have been
able to make.

Evolution and Religious Creation Myths

 America is becoming more and more isolated fromthe rest of the world. This
statement is true enough politically and ideologically, with the faulty intelligence
used to justify the 2003 war in Iraq, now known worldwide, and the
increased influence of religious thinking in the conduct of government affairs,
starting at the presidential level with George W. Bush. There is fear that
our nation’s separation of church and state is now threatened, considering
further that some politicians are using an anti-evolutionary, creationist
stance to sway their constituencies. But for a scientist, it is not just politics
that is of the essence. For a person practicing and teaching science, there is
now serious concern that the traditional division between science and religion
is coming to an end among a growing portion of the American public,
which is further promoting our international isolation. And scientific isolation
from the rest of the world is a frightening, dangerous prospect.