The Grand Design by Stephen Hawkins and Leonard Mlodinow

THE FIRST MAJOR WORK IN NEARLY A DECADE BY ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT THINKERS-A MARVELOUSLY CONCISE BOOK WITH NEW ANSWERS TO THE ULTIMATE QUESTIONS OF LIFE

When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of reality? Why are the laws of nature so finely tuned as to allow for the existence of beings like ourselves? And, finally, is the apparent "grand design" of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion-or does science offer another explanation?

The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, once the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet-if only to disagree. In their new book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by both brilliance and simplicity.

A Guide for the Godless

This book aims to apply recent thinking in philosophy to the age-old problem of the meaning of life, and to do so in a way that is useful to atheists, agnostics, and humanists. The book reorients the search for meaning away from a search for purpose and toward a search for what truly matters, and criticizes our society's prevailing theory of value, the preference satisfaction theory of the economists. It next argues that emotions are our best guides to what matters in life, and shows how emotional judgments about what matters can be true. Finally it discusses how a meaningful life can be lived, describes the role of justice, freedom, identity, and culture in its construction, and compares the meaningful with the happy life.

Losing My Religion by William Lobdell

From the New York Times:

"There are many great books about finding God. But there are far fewer books, great or otherwise, about finding and then losing God. So 'Losing My Religion,' by William Lobdell, a former religion writer for The Los Angeles Times, feels powerfully fresh ... While Lobdell never entirely rejects belief in the supernatural, his humane, even-tempered book does more to advance the cause of irreligion than the bilious atheist tracts by Christopher Hitchens and others that have become so common. And Lobdell’s self-deprecating memoir is far more fun to read ...

From Christopher Hitchens, author of “God Is Not Great“:

“William Lobdell really and truly wanted to believe. When he came to realize that wanting and believing are two sides of the same coin, he decided to take the risk of basing morality on the modest of human reason and solidarity instead of on the self-defeating arrogance of faith."

The Evolution of Morality and Religion

Accepted codes of conduct and established religions are features of human societies throughout the world. Why should this be? In this book, biologist Donald Broom argues that these aspects of human culture have evolved as a consequence of natural selection; that morally acceptable behaviour benefits humans and other animals and that a principal function of religion is to underpin and encourage such behaviour. The author provides biological insights drawn especially from work on animal behaviour and presents ideas and information from the fields of philosophy and theology to produce a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary treatment. Scientists who read this book will gain an appreciation of the wider literature on morality and religion, and non-scientists will benefit from the author’s extensive knowledge

Charles Darwin: Origins and Arguments

One of the characteristics of humanity throughout our
history has been an almost insatiable need to question
ourselves in an attempt to find answers to the unknowable
aspects of our lives.We appear to require meaning, to
know where we are from and what we are doing here.The
religions of the world have dealt with these traits of
human nature by providing systems of understanding
which are based on faith and belief. Since the beginnings
of modern science during the Renaissance, when the
knowledge of the Greeks was rediscovered, this has led to
a conflict of ideas between theology and rationality.This is
nowhere more apparent than in the continuing debate
over what is now generally called Darwinian evolution,
after the man who has become the figurehead of a revolutionary
change in human thought.

Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker

Irregular verbs! The very thought is enough to give anyone who has struggled with them a headache. In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, MIT professor and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker has taken that scourge of language students and used them ingeniously to throw light on how our minds work and languages evolve.

Pinker, a Montreal native whose wit and good looks have made him something of a scientific superstar, has written two other books for the intelligent layperson: The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994) and How the Mind Works (1998). The first explained current scientific thinking on why and how we speak. It argued that humans who could speak had an advantage in the evolutionary sweepstakes. The second explored other characteristics that appear to have been shaped by natural selection: falling in love, smiling, and liking sweet things, to name only a few.

Stephen Jay Gould Reflections on His View of Life

Although Steve Gould’s death on May 20, 2002, provided the
immediate impetus for this book, its original motivation came
from a review of his book Structure of Evolutionary Theory, published
just before his death. That review—by someone who in our view
clearly had no idea what punctuated equilibrium or species selection
were about—suggested to us that Steve’s science was even
more widely misunderstood than we had thought. We said to each
other at the time that someone needed to “do something” about
this situation.
Steve’s death took most of his students and close colleagues
by surprise, although a few of us were aware that he had been
ill. For many of us, it left a great hole in our lives. After his

Adapting Minds Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature

Evolutionary Psychologists claim that their account of human nature

follows from applying the principles of evolutionary biology to the study
of the human mind. Consequently, to truly understand Evolutionary Psychology,
and to be in a position to critically evaluate it, it is essential to
have a basic understanding of evolutionary theory. This chapter provides
the necessary introduction to the fundamentals of evolutionary biology.
For the initiate, this may be a slow go. But theoretical principles and concepts
explained in this chapter will repeatedly turn up later in our examination
of Evolutionary Psychology, so understanding them is a necessary
first step toward understanding Evolutionary Psychology.
In developing their account of human nature, Evolutionary Psychologists
build on (their interpretation of ) the reigning orthodoxy in evolutionary
biology. Aspects of this reigning orthodoxy are currently being

The Truth About Muhammad - Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion By Robert Spencer

 I'm just giving you the chapters name:   :-d


Contents
Chronology of Muhammad's life
Names and places

Chapter 1: Why a biography of Muhammad is relevant today
Is Islam a religion of peace? Why it matters
Dueling Muhammads
Why Muhammad matters
Polite fictions are useless
The purpose of this book
Why I did not want to write this book
Death to "blasphemers"
Defending freedom of speech
General notes

Chapter 2: In search of the historic Muhammad 19
What can we really know about Muhammad?
The Qur'an
The Hadith
The S ira
Historical fact and Muslim belief

Autobiography of Charles Darwin

My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present chapter, were written for his children,--and written without any thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading, 'Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character,' and end with the following note:--"Aug. 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in Surrey.), and since then I have written for nearly an hour on most afternoons." It will easily be understood that, in a narrative of a personal and intimate kind written for his wife and children, passages should occur which must here be omitted; and I have not thought it necessary to indicate where such omissions are made.

The Battle for God- By: KAREN ARMSTRONG

About 40 years ago popular opinion assumed that religion would become a
weaker force and people would certainly become less zealous as the
world became more modern and morals more relaxed. But the opposite has
proven true, according to theologian and author Karen Armstrong, who
documents how fundamentalism has taken root and grown in many of the
world's major religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Even
Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism have developed
fundamentalist factions. Reacting to a technologically driven world
with liberal Western values, fundamentalists have not only increased in
numbers, they have become more desperate, claims Armstrong, who points
to the Oklahoma City bombing, violent anti-abortion crusades, and the
assassination of President Yitzak Rabin as evidence of dangerous
extremes.

The Biological Roots of Human Nature: Forging Links between Evolution and Behavior

In this stimulating book, Goldsmith argues that biology has a great deal to say that should be of interest to social scientists, historians, philosophers, and humanists in general. He believes that anyone studying the social behavior of humans must take into consideration both proximate cause--the physiology, biochemistry, and social mechanisms of behavior--and ultimate cause--how the behavior came to exist in evolutionary time. Goldsmith, a neurobiologist, draws examples from neurobiology, psychology, and ethology (behavioral evolution). The result is a work that overcomes many of the misconceptions that have hindered the rich contributions the biological sciences have to offer concerning the evolution of human society, behavior, and sense of identity. Among the key topics addressed are the nature of biological explanation, the relationship between genes and behavior, those aspects of behavior most likely to respond to natural selection, the relationship between evolution and learning, and some probable modes of interaction between cultural and biological evolution. By re-examining the role of biological explanation in the domain of social development,

Freedom evolves by Daniel C. Dennett

Whenever people discus the concept of freedom, inevitably you will get an argument about freewill or the lack of it. So to clear the philosophical air, Dennett has to first dispel myths associated with determinism and freewill. Can one live freely and possess free will in a deterministic world? Dennett says yes and makes a strong argument for his case. In fact freedom and determinism live compatibly with each other because to make workable choices one must have reliable and predictable (determined) choices to choose from! If determinism holds true, then you have less randomness, less unpredictability. In a totally random universe, you can't have freedom because you can never know or predict the future in a reliable way. Now of course our universe contains both deterministic elements and random elements, and no doubt you need both for an evolutionary system to work, but the point aims to show that determinism does not mean inevitable, or fate. Fatalism claims that something will happen no matter what you do (a godly plan, many times, plays this role). Determinism depends on what you do.