<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of <i>Zealot</i> and host of <i>Believer </i>explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God.</b><br /><b> </b><br /> In <i>Zealot,</i> Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.<br />  <br />In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.”<br />  <br /> But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments.<br />  <br /> More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, <i>God: A Human History</i> will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.<br /><br /><b>Praise for God</b><br /><br />“Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”<b>—</b><i><b><i>HuffPost</i></b><br /><br /> </i>“Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”<b><i><b><i>—The Seattle Times</i></b><br /><br /> </i></b>“A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”<b><i><b>—<i>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</i></b><br /><br /> </i></b>“[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”<b><i><b><i>—Los Angeles Review of Books</i></b><br /><br /> </i></b>“Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”<b><i><b>—<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i></b></i></b>

<p>From the new afterword by the author:<br /><br />Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a “loving” God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the superstitious bloodletting that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. . .</p>

<div>The central contention of the “New Atheism” of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that there has for several centuries been a war between science and religion, that religion has been steadily losing that war, and that at this point in human history a completely secular scientific account of the world has been worked out in such thorough and convincing detail that there is no longer any reason why a rational and educated person should find the claims of any religion the least bit worthy of attention.<br /><br />     But as Edward Feser argues in <i>The Last Superstition</i>, in fact there is not, and never has been, any war between science and religion at all. There has instead been a conflict between two entirely <i>philosophical conceptions</i> of the natural order: on the one hand, the classical “teleological” vision of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, on which purpose or goal-directedness is as inherent a feature of the physical world as mass or electric charge; and the modern “mechanical” vision of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, according to which the physical world is comprised of nothing more than purposeless, meaningless particles in motion. As it happens, on the classical teleological picture, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the natural-law conception of morality are rationally unavoidable. Modern atheism and secularism have thus always crucially depended for their rational credentials on the insinuation that the modern, mechanical picture of the world has somehow been established by science.<br /><br />     Yet this modern “mechanical” picture has never been established by science, and cannot be, for it is not a scientific theory in the first place but merely a philosophical interpretation of science. Moreover, as Feser shows, the philosophical arguments in its favor given by the early modern philosophers were notable only for being surprisingly weak.<br /><br />      However, not only is this modern philosophical picture rationally unfounded, it is demonstrably false. For the “mechanical” conception of the natural world, when worked<br /><br />out consistently, absurdly entails that rationality, and indeed the human mind itself, is illusory. The so-called “scientific worldview” championed by the New Atheists thus inevitably undermines its own rational foundations; and into the bargain (and contrary to the moralistic posturing of the New Atheists) it undermines the foundations of any possible morality as well. By contrast, and as The Last Superstition demonstrates, the classical teleological picture of nature can be seen to find powerful confirmation in developments from contemporary philosophy, biology, and physics; moreover, morality and reason itself cannot possibly be made sense of apart from it.  The teleological vision of the ancients and medievals is thereby rationally vindicated – and with it the religious worldview they based upon it.<br /><br />     Winner of the 2008 Book of the Year in Religion from <i>ForeWord</i> Magazine and the only 2008 Editors’ Choice for Religion from the American Library Association’s <i>Booklist</i>, <i>The Last Superstition</i> remains the most cogent and powerful refutation of the New Atheism extent.</div>

Tim Sledge pulls back the curtain on Southern Baptist life as he chronicles nearly four decades of ministry in this highly personal, sometimes painful, and frequently provocative spiritual autobiography. Part memoir, part exposé, part polemic—this is an account of failures as well as accomplishments—and very nearly a case study in how faith may begin, how it evolves, and how it can fall apart.<br /><br />Sledge traces the childhood origins of his sincere faith, his efforts at spiritual obedience, his theological education, his climb up the ladder in ministry, his insights into the challenges of growth-oriented leadership, and his pioneering work in faith-based recovery ministries that ultimately guided participants in 20,000 support groups across the U.S. A recurring theme in his story is coming to grips with the significance of being an adult child of an alcoholic.<br /><br />After a fall from grace and a growing awareness that faith no longer worked for him, his journey took a new direction that required examining alternatives to his former belief system including Deism, agnosticism, humanism, and atheism. Ultimately, he found new ways to live a positive, value-driven life and emerged as a new version of the same person he had always been, still interested in creating avenues for personal growth in the lives of others.<br /><br />Goodbye Jesus is a relatable and thoughtful read for those seeking to better understand the evangelical mindset, for Christians who are questioning their faith, for ministers trying to decide whether to stay or go, and for those who have left their faith and are dealing with its loss.

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James. It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on natural theology, which were delivered at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1901 and 1902. The lectures concerned the nature of religion and the neglect of science in the academic study of religion.<br />Soon after its publication, Varieties entered the Western canon of psychology and philosophy and has remained in print for over a century.

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead (commonly referred to as The Psychedelic Experience) is an instruction manual intended for use during sessions involving psychedelic drugs. Started as early as 1962 in Zihuatanejo, the book was finally published in August 1964.[1] This version of Tibetan Book of the Dead was authored by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert, all of whom took part in experiments investigating the therapeutic and religious possibilities of drugs such as mescaline, psilocybin and LSD. The book now in kindle edition is dedicated to Aldous Huxley and includes a short introductory citation from Huxley's book The Doors of Perception. Part of this text was used by the Beatles in the song Tomorrow Never Knows.

There are hundreds of meditation books out there. Many written by monks, and some written by hippies and spiritual gurus. But how many of these books are written by an ordinary dude? Someone who is just like you: someone who has a day job, whose preferred outfit is jeans and a t-shirt, and enjoys knocking back a few beers on Friday night? <br /><br />I'm as ordinary as they come. The only difference...I've been meditating for over 13 years. And I want to show you how you can meditate too—in a straightforward language that any ordinary dude or dudette can understand. <br /><br />Over a decade of practice, meditation has transformed my life, bringing more peace, calm and clarity into it than I could have ever imagined when I started at the age of 19. And now, I want to share how meditation can do the same for you.

<div> Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion—God—frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word “God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.<BR> <br /> Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity’s knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical “moments”—being, consciousness, and bliss—the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points.<BR> <br /> Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists' concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestoes. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity’s experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine.</div>

<div>In a world of facts and figures, can an intellectual have <I>faith</I>? Is it possible to believe anything the Bible says? Yes, and one man will show you how.<BR><BR>Amidst scientists’ attempts to debunk Christianity’s truths and atheists’ assuming the Bible is a how-to-be-virtuous self-help book, bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza resolves to both answer the tough questions and challenge believers as well as doubters to search for the ultimate truths about theories of origin. D’Souza tackles subjects and events such as the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, the Big Bang theory and Darwinism—everything you always pondered but never scrutinized, now placed under the proverbial microscope and studied thoroughly.</div>

<DIV><p><b>Is it Reasonable to Believe?</b></p><p>Remarkably, even though millions upon millions of us do believe in God, when we are asked why we have such faith, we become tongue-tied and struggle to give a reason for our hope. No wonder those who don't believe God exists remain unconvinced—there's too few of us ready to speak on God's behalf!</p><p>Ken Boa and Robert Bowman have provided a resource that tackles the most profound arguments from philosophy, science, sociology, psychology, and history ... and presents twenty clear, concise, and compelling evidences that show that faith in God—and specifically Jesus Christ—is reasonable. <BR><BR>--</p><DIV><b>Kenneth Boa</b> is engaged in a ministry of relational evangelism and discipleship, teaching, writing, and speaking. He holds a B.S. from Case Institute of Technology, a Th.M. From Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from New York University, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in England.<p>Dr. Boa is the President of Reflections Ministries, an organization that seeks to provide safe places for people to consider the claims of Christ and to help them mature and bear fruit in their relationship with Him. He is also President of Trinity House Publishers, a publishing company that is dedicated to the creation of tools that will help people manifest eternal values in a temporal arena by drawing them to intimacy with God and a better understanding of the culture in which they live.</p><p>Recent publications by Dr. Boa include <i>Faith Has its Reasons</i>, <i>Conformed to His Image</i>, <i>An Unchanging Faith in a Changing World</i>; <i>Face to Face</i>; <i>Pursuing Wisdom</i>; <i>The Art of Living Well</i>; <i>Wisdom at Work</i>, <i>Living what You Believe</i>, and <i>Sacred Readings</i>. He is a contributing editor to <i>The Open Bible</i>, <i>the Promise Keeper's Men's Study Bible</i>, <i>The Leadership Bible</i>, the consulting editor of the <i>Zondervan NASB Study Bible</i>, and the Editor-in-Chief of <i>The Life Promises Bible</i>.</p><p>Robert M. Bowman Jr. teaches in the Christian apologetics program at Biola University, and is the president of Apologetics.com, Inc., based in Pasadena, California. Previously he served as a researcher and editor for the Christian Research Institute, the Atlanta Christian Apologetics Project, and Watchman Fellowship.</p></div><p></p></div>