General Books

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Christopher Hitchens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 807 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

essential DISCLAIMER 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Staffers for an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ are responsible for allegations that I (Lucifer) and Christopher Hitchens are in cahoots; and that no one -- not even a born-again evangelical Christian -- can read either Hitchens' GOD IS NOT GREAT or Lucifer's TRUE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING without falling into apostasy, atheism, and eternal damnation.

If you should receive that email from Campus Crusade for Christ, please delete it. That's not just Jesus "spam." It is a load of Hersey's chocolate-chip crapola.

Hitchens is a man whose courage and intelligence I greatly admire. But I utterly deny that "Lucifer" is a pseudonym.

For the record: Lucifer's online "True History of Everything" (graciously hosted by BobShakespeare) presents an accurate eyewitness account of human events, from Day One until yesterday. When composing it, I received zero help from Chris HItchens; nor any help from Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, or the holy Ghost. It's my own goddamned story. And it's totally true.

Second, I deny CCC allegations that my blog is "responsible for church closings all across North America," particularly where members of the congregation were allegedly "infected" by "Lucifer's blasphemies, lies, and left-wing politics" (CCC chain email). Among the flocks that are said to have been "seduced" into apostasy by L's "True History" are congregations of "the Conemaugh Presbyterian Church in Johnstown, PA; the United Methodist Church in Atlanta, GA; the First Baptist Church of Greenfield, MA; St. Patrick's Anglican Church in Lucan, Ontario; and the Trenton Presbyterian Church in Paint Rock Valley, AL; to name just a few."

I grant that all of those churches closed their doors this autumn, after their respective congregations got bored with Jesus and Yahweh. I grant that many parents now stay home on Sunday to play ball with their kids, or to mow the lawn, or to roll on the floor laughing out loud at L's TRUE HISTORY, or at Chris's GOD IS NOT GREAT. But is that my fault?

You can't blame every church closing for the past two years on the serpentine attractions of my true-history blog. You have to blame some of those failed churches on the books of Christopher Hitchens.

And we are NOT the same person, god damn it!

--L

P.S. Hey, Chris, if you should happen to read this: on Saturday I lost a cufflink from that set given to me by Joan Baez. It's not worth much but the thing has sentimental value. Would you mind looking for it under your passenger seat? Thanks, pal.

Editorial Review:

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case
against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and
reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry
of the double helix.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Robert M. Pirsig

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 528 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Self-Absorbed, Self-Pitying Rubbish 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I agree with many of the other one-star reviews, this is actually the worst book I have ever read, out of thousands read, in my entire life. The worst book designation goes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance because it is extremely, extremely, over-rated. I found it to be one of the most self-absorbed, self-pitying, whining complaints I had ever been exposed to - and I know about those, because I'm a former junior high school teacher.

Not only did it not contain any philosophical insights whatsoever, the book is just plain boring and badly written. The only book I have ever thrown in the garbage can - it's just rubbish, and that's where it belongs. I'm sure the author is a fine human being. I just think he wrote a very, very, bad book. Please don't waste your time on this book.

Editorial Review:

This lyrical, evocative, thought-provoking journal of a man's quest for truth -- and for himself -- has touched and changed an entire generation. At its heart, the story is all too simple: a man and his son take a lengthy motorcycle trip through America. But this is not a simple trip at all, for around every corner, through mountain and desert, wind and rain, and searing heat and biting cold, their pilgrimage leads them to new vistas of self-discovery and renewal.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an elemental work that had helped to shape and define the past twenty-five years of American culture. This special audio edition presents this adventure in an exciting new way -- for the millions who have already taken this journey and want to travel these roads again, and for the many more who will discover for the first time the wonders and challenges of a journey that will change the way they think and feel about their lives.

A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume

Foundation for Inner Peace

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 332 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best books on the Planet 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is written from Spirit.
The paperback version contains all three books in the Course: Text, Workbook for students, and Manual for teachers.
This work includes the universal concept of Consciousness as the Source of all with an emphasis on Fatherhood(Creator), Brotherhood(everything created), and Holy Spirit(the Voice from God as the Teacher). Its main focuses are on Brotherhood, Forgiveness, experiencing the Present Moment and Spiritual Awakening.
If you are at the highly developed spiritual stage needed to grasp this book, you will be highly rewarded.
If not, you should read it anyway to gain that highly developed spiritual insight, but first you should read Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and "A New Earth" A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) (and anything else written by Tolle) to gain insight into the type of concepts needed to understand what is being taught in the Course.

Make sure that you read the "Text" before or at the same that you do the "Workbook for Students" for a much more in depth understanding of the workbook.

It is the bible of NOW... "New wine in a new vessel"

There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind

Antony Flew, Roy Abraham Varghese

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Following Where the Evidence Leads. 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

For those who are familiar with Anthony Flew and his work, this should be a very interesting book. Flew is a renowned philosopher who, for most of his life, argued clearly and (for many) persuasively against the existence of God. This book is the story of how he changed his mind and came to believe that God must exist. Flew's influence among atheists has been so strong that many of them have been scandalized by his change of mind. Some have gone so far at to allege that Flew did not write this book, is suffering from some sort of dementia (because of his age), and is being taken advantage of by others. I think that there is very little reason to believe these accusations unless you have a strong vested interest in atheism. An internet search on Flew's name and words like "dementia" or reading the other reviews on Amazon.com and the comments on them will give you details of the controversy.

The book is well written for the general reader and more of a story of Flew's intellectual journey than an apologetic work. In the first appendix, Roy Varghese responds directly to Flew's atheist critics. There is also a second appendix written by N. T. Wright giving a very interesting summary of his Christian approach to the question of how God reveals himself in the form of a human being who is resurrected after death. Flew does not seem committed to Christianity but says that Wright's approach is absolutely fresh and impressive. I agree. I highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

In There Is a God, one of the world's preeminent atheists discloses how his commitment to "follow the argument wherever it leads" led him to a belief in God as Creator. This is a compelling and refreshingly open-minded argument that will forever change the atheism debate.

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

Daniel C. Dennett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 153 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Good work! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

You don't have to be an atheist, an agnostic, or any type of believer to engage this book. That's the whole point, in fact. No matter what your belief (and they are all related to belief), subjecting it to scientific scrutiny can be fascinating and revealing, and especially so with this type of academic yet extremely accessible writing.

A beautiful combination of serious purpose and playful joy in the arguments comes through here, and it's infectious. What does NOT come through is any kind of anti-religious agenda, which is easy enough to come by elsewhere and does nothing to advance anyone's cause.

I read most books once or twice, and so I get them from the library instead of purchasing them, but this is a book to own. Dennett provides plenty of food for further thought here, and you will come back to his ideas again and again for just that purpose.

Editorial Review:

For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why—and how—it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from "wild" folk belief to "domesticated" dogma. Not an antireligious screed but an unblinking look beneath the veil of orthodoxy, Breaking the Spell will be read and debated by believers and skeptics alike.

God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist

Victor J. Stenger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 148 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality. Physicist Victor J. Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God’s existence. He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God’s influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God’s special creation. After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.

Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thomas Wayne

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Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."-Nietzsche 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."-Nietzsche



Nietzsche, the man who predicted the war and chaos that resulted from Europe's enthusiastic unchecked embrace of nihilism, is presenting the basics of his philosophy through Zarathustra.
This mock-gospel, philosophical work is Nietzsche's criticism of mass movements or dogmas in general, and in particular he mocks the concept of a holy scripture through the story of Zarathustra. After ten years of solitude, Zarathustra, like a modern day Moses, descends from the mountain with the hope of teaching the people love and wisdom and helping them become ubermensch. . To become an ubermensch, one has to be free from all human prejudices, group moralities and create his/her own values and purpose.
Zarathustra's teachings include the ubermensch or the enlightenment stage, the concept of will to power, the fear of the pointless eternal recurrence, and the understanding that mass movements are for the weak who can't think for themselves and as a result they take the easy escape route to religion, nationalism, democracy or some other movement.
By the end of the day, Zarathustra is saddened by his inability to move this "herd" of people and decides to focus on those who choose to separate themselves from the "herd".
Zarathustra ends up teaching his philosophy to people who choose to follow him and work toward achieving the ubermensch/overman stage. In "Beyond good and evil", Nietzsche covers the same ideas in more depth and completes this philosophical theory.


Understandably, in a time when Christianity lost people's faith to Nihilism and science, Nietzsche like others, saw an urgency to restore faith and values, but unlike any other he tried to create a new set of faith and values.
For the longest time Nietzsche was accused of being an atheist, but when the believers are acting contrary to the morals of their religions, only the courageous, such as Nietzsche, dare to question and seek the truth. Doubt is the road to faith just as uncertainty is the motive to search for truth. Nietzsche, the man who said: "In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross", wouldn't dismiss religion itself, only the practice of its adherents.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which was written during a time of physical and emotional deterioration in Nietzsche's life, is as chaotic and unpredictable as his health. At a time, when humanity needed a moral code, Nietzsche's ideas were a bright beacon of hope that no one believed or understood, "Thus spoke Zarathustra." is indeed "A book for none and all".

Editorial Review:

"Zarathustra" was Nietzsche's masterpiece, the first comprehensive statement of his mature philosophy, and the introduction of his influential and well-known (and misunderstood) ideas including the "overman" or "superman" and the "will to power." It is also the source of Nietzsche's famous (and much misconstrued) statement that "God is dead." This classic was due for an update and overhaul. A considerable part of Nietzsche's genius is his ability to make his language dance, and this is what becomes extraordinarily difficult to translate. Aphorist and punster Thomas Wayne puts the play back into this work.

50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

Guy P. Harrison

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Many books that challenge religious belief from a skeptical point of view take a combative tone that is almost guaranteed to alienate believers, or they present complex philosophical or scientific arguments that fail to reach the average reader. Guy P. Harrison argues that this is an ineffective way of trying to encourage people to develop critical thinking about religion. In this unique approach, Harrison concisely presents fifty commonly heard reasons that people often give for believing in a god. Then he raises legitimate questions regarding these reasons, showing in each case that there is much room for doubt.

From religion as the foundation of morality to the authority of sacred books, the compelling religious testimony of influential people, near-death experiences, theories from intelligent design, and much more, Harrison respectfully describes each rationale for belief and then politely shows the deficiencies that any good skeptic would point out. He also offers something in return--a hopeful and optimistic view of science, the universe, and humanity without the divisiveness, prejudice, and hatred caused by conflicting religious doctrines.

Drawing on his experiences as a nonbeliever and his extensive travels around the world, Harrison makes poignant arguments that are sure to inspire thought-provoking discussions. Whether you're a believer, a complete skeptic, or somewhere in between, you'll find his review of traditional and more recent arguments for the existence of gods refreshing, approachable, and enlightening.

The Everlasting Man (Dover Books on Western Philosophy)

G. K. Chesterton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good book ruined by an incompetent publisher 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This may have been a fine work in its original form, but this edition (Wilder Publications, 2008) is so shoddy, it isn't worth the effort to try to read it. Based on my own experience with OCR software, I would guess that this publisher scanned an old copy, translated it to text, then reformatted it, and printed it. There is no evidence that anyone proofread it prior to printing. It it doubtful that it was even run through a spell-check program. Periods are missing at the ends of sentences; words are left out; "d", "h", and "b" are confused; apostrophies are inserted randomly (probably fly-spots on the original), "and" repeatedly appears as "an", "modern" almost always appears as "modem", etc. ad infinitum.
I read through about a fourth of the book before giving up in exasperation.

Editorial Review:

A history of humanity, Christ, and Christianity, this 1925 polemic famously converted C. S. Lewis from atheism. Chesterton's view of Christianity — as a rare blend of philosophy and mythology, satisfying to both intellect and spirit — applies to his brilliant book, which appeals to readers' heads as well as their hearts.

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything

Ken Wilber

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Suppose we took everything that all the various world cultures have to tell us about human potential—about psychological, spiritual, and social growth—and identified the basic patterns that connect these pieces of knowledge. What if we attempted to create an all-inclusive map that touches the most important factors from all of the world's great traditions?

Ken Wilber's Integral Vision provides such a map. Using all the known systems and models of human growth—from the ancient sages to the latest breakthroughs in cognitive science—it distills their major components into five simple elements, and, moreover, ones that readers can verify in their own experience right now.

In any field of interest, such as business, law, science, psychology, health, art, or everyday living and learning—the Integral Vision ensures that we are utilizing the full range of resources for the situation, leading to a greater likelihood of success and fulfillment. With easily understood explanations, exercises, and familiar examples, The Integral Vision shows how we can accelerate growth and development to higher, wider, deeper ways of being, embodied in self, shared in community, and connected to the planet, which can literally help with everything from spiritual enlightenment to business success to personal relationships.

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