Does science necessarily undermine faith in God? Or could it actually support faith? Beyond the flashpoint debates over the teaching of evolution, or stem-cell research, most of us struggle with contradictions concerning life's ultimate question. We know that accidents happen, but we believe we are on earth for a reason. Until now, most scientists ...
Scientist Dr Carl Sagan argues that modern tales of the paranormal, such as alien abduction stories, are in fact simply a modern version of fairy tales and only exist in the mind, and asserts that these accounts come from a potentially hazardous lack of scientific thought and knowledge, a situation which he feels should be remedied.
What if all the separate images we see virtually every moment of our waking lives were actually part of the same whole? What if every mind was connected and inseparable from every other mind? And what if the universe were a projection of our consciousness? Synchronicities and previously inexplicable phenomena would be easier to understand, the ...
Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, the author of THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES, provocatively argues that we are rapidly approaching the Singularity, a point in history in which advances in artificial intelligence, brain scanning, and nanotechnology will blur the division between humans and machines. When we are no longer limited by our current ...
In the tradition of the works of Oliver Sacks, this fascinating journey into the deep architecture of the mind introduces readers to a range of patients suffering from strange neurological afflictions, explains how Dr. Ramachandran's evaluations reveal what actually occurs in the brain, and explores what these findings reveal about dreams, ...
First published in 1954, this definitive collection contains Einstein's most significant writings, in five parts: Ideas and Opinions, On Politics, Government and Pacifism, On the Jewish People, On Germany, and Contributions to Science. The selections span from early in his career to a year before his death, with articles never published before in ...
From the award-winning NPR religion correspondent comes a fascinating investigation into how science is seeking to answer the question that has puzzled humanity for generations: Can science explain God?
The most successful theory in all of science - and the basis of one third of our economy - says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories. Trying to ...
Today we judge the value of every idea, institution and individual by one test: is it popular? Or, more practically, do the majority of those polled like it? This transformation has affected not just politics, but also law, business, culture and even religion. Every institution and profession in society must democratize or die. Democracy has gone ...
What do we mean when we say "I"? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"--a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains ...
In his charmingly down-to-earth voice, the late astronomer Carl Sagan discusses the relationship between religion and science and describes his own personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos.
In this scientific examination of creationist and evolutionary theories, a biologist argues that a belief in evolution can coexist with, and even strengthen, religious faith.
Born in Babylonia, the Zero has donned many different hats--accountant, god, devil, infinity--and has elicited as many different responses from people across the ages. Seife's scientific yet accessible text explores the biography of this enigmatic number. Winner of the 2001 PEN Award for First Non-Fiction.
Harvard scientist Edward O. Wilson argues that the entire world is orderly and can be explained by a number of natural laws. Wilson maintains that the ideas and goals of the Enlightenment have not been discredited and, in fact, are surging back to life.
From the author of the number one textbooks in physical science and physics comes the eagerly awaiting new text, Conceptual Integrated Science. Hewitt's critically acclaimed conceptual approach has led science education for 30 years and now tackles integrated science to take student learning to a new level. Using his proven conceptual approach, ...
The proponents of artificial intelligence want to prove that it is only a matter of time before computers will be doing everything that a human mind can do. They take it for granted that pleasure and pain, the appreciation of beauty and humour, consciousness and free will are capacities that a computer will display once the appropriate programs of ...
The publisher of Skeptic magazine argues that the search for meaning and spiritual fulfillment often results in the embracing of extraordinary claims and controversial ideas, discussing a variety of pseudoscientific ideas and superstitions that promote spiritual beliefs.
Schroeder brings together science and religion in his third book hailing the theory of Intelligent Design. Schroeder, an MIT scientist, explores recent discoveries in chemistry, biology, and neurology to illustrate the wisdom behind all things, and suggests that that wisdom is God. Schroeder's tone and handling of delicate subject matter can open ...
When, in 1953, Francis Crick asked the question "What is the structure of DNA?" he forever transformed our understanding of life itself. Now, 31 years after he received the Nobel Prize, Crick turns his formidable mind to the task of understanding human consciousness and asks what makes us sentient beings? Bent on understanding the complexities of ...
In this book, Michael Sandel takes up some of the hotly contested moral and political issues of our time, including affirmative action, assisted suicide, abortion, gay rights, stem cell research, the meaning of toleration and civility, the gap between rich and poor, the role of markets, and the place of religion in public life. He argues that the ...
To the majority of people Einstein's theory is a complete mystery. Their attitude towards Einstein is like that of Mark Twain towards the writer of a work on mathematics: here was a man who had written an entire book of which Mark could not understand a single sentence. Einstein, therefore, is great in the public eye partly because he has made ...
First published in English in 1959, Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery revolutionized contemporary thinking about science and knowledge and is one of the most widely read books about science written last century. Described by the philosopher AJ Ayer as 'a work of great originality and power', Popper presents the two ideas that did ...
In his magnum opus, one of the most eminent cultural historians of our time outlines society's role in saving itself and the earth, and our need as individuals to experience creation as a source of wonder and delight rather than a commodity for our personal use.
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The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory