Download or read book The Flight of Peter Fromm written by Martin Gardner and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Flight of Peter Fromm is a novel of ideas disguised as the biography of a young man from a Pentecostal fundamentalist background in Oklahoma, who loses his faith while a student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His spiritual odyssey is narrated by his mentor, a professor at the divinity school - who is actually a humanist who believes neither in God nor in an afterlife. Although Peter never abandons his theism or his admiration for Jesus, he reaches a point where he feels it would be hypocritical to remain within the church and to become the evangelist he had hoped to be. The counterpoint between Peter and the narrator reflects the eternal conflict between theism and atheism. In following the changes of Peter's beliefs, almost every aspect of Protestant theology and ethics is explored. The evolution of Peter's faith parallels the evolution of Christian theology, from the day of Pentecost to contemporary liberal theology.
Download or read book The Trickster and the Paranormal written by George P. Hansen and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2001-08-20 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paranormal and supernatural events have been reported for millennia. They have fostered history’s most important cultural transformations (e.g., via the miracles of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed). Paranormal phenomena are frequently portrayed in the world’s greatest art and literature, as well as in popular TV shows and movies. Most adults in the U.S. believe in them. Yet they have a marginal place in modern culture. No university departments are devoted to studying psychic phenomena. In fact, a panoply of scientists now aggressively denounces them. These facts present a deeply puzzling situation. But they become coherent after pondering the trickster figure, an archaic being found worldwide in mythology and folklore. The trickster governs paradox and the irrational, but his messages are concealed. This book draws upon theories of the trickster from anthropology, folklore, sociology, semiotics, and literary criticism. It examines psychic phenomena and UFOs and explains why they are so problematical for science.
Download or read book Unapologetic Apologetics written by William A. Dembski and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2001-01-05 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by William A. Dembski and Jay Wesley Richards, this group of former Princeton Theological Seminary students brings apologetics back into the seminary debates as they expose the influence of naturalism in theological studies plus other philosophical tenets automatically assumed in much mainline theology.
Download or read book An Unholy Alliance written by Robert J. Higgs and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Unholy Alliance offers a dissenting view to the claim by a growing number of scholars that Sports are a new religion. The last few years have seen a spate of books that might be classified by a genre called "Sports Apologetics," that is, arguments defending or celebrating in one way or another the familiar and ongoing alliance in America between sports and religion. Recently, claims have been made by scholars that sports are an authentic religion in and of themselves. They make this startling assertion not by showing connections with the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, or Moses, but by parallels between the rites of modern games and those of preliterate man that were "religious" in nature because they were designed to propitiate powers and to ward off evil for the tribes employing them. In this evocative book, Higgs and Braswell suggest that while sports may often be good things, they are not inherently divine. They do not focus on wide-spread abuse in sports as evidence for their counterargument. Rather, they question the use of mythological parallels from prehistory as justification for viewing sports as a religion.
Download or read book The First Peace My Search for the Better Angels written by Charles Wilson Hatfield and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels is a spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and perhaps educational memoir that spans fifty-plus years, eleven states, three countries, military and seminary, birth and death, marriage and divorce, three Christian denominations, and a monastery. This memoir is a journey through faith and knowledge, hope and reality, love and experience. The author attempts to reconcile what he has been taught, what he believes, what he experiences, what he knows, what he wants, and what he perceives. His unacknowledged question: What do we do when we evolve beyond the faith of our fathers (and/or mothers)? After a life of seeking to understand through the lens of Christianity (and other religions), the author comes to understand that religious beliefs and dogma may become a barrier to faith and understanding. The author learns that liberty entails responsibility, faith requires self-reliance, and enlightenment is found within. Liberty and freedom entail responsibility, responsibly that no other person or institution can assume for use. We remain responsible for our actions and inactions. No person, government, or religious institution can assume or remove our responsibility for our actions, for our lives. The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels is an attempt to weave a tapestry of stories, ideas and ideals, ethics, experiences, and expressions with the goal (and hope) to entertain, inform, educate, persuade, stimulate, and even challenge. Perhaps The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels will remind you of your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings that provide some measure of contentment, but also some measure of challenge, even conflict. The silence beyond those reminders is where we find the first peace and where we are at liberty to be real and where the better angels of our nature touch us.
Download or read book Don t Stop Believing written by Michael E. Wittmer and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-08-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Must you believe something to be saved? Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians? Is hell for real and forever? These are big questions. Hard questions. Questions that divide Christians along conservative and liberal lines. Conservatives love their beliefs and liberals believe in their love. Each pushes the other to opposite extremes. Fundamentalists imply that it doesn’t matter how we live as long as we believe in Jesus, while some Emergent Christians respond that it doesn’t matter what we believe as long as we live like him. Theologian Michael Wittmer calls both sides out of bounds and crafts a third way that retains the insights of each. He examines ten key questions that confront contemporary Christians and shows why both right belief and right practice are necessary for authentic Christianity. Here is an urgent reminder that best practices can only arise from true beliefs. Genuine Christians never stop serving because they never stop loving, and they never stop loving because they never stop believing.
Download or read book Walking Away from Faith written by Ruth Tucker and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some people lose their faith?Why do some choose to abandon religious beliefs that were once meaningful to them?And what happens when they do?In this no-holds-barred book, Ruth Tucker tackles the tough questions about losing faith. Providing historical perspective, she looks at the stories of prominent Christians, like Chuck Templeton and Billy Graham, who have struggled with faith. She grapples with difficult philosophical and theological issues, exploring the intractable questions that bring people to the point of losing faith--suffering, science, answer to prayer, hypocrisy in the church, and more. Throughout the book, she explores the testimonies of some who have made the choice to walk away--and some who have returned.Tucker writes not just as a detached observer but as one who has also struggled with doubt and disappointment. In Walking Away from Faith, she shares her from her experience and tells you why she continues to choose faith. Reading her story and her interviews of others, you will find help for working through your own questions and doubts. You will also find insight for ministering to your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors who stumble between belief and unbelief.
Download or read book Reason in the Balance written by Phillip E. Johnson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 1998-06-29 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phillip E. Johnson exposes the flawed underpinnings of naturalism in this discussion of evolution, sex education, abortion, God, the search for a grand unified theory in physics, what our public schools should teach, the basis of law and more.
Download or read book The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener written by Martin Gardner and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 1999-08-21 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener showcases Martin Gardner as the consummate philosopher, thinker, and great mathematician that he is. Exploring issues that range from faith to prayer to evil to immortality, and far beyond, Garnder challenges the discerning reader with fundamental questions of classical philosophy and life's greater meanings. Recalling such philosophers was Wittgenstein and Arendt, The Whys of Philosophical Scrivener embodies Martin Garner's unceasing interest and joy in the impenetrable mysteries of life.
Download or read book Displacing the Divine written by Douglas Alan Walrath and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than forty years, Douglas Alan Walrath has tracked changing patterns of belief and church participation in American society, and his research has revealed a particularly fascinating trend: portrayals of ministers in American fiction mirror changing perceptions of the Protestant church and a Protestant God. --from publisher description
Download or read book The Math Book written by Clifford A. Pickover and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2009 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers 250 milestones in mathematical history, beginning millions of years ago with ancient "ant odometers" and moving through time to our modern-day quest for new dimensions.
Download or read book Science Religion and the Human Experience written by James D. Proctor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-04-21 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between science and religion is generally depicted in one of two ways. In one view, they are locked in an inevitable, eternal conflict in which one must choose a side. In the other, they are separate spheres, in which the truth claims of one have little bearing on the other. This collection of provocative essays by leading thinkers offers a new way of looking at this problematic relationship. The authors begin from the premise that both science and religion operate in, yet seek to reach beyond, specific historical, political, ideological, and psychological contexts. How may we understand science and religion as arising from, yet somehow transcending, human experience? Among the scholars who explore this question are Bruno Latour, Hilary Putnam, Jeffrey Burton Russell, Daniel Matt, Michael Ruse, Ronald Numbers, Pascal Boyer, and Alan Wallace. The volume is divided into four sections. The first takes a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion in broad terms: as spheres of knowledge or belief, realms of experience, and sources of authority. The other three sections take on topics that have been focal points of conflict between science and religion: the nature of the cosmos, the origin of life, and the workings of the mind. Ultimately, the authors argue, by seeing science and religion as irrevocably tied to human experience we can move beyond simple either/or definitions of reality and arrive at a more rich and complex view of both science and religion.
Download or read book The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener written by Martin Gardner and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1999-08-21 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A noted author defends his personal attitudes toward the fundamental issues of classical philosophy, discussing the awesome mystery surrounding science and life and explaining why he considers himself a theist.
Download or read book 1 2 Peter and Jude Redesign written by David R. Helm and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone experiences trials at some points in their lives. But the Bible is clear that Christians have nothing to fear in the long run in light of God’s sovereignty and love for his people. In this stirring exposition of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude, pastor David Helm explores these three New Testament letters in depth, reminding readers that suffering precedes future glories for anyone who claims Christ as Lord and Savior. An ideal resource for pastors and teachers looking to connect the Bible’s message to the everyday lives of Christians, this commentary touches on a number of important themes, such as finding encouragement in Christ, avoiding false teaching, what it means to contend for the faith, and how to finish life well. Part of the Preaching the Word commentary series.
Download or read book Galatians written by Todd Wilson and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2013-07-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul's letter to the Galatians stands as a key book in the Bible, especially as it relates to the Old Testament Law and to the Christian's "freedom in Christ." Paul's emphasis on Jesus's substitutionary death, justification by faith, and the work of the Spirit makes the letter crucial for a complete understanding of the New Testament's teaching on salvation through faith in Christ. Combining scholarly depth with practical wisdom, pastor Todd Wilson has written a commentary based on years of ministry experience and biblical reflection, resulting in a resource that is exegetically engaged, theologically informed, and pastorally relevant. Paul's passionate exhortation for the Galatians to return and cling to the gospel that saved them remains relevant today, reminding modern readers of the importance of God's grace for all of life. Part of the Preaching the Word series.
Download or read book Did Adam and Eve Have Navels Debunking Pseudoscience written by Martin Gardner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2001-10-17 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gardner muses on topics as diverse as numerology, the late Senator Clairborne Pell's paranormal passions, Freud's flawed dream theory, the Heaven's Gate suicides, and the inexhaustible American appetite for third-rate science.
Download or read book The Night Is Large written by Martin Gardner and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1997-07-15 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive work of Martin Gardner's brilliant, seven-decades-long career, "The Night Is Large" collects 54 of the most significant essays by this popular writer best known for his "Mathematical Games" columns which appeared in "Scientific American" magazine for more than 25 years.
