Download or read book Daily Skeptic 2016 written by Cody Scott and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Daily Skeptic is a blog dedicated to investigating news articles, science, religion, politics, history articles, and book reviews. This book is a collection of those essays from 2016 with topics ranging from the 2016 election, to social unrest, to book reviews and historical investigation.
Download or read book Skeptic written by Michael Shermer and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer's celebrated columns in Scientific American For fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Now, in Skeptic, seventy-five of these columns are available together for the first time; a welcome addition for his fans and a stimulating introduction for new readers.
Download or read book When Skeptics Ask written by Norman L. Geisler and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When skeptics ask tough questions, believers can turn to this helpful, user-friendly guide for thoughtful, up-to-date answers. Readers will also learn to identify and respond to the misuse of Scripture by nonbelievers and help detractors see the fullness, beauty, and truth of Christianity.
Download or read book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain written by David Gerard and published by David Gerard. This book was released on 2017-07-24 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News
Download or read book A Skeptic s Guide to Writers Houses written by Anne Trubek and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-07-11 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many ways to show our devotion to an author besides reading his or her works. Graves make for popular pilgrimage sites, but far more popular are writers' house museums. What is it we hope to accomplish by trekking to the home of a dead author? We may go in search of the point of inspiration, eager to stand on the very spot where our favorite literary characters first came to life—and find ourselves instead in the house where the author himself was conceived, or where she drew her last breath. Perhaps it is a place through which our writer passed only briefly, or maybe it really was a longtime home—now thoroughly remade as a decorator's show-house. In A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses Anne Trubek takes a vexed, often funny, and always thoughtful tour of a goodly number of house museums across the nation. In Key West she visits the shamelessly ersatz shrine to a hard-living Ernest Hemingway, while meditating on his lost Cuban farm and the sterile Idaho house in which he committed suicide. In Hannibal, Missouri, she walks the fuzzy line between fact and fiction, as she visits the home of the young Samuel Clemens—and the purported haunts of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Injun' Joe. She hits literary pay-dirt in Concord, Massachusetts, the nineteenth-century mecca that gave home to Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau—and yet could not accommodate a surprisingly complex Louisa May Alcott. She takes us along the trail of residences that Edgar Allan Poe left behind in the wake of his many failures and to the burned-out shell of a California house with which Jack London staked his claim on posterity. In Dayton, Ohio, a charismatic guide brings Paul Laurence Dunbar to compelling life for those few visitors willing to listen; in Cleveland, Trubek finds a moving remembrance of Charles Chesnutt in a house that no longer stands. Why is it that we visit writers' houses? Although admittedly skeptical about the stories these buildings tell us about their former inhabitants, Anne Trubek carries us along as she falls at least a little bit in love with each stop on her itinerary and finds in each some truth about literature, history, and contemporary America.
Download or read book The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment written by Anton M. Matytsin and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-10-26 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 8. A Matter of Debate: Conceptions of Material Substance in the Scientific Revolution -- 9. War of the Worlds: Cartesian Vortices and Newtonian Gravitation in Eighteenth-Century Astronomy -- 10. Historical Pyrrhonism and Its Discontents -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Download or read book Making Sense of God written by Timothy Keller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
Download or read book The Edge of Reason written by Julian Baggini and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent defense of reason, the essential method for resolving—or even discussing—divisive issues: “A timely masterpiece.”—Patricia S. Churchland, author of Touching a Nerve Reason, long held as the highest human achievement, is under siege. According to Aristotle, the capacity for reason sets us apart from other animals, yet today it has ceased to be a universally admired faculty. Rationality and reason have become political, disputed concepts, subject to easy dismissal. Julian Baggini argues eloquently that we must recover our reason and reassess its proper place, neither too highly exalted nor completely maligned. Rationality does not require a cold, sterile worldview—it simply involves the application of critical thinking wherever thinking is needed. Addressing such major areas of debate as religion, science, politics, psychology, and economics, the author calls for commitment to the notion of a “community of reason,” where disagreements are settled by debate and discussion, not brute force or political power. Baggini’s insightful book celebrates the power of reason, our best hope—indeed our only hope—for dealing with the intractable quagmires of our time. “The toxic gloating of ‘gut feelings,’ hateful politics and heart-over-head attacks on good sense urgently need an antidote. Baggini has risen to the occasion…compelling.”—Patricia S. Churchland, author of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition
Download or read book The Case Against Miracles written by John W. Loftus and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For as long as the idea of "miracles" has been in the public sphere, the conversation about them has been shaped exclusively by religious apologists and Christian leaders. The definitions for what a miracles are have been forged by the same men who fought hard to promote their own beliefs as fitting under that umbrella. It's time for a change. Enter John W. Loftus, an atheist author who has earned three master's degrees from Lincoln Christian Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Loftus, a former student of noted Christian apologist William Lane Craig, got some of the biggest names in the field to contribute to this book, which represents a critical analysis of the very idea of miracles. Incorporating his own thoughts along with those of noted academics, philosophers, and theologians, Loftus is able to properly define "miracle" and then show why there's no reason to believe such a thing even exists. Addressing every single issue that touches on miracles in a thorough and academic manner, this compilation represents the most extensive look at the phenomenon ever displayed through the lens of an ardent nonbeliever. If you've ever wondered exactly what a miracle is, or doubted whether they exist, then this book is for you.
Download or read book The Skeptics Guide to the Universe written by Dr. Steven Novella and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An all-encompassing guide to skeptical thinking from podcast host and academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine Steven Novella and his SGU co-hosts, which Richard Wiseman calls "the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction." It is intimidating to realize that we live in a world overflowing with misinformation, bias, myths, deception, and flawed knowledge. There really are no ultimate authority figures-no one has the secret, and there is no place to look up the definitive answers to our questions (not even Google). Luckily, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is your map through this maze of modern life. Here Dr. Steven Novella-along with Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein-will explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies, and conspiracy theories-from anti-vaccines to homeopathy, UFO sightings to N- rays. You'll learn the difference between science and pseudoscience, essential critical thinking skills, ways to discuss conspiracy theories with that crazy co- worker of yours, and how to combat sloppy reasoning, bad arguments, and superstitious thinking. So are you ready to join them on an epic scientific quest, one that has taken us from huddling in dark caves to setting foot on the moon? (Yes, we really did that.) DON'T PANIC! With The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, we can do this together. "Thorough, informative, and enlightening, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe inoculates you against the frailties and shortcomings of human cognition. If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson "In this age of real and fake information, your ability to reason, to think in scientifically skeptical fashion, is the most important skill you can have. Read The Skeptics' Guide Universe; get better at reasoning. And if this claim about the importance of reason is wrong, The Skeptics' Guide will help you figure that out, too." -- Bill Nye
Download or read book One Minute Answers to Skeptics written by Charlie H. Campbell and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speaking all over the United States about apologetics issues, Charlie Campbell has heard just about every question skeptics have to offer. In this concise, reader-friendly handbook, he provides brief responses to the top-40 questions that keep people from the faith, such as... What evidence do you have that God exists? How do you know the Bible is actually true? What about those who have never heard of Jesus? Will they be condemned to hell? If God is so loving, why does He allow evil and suffering? How can you say Jesus is the only way to heaven? Don’t all religions basically teach the same thing? Aren’t a lot of churchgoers hypocrites? With a gracious introductory note to skeptical readers and a generous sprinkling of inspiring quotes throughout, this handy resource is an enjoyable read as well as a powerful evangelistic tool.
Download or read book Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne written by A. Sherman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book fills a lacuna in the intellectual history of the seventeenth century by investigating the role that skepticism plays in the declining prestige of memory. It argues that Shakespeare and Donne revolutionize the art of memory, thanks to their skepticism, and thereby transform literary strategies like mimesis, exemplarity, and pastoral.
Download or read book Cicero s Skepticism and His Recovery of Political Philosophy written by Walter Nicgorski and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-11 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Cicero’s moral and political philosophy with great attention to his life and thought as a whole. The author “thinks through” Cicero with a close reading of his most important philosophical writings. Nicgorski often resolves apparent tensions in Cicero’s thought that have posed obstacles to the appreciation of his practical philosophy. Some of the major tensions confronted are those between his Academic skepticism and apparent Stoicism, between his commitment to philosophy and to politics, rhetoric and oratory, and between his attachment to Greek philosophy and his profound engagement in Roman culture. Moreover, the key theme within Cicero’s writings is his intended recovery, within his Roman context, of both the Socratic focus on great questions of practical philosophy and Socratic skepticism. Cicero’s recovery of Socratic political philosophy in Roman garb is then the basis for recovery of Cicero as a notable political thinker relevant to our time and its problems.
Download or read book Meet The Skeptic written by Bill Foster and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian faith almost always meets skepticism. Are you equipped to effectively handle the skeptic’s questions and debates? Meet the Skeptic is a new approach to equipping believers to engage the non-believing culture. Author Bill Foster takes the multitude of objections and reduces them to four basic categories. Understanding these categories will enable you to effectively share your hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ and clarify the skeptic’s root objection. Foster offers pop culture references and biblical support so that you can: Recognize the Red-Flag Words that prop up objections Ask probing questions and acquire an ear for opportunities Develop an understanding of the skeptics ideas and better fulfill the Great Commission. This easy to read approach to apologetics and evangelism is a field guide to faith conversations. It is written for teens, college students, and adults and can be used as a group study with the leader’s guide and workbook.
Download or read book The New Answers Book 1 written by Ken Ham and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2008 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians live in a culture with more questions than ever - questions that affect one's acceptance of the Bible as authoritative and trustworthy. Now, discover easy-to-understand answers that reach core truths of the Christian faith and apply the biblical worldview to a wide variety of subjects.
Download or read book Every Day I Write the Book written by Amitava Kumar and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-27 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amitava Kumar's Every Day I Write the Book is for academic writers what Annie Dillard's The Writing Life and Stephen King's On Writing are for creative writers. Alongside Kumar's interviews with an array of scholars whose distinct writing offers inspiring examples for students and academics alike, the book's pages are full of practical advice about everything from how to write criticism to making use of a kitchen timer. Communication, engagement, honesty: these are the aims and sources of good writing. Storytelling, attention to organization, solid work habits: these are its tools. Kumar's own voice is present in his essays about the writing process and in his perceptive and witty observations on the academic world. A writing manual as well as a manifesto, Every Day I Write the Book will interest and guide aspiring writers everywhere.
Download or read book A Skeptic s Guide to Faith written by Philip Yancey and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the apparent contradictions in the world and explains how the invisible, natural, and supernatural worlds might interact and affect people's daily lives.
