Author: Michael Shermer Publisher: Henry Holt ISBN: 1627798579 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
"In his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists, and mind-uploaders, along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth. For millennia, religions have concocted numerous manifestations of heaven and the afterlife, the place where souls go after the death of the physical body. Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprising 74% of Americans believe exists, but from which no one has ever returned to report what it is really like. Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and what we can do in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter" --
Author: David Aubin Publisher: Duke University Press ISBN: 082239250X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 400
Book Description
The Heavens on Earth explores the place of the observatory in nineteenth-century science and culture. Astronomy was a core pursuit for observatories, but usually not the only one. It belonged to a larger group of “observatory sciences” that also included geodesy, meteorology, geomagnetism, and even parts of physics and statistics. These pursuits coexisted in the nineteenth-century observatory; this collection surveys them as a coherent whole. Broadening the focus beyond the solitary astronomer at his telescope, it illuminates the observatory’s importance to technological, military, political, and colonial undertakings, as well as in advancing and popularizing the mathematical, physical, and cosmological sciences. The contributors examine “observatory techniques” developed and used not only in connection with observatories but also by instrument makers in their workshops, navy officers on ships, civil engineers in the field, and many others. These techniques included the calibration and coordination of precision instruments for making observations and taking measurements; methods of data acquisition and tabulation; and the production of maps, drawings, and photographs, as well as numerical, textual, and visual representations of the heavens and the earth. They also encompassed the social management of personnel within observatories, the coordination of international scientific collaborations, and interactions with dignitaries and the public. The state observatory occupied a particularly privileged place in the life of the city. With their imposing architecture and ancient traditions, state observatories served representative purposes for their patrons, whether as symbols of a monarch’s enlightened power, a nation’s industrial and scientific excellence, or republican progressive values. Focusing on observatory techniques in settings from Berlin, London, Paris, and Rome to Australia, Russia, Thailand, and the United States, The Heavens on Earth is a major contribution to the history of science. Contributors: David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, Guy Boistel, Theresa Levitt, Massimo Mazzotti, Ole Molvig, Simon Schaffer, Martina Schiavon , H. Otto Sibum, Richard Staley, John Tresch, Simon Werrett, Sven Widmalm
Author: Gabriel Levy Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262543249 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 265
Book Description
An approach to understanding religion that draws on both humanities and natural science but rejects approaches that employ simple monisms and radical dualisms. In Beyond Heaven and Earth, Gabriel Levy argues that collective religious narratives and beliefs are part of nature; they are the basis for the formation of the narratives and beliefs of individuals. Religion grows out of the universe, but to make sense of it we have to recognize the paradox that the universe is both mental and material (or neither). We need both humanities and natural science approaches to study religion and religious meaning, Levy contends, but we must also recognize the limits of these approaches. First, we must make the dominant metaphysics that undergird the various disciplines of science and humanities more explicit, and second, we must reject those versions of metaphysics that maintain simple monisms and radical dualisms. Bringing Donald Davidson’s philosophy—a form of pragmatism known as anomalous monism—to bear on religion, Levy offers a blueprint for one way that the humanities and natural sciences can have a mutually respectful dialogue. Levy argues that in order to understand religions we have to take their semantic content seriously. We need to rethink such basic concepts as narrative fiction, information, agency, creativity, technology, and intimacy. In the course of his argument, Levy considers the relation between two closely related semantics, fiction and religion, and outlines a new approach to information. He then applies his theory to discrete cases: ancient texts, modern media, and intimacy.
Author: Thomas Brooks Publisher: Ravenio Books ISBN: Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 378
Book Description
A serious discourse concerning a well-grounded assurance of men’s everlasting happiness and blessedness. Discovering the nature of assurance, the possibility of attaining it, the causes, springs, and degrees of it; with the resolution of several weighty questions.
Author: Joshua Muravchik Publisher: Encounter Books ISBN: 1893554783 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 438
Book Description
"The search for the Promised Land took socialists in diverse directions: revolution, communes and kibbutzim, social democracy, communism, fascism, Third Worldism. But none of these paths led to the prophesied utopia. Nowhere did socialists succeed in creating societies of easy abundance or in midwifing the birth of a "New Man," as their theory promised. Some socialist governments abandoned their grandiose goals and satisfied themselves with making slight modifications to capitalism, while others plowed ahead doggedly, often inducing staggering human catastrophes. Then, after two hundred years of wishful thinking and fitful governance, socialism suddenly imploded in the 1990s in a fin du siecle drama of falling walls, collapsing regimes and frantic revisions of doctrine."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Clifford Chalmers Cain Publisher: Lexington Books ISBN: 0739172964 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 203
Book Description
Many Heavens, One Earth is a collection of first-person voices from nine of the world religions. In fifteen articles, devotees and scholars reveal the contributions these traditions make to informing and motivating an ecological response to the environmental issues that beset planet earth. The spiritual messages of world religions have an indispensable and decisive role to play in addressing these environmental problems, for, at their root, these ecological issues are spiritual problems: Unless greed is replaced by moderation and sharing, materialism by spiritual insights and values, consumerism by restraint and simpler living, exploitation by respect and service, and pollution by caring and protection, nature’s hospitality will be foolishly rebuffed, and therefore our descendants will inherit a polluted and depleted earth. Religion can be, and must be, a part of this replacement. Since at least 90% of the world’s people claim allegiance to various major world religious traditions, religion can exert a crucial and transforming influence.
Author: Harriet Beinfield Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN: 0804151733 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
“Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts who want to broaden their understanding. Readers interested in the role of herbs and foods in healing will also find much to learn here, as I have. . . . A fine work.”—Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing The promise and mystery of Chinese medicine has intrigued and fascinated Westerners ever since the “Bamboo Curtain” was lifted in the early 1970s. Now, in Between Heaven and Earth, two of the foremost American educators and healers in the Chinese medical profession demystify this centuries-old approach to health. Harriet Beinfeld and Efrem Korngold, pioneers in the practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the United States for over eighteen years, explain the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, how it works and what it can do. Combining Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities in a unique blend that is relevant today, Between Heaven and Earth addresses three vital areas of Chinese medicine—theory, therapy, and types—to present a comprehensive, yet understandable guide to this ancient system. Whether you are a patient with an aggravating complaint or a curious intellectual seeker, Between Heaven and Earth opens the door to a vast storehouse of knowledge that bridges the gap between mind and body, theory and practice, professional and self-care, East and West. “Groundbreaking . . . Here at last is a complete and readable guide to Chinese medicine.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Eric Walters Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 1554699436 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 258
Book Description
DJ is David McLean's eldest grandson, so it stands to reason that he be the one to scatter his beloved grandfather's ashes. At least that's how DJ sees it. He's always been the best at everything—sports, school, looking after his fatherless family—so climbing Kilimanjaro is just another thing he'll accomplish almost effortlessly. Or so he thinks, until he arrives in Tanzania and everything starts to go wrong. He's detained at immigration, he gets robbed, his climbing group includes an old lady and he gets stuck with the first ever female porter. Forced to go polepole (slowly), DJ finds out the hard way that youth, fitness level and drive have nothing to do with success on the mountain—or in life. DJ's adventures start in Jungle Land, part of The Seven Prequels and continue in Sleeper, part of The Seven Sequels.
Author: Mark Holloway Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486215938 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
Utopian communities in American from 1680 to 1880, including the Shakers, New Harmony, Brook Farm, the Fourieristic phalanxes, and the Oneida communities, with accounts of the constitutions, revelations, beliefs, tenets, customs dictated by religious beliefs or social principle, and more.
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Author: Michael Shermer
Author: David Aubin
Author: Derek Thomas
Author: Gabriel Levy
Author: Thomas Brooks
Author: Joshua Muravchik
Author: Clifford Chalmers Cain
Author: Harriet Beinfield
Author: Eric Walters
Author: Mark Holloway