Author: William B. Collier
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532692714
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where did life come from? How you answer these questions will profoundly impact how you live your life. Professor Collier has compiled into one engaging volume the scientific case for God and theism encased in the philosophy of one of the most brilliant and unusual scientist/philosophers of our age: Michael Polanyi. Few people have the time to survey the full spectrum of the modern intelligent design movement and how it grew out of and interacts with the writings of Michael Polanyi. With this book you can step back and survey the whole scene, and know exactly who you need to read next if necessary. Collier has condensed the critical details of Polanyi and the Intelligent Design movement into a single volume that informs without being overly simplistic, but is also engaging and fun.
River Out of Eden
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724269
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
How did the replication bomb we call ”life” begin and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as ”the sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724269
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
How did the replication bomb we call ”life” begin and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as ”the sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
Atoms and Eden
Author: Steve Paulson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199779635
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Here is an unprecedented collection of twenty freewheeling and revealing interviews with major players in the ongoing--and increasingly heated--debate about the relationship between religion and science. These lively conversations cover the most important and interesting topics imaginable: the Big Bang, the origins of life, the nature of consciousness, the foundations of religion, the meaning of God, and much more. In Atoms and Eden, Peabody Award-winning journalist Steve Paulson explores these topics with some of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time, including Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, E. O. Wilson, Sam Harris, Elaine Pagels, Francis Collins, Daniel Dennett, Jane Goodall, Paul Davies, and Steven Weinberg. The interviewees include Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Muslims, as well as agnostics, atheists, and other scholars who hold perspectives that are hard to categorize. Paulson's interviews sweep across a broad range of scientific disciplines--evolutionary biology, quantum physics, cosmology, and neuroscience--and also explore key issues in theology, religious history, and what William James called ''the varieties of religious experience.'' Collectively, these engaging dialogues cover the major issues that have often pitted science against religion--from the origins of the universe to debates about God, Darwin, the nature of reality, and the limits of human reason. These are complex, intellectually rich discussions, presented in an accessible and engaging manner. Most of these interviews were originally published as individual cover stories for Salon.com, where they generated a huge reader response. Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" will present a major companion series on related topics this fall. A feast of ideas and competing perspectives, this volume will appeal to scientists, spiritual seekers, and the intellectually curious.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199779635
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Here is an unprecedented collection of twenty freewheeling and revealing interviews with major players in the ongoing--and increasingly heated--debate about the relationship between religion and science. These lively conversations cover the most important and interesting topics imaginable: the Big Bang, the origins of life, the nature of consciousness, the foundations of religion, the meaning of God, and much more. In Atoms and Eden, Peabody Award-winning journalist Steve Paulson explores these topics with some of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time, including Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, E. O. Wilson, Sam Harris, Elaine Pagels, Francis Collins, Daniel Dennett, Jane Goodall, Paul Davies, and Steven Weinberg. The interviewees include Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Muslims, as well as agnostics, atheists, and other scholars who hold perspectives that are hard to categorize. Paulson's interviews sweep across a broad range of scientific disciplines--evolutionary biology, quantum physics, cosmology, and neuroscience--and also explore key issues in theology, religious history, and what William James called ''the varieties of religious experience.'' Collectively, these engaging dialogues cover the major issues that have often pitted science against religion--from the origins of the universe to debates about God, Darwin, the nature of reality, and the limits of human reason. These are complex, intellectually rich discussions, presented in an accessible and engaging manner. Most of these interviews were originally published as individual cover stories for Salon.com, where they generated a huge reader response. Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" will present a major companion series on related topics this fall. A feast of ideas and competing perspectives, this volume will appeal to scientists, spiritual seekers, and the intellectually curious.
On the Backs of Tortoises
Author: Elizabeth Hennessy
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249152
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
An insightful exploration of the iconic Galápagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world. Finalist for the 2020 E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, sponsored by PEN America Literary Awards The Galápagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands’ namesakes—the giant tortoises—as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it. “Fresh, insightful . . . Hennessy’s melding of human and natural history makes for thought-provoking reading.” —Booklist (starred review) “Gripping . . . well-researched and thought-provoking . . . whether you’re well-versed in the intricacies of conservation or have only just begun to long for a look at the tortoises yourself. On the Backs of Tortoises is a natural history that asks important questions, and challenges us to think about how best to answer them.” —Genevieve Valentine, NPR “Wonderfully interesting, informative, and engaging, as well as scholarly.” —Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249152
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
An insightful exploration of the iconic Galápagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world. Finalist for the 2020 E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, sponsored by PEN America Literary Awards The Galápagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands’ namesakes—the giant tortoises—as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it. “Fresh, insightful . . . Hennessy’s melding of human and natural history makes for thought-provoking reading.” —Booklist (starred review) “Gripping . . . well-researched and thought-provoking . . . whether you’re well-versed in the intricacies of conservation or have only just begun to long for a look at the tortoises yourself. On the Backs of Tortoises is a natural history that asks important questions, and challenges us to think about how best to answer them.” —Genevieve Valentine, NPR “Wonderfully interesting, informative, and engaging, as well as scholarly.” —Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
From Darwin to Eden
Author: William B. Collier
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532692714
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where did life come from? How you answer these questions will profoundly impact how you live your life. Professor Collier has compiled into one engaging volume the scientific case for God and theism encased in the philosophy of one of the most brilliant and unusual scientist/philosophers of our age: Michael Polanyi. Few people have the time to survey the full spectrum of the modern intelligent design movement and how it grew out of and interacts with the writings of Michael Polanyi. With this book you can step back and survey the whole scene, and know exactly who you need to read next if necessary. Collier has condensed the critical details of Polanyi and the Intelligent Design movement into a single volume that informs without being overly simplistic, but is also engaging and fun.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532692714
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where did life come from? How you answer these questions will profoundly impact how you live your life. Professor Collier has compiled into one engaging volume the scientific case for God and theism encased in the philosophy of one of the most brilliant and unusual scientist/philosophers of our age: Michael Polanyi. Few people have the time to survey the full spectrum of the modern intelligent design movement and how it grew out of and interacts with the writings of Michael Polanyi. With this book you can step back and survey the whole scene, and know exactly who you need to read next if necessary. Collier has condensed the critical details of Polanyi and the Intelligent Design movement into a single volume that informs without being overly simplistic, but is also engaging and fun.
Out of Eden
Author: Alan Burdick
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374530433
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
In this stunning work of narrative nonfiction, the author tours the front lines of ecological invasion--in Hawaii, Tasmania, Guam, San Francisco, in lush rain forests, through underground lava tubes, on the deck of an Alaska-bound oil tanker.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374530433
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
In this stunning work of narrative nonfiction, the author tours the front lines of ecological invasion--in Hawaii, Tasmania, Guam, San Francisco, in lush rain forests, through underground lava tubes, on the deck of an Alaska-bound oil tanker.
Paradise Lust
Author: Brook Wilensky-Lanford
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802195636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A “certainly weird . . . strangely wonderful . . . [and] often irresistible” search to find the real Garden of Eden (The New York Times Book Review). Where, precisely, was God’s Paradise? St. Augustine had a theory. So did medieval monks, John Calvin and Christopher Columbus. But when Darwin’s theory of evolution changed our understanding of human origins, shouldn’t the desire to put a literal Eden on the map have faded away? Not so fast. This “gloriously researched, pluckily written historical and anecdotal assay of humankind’s age-old quixotic quest for the exact location of the Biblical garden” (Elle) explores an obsession that has consumed scientists and theologians alike for centuries. To this day, the search continues, taken up by amateur explorers, clergymen, scholars, engineers and educators—romantic seekers all who started with the same simple-sounding Bible verses, only to end up at a different spot on the globe: Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the North Pole, Mesopotamia, China, Iraq—and Ohio. Inspired by an Eden seeker in her own family, “Wilensky-Lanford approaches her subjects with respect, enthusiasm and conscientious research” (San Francisco Chronicle) as she traverses a century-spanning history provoking surprising insights into where we came from, what we did wrong, and where we go from here. And it all makes for “a lively journey” (Kirkus Reviews).
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802195636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A “certainly weird . . . strangely wonderful . . . [and] often irresistible” search to find the real Garden of Eden (The New York Times Book Review). Where, precisely, was God’s Paradise? St. Augustine had a theory. So did medieval monks, John Calvin and Christopher Columbus. But when Darwin’s theory of evolution changed our understanding of human origins, shouldn’t the desire to put a literal Eden on the map have faded away? Not so fast. This “gloriously researched, pluckily written historical and anecdotal assay of humankind’s age-old quixotic quest for the exact location of the Biblical garden” (Elle) explores an obsession that has consumed scientists and theologians alike for centuries. To this day, the search continues, taken up by amateur explorers, clergymen, scholars, engineers and educators—romantic seekers all who started with the same simple-sounding Bible verses, only to end up at a different spot on the globe: Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the North Pole, Mesopotamia, China, Iraq—and Ohio. Inspired by an Eden seeker in her own family, “Wilensky-Lanford approaches her subjects with respect, enthusiasm and conscientious research” (San Francisco Chronicle) as she traverses a century-spanning history provoking surprising insights into where we came from, what we did wrong, and where we go from here. And it all makes for “a lively journey” (Kirkus Reviews).
Leaving Eden
Author: Ann Chamberlin
Publisher: Forge Books
ISBN: 146683823X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
Leaving Eden brilliantly brings to life that watershed moment in our history when man -- and woman -- turned their backs on the most ancient of laws in order to strike out in independence. Told from the point of view young Na'amah, Adam's daughter by his first wife, Lilith, it tells of the passing of the ancient Goddess and the birth of the new God. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Publisher: Forge Books
ISBN: 146683823X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
Leaving Eden brilliantly brings to life that watershed moment in our history when man -- and woman -- turned their backs on the most ancient of laws in order to strike out in independence. Told from the point of view young Na'amah, Adam's daughter by his first wife, Lilith, it tells of the passing of the ancient Goddess and the birth of the new God. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Demons in Eden
Author: Jonathan Silvertown
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226757773
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
At the heart of evolution lies a bewildering paradox. Natural selection favors above all the individual that leaves the most offspring—a superorganism of sorts that Jonathan Silvertown here calls the "Darwinian demon." But if such a demon existed, this highly successful organism would populate the entire world with its own kind, beating out other species and eventually extinguishing biodiversity as we know it. Why then, if evolution favors this demon, is the world filled with so many different life forms? What keeps this Darwinian demon in check? If humankind is now the greatest threat to biodiversity on the planet, have we become the Darwinian demon? Demons in Eden considers these questions using the latest scientific discoveries from the plant world. Readers join Silvertown as he explores the astonishing diversity of plant life in regions as spectacular as the verdant climes of Japan, the lush grounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the shallow wetlands and teeming freshwaters of Florida, the tropical rainforests of southeast Mexico, and the Canary Islands archipelago, whose evolutionary novelties—and exotic plant life—have earned it the sobriquet "the Galapagos of botany." Along the way, Silvertown looks closely at the evolution of plant diversity in these locales and explains why such variety persists in light of ecological patterns and evolutionary processes. In novel and useful ways, he also investigates the current state of plant diversity on the planet to show the ever-challenging threats posed by invasive species and humans. Bringing the secret life of plants into more colorful and vivid focus than ever before, Demons in Eden is an empathic and impassioned exploration of modern plant ecology that unlocks evolutionary mysteries of the natural world.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226757773
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
At the heart of evolution lies a bewildering paradox. Natural selection favors above all the individual that leaves the most offspring—a superorganism of sorts that Jonathan Silvertown here calls the "Darwinian demon." But if such a demon existed, this highly successful organism would populate the entire world with its own kind, beating out other species and eventually extinguishing biodiversity as we know it. Why then, if evolution favors this demon, is the world filled with so many different life forms? What keeps this Darwinian demon in check? If humankind is now the greatest threat to biodiversity on the planet, have we become the Darwinian demon? Demons in Eden considers these questions using the latest scientific discoveries from the plant world. Readers join Silvertown as he explores the astonishing diversity of plant life in regions as spectacular as the verdant climes of Japan, the lush grounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the shallow wetlands and teeming freshwaters of Florida, the tropical rainforests of southeast Mexico, and the Canary Islands archipelago, whose evolutionary novelties—and exotic plant life—have earned it the sobriquet "the Galapagos of botany." Along the way, Silvertown looks closely at the evolution of plant diversity in these locales and explains why such variety persists in light of ecological patterns and evolutionary processes. In novel and useful ways, he also investigates the current state of plant diversity on the planet to show the ever-challenging threats posed by invasive species and humans. Bringing the secret life of plants into more colorful and vivid focus than ever before, Demons in Eden is an empathic and impassioned exploration of modern plant ecology that unlocks evolutionary mysteries of the natural world.
Tinkering with Eden
Author: Kim Todd
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393323245
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
A bewitching look at nonnative species in American ecosystems, by the heir apparent to McKibben and Quammen.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393323245
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
A bewitching look at nonnative species in American ecosystems, by the heir apparent to McKibben and Quammen.
Mecca and Eden
Author: Brannon Wheeler
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226888045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
Nineteenth-century philologist and Biblical critic William Robertson Smith famously concluded that the sacred status of holy places derives not from their intrinsic nature but from their social character. Building upon this insight, Mecca and Eden uses Islamic exegetical and legal texts to analyze the rituals and objects associated with the sanctuary at Mecca. Integrating Islamic examples into the comparative study of religion, Brannon Wheeler shows how the treatment of rituals, relics, and territory is related to the more general mythological depiction of the origins of Islamic civilization. Along the way, Wheeler considers the contrast between Mecca and Eden in Muslim rituals, the dispersal and collection of relics of the prophet Muhammad, their relationship to the sanctuary at Mecca, and long tombs associated with the gigantic size of certain prophets mentioned in the Quran. Mecca and Eden succeeds, as few books have done, in making Islamic sources available to the broader study of religion.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226888045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
Nineteenth-century philologist and Biblical critic William Robertson Smith famously concluded that the sacred status of holy places derives not from their intrinsic nature but from their social character. Building upon this insight, Mecca and Eden uses Islamic exegetical and legal texts to analyze the rituals and objects associated with the sanctuary at Mecca. Integrating Islamic examples into the comparative study of religion, Brannon Wheeler shows how the treatment of rituals, relics, and territory is related to the more general mythological depiction of the origins of Islamic civilization. Along the way, Wheeler considers the contrast between Mecca and Eden in Muslim rituals, the dispersal and collection of relics of the prophet Muhammad, their relationship to the sanctuary at Mecca, and long tombs associated with the gigantic size of certain prophets mentioned in the Quran. Mecca and Eden succeeds, as few books have done, in making Islamic sources available to the broader study of religion.