Encountering Mystery

Encountering Mystery PDF Author: Dale C. Allison
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467464341
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Despite widespread skepticism on the matter, a significant number of people today have stories of religious experience—moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions. How should rationally minded people respond? What would your reaction be if someone told you that, one night while sitting alone, she saw through the window a brilliant light descend from the sky until it was so large that it filled the room—and that it radiated a feeling of “pure love”? And what would you say if a friend confided that one night he woke up and could not move, felt he was being suffocated, and sensed an evil spirit in the room? By default in the secular age we are skeptical about anything mysterious or supernatural. More likely than not, most people would respond to the stories above with embarrassment and concern about the person’s grasp of reality, or they would attempt to explain them away through rational or scientific means. But the truth is that religious experiences like these are not as uncommon as they seem—although talking about such experiences often is. This is the case even in a faith tradition such as Christianity, despite the Bible’s numerous accounts of miraculous and mysterious happenings. In Encountering Mystery, noted biblical scholar Dale Allison makes the argument that stories of religious experience are meaningful and not to be marginalized—and that we have a moral prerogative to lovingly engage with such stories regardless of whether we have had similar experiences. Through a close look at phenomena such as moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions, Allison shows how ordinary practices of faith need not be at odds with individual religious experiences. Above all, he enjoins us to be honest about the persistence of religious experience in a secular age and to make space for those who encounter mystery in their lives.

Berkeley's Puzzle

Berkeley's Puzzle PDF Author: John Campbell
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198716257
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Sensory experience seems to be the basis of our knowledge and conception of mind-independent things. The puzzle is to understand how that can be: even if the things we experience (apples, tables, trees, etc), are mind-independent how does our sensory experience of them enable us to conceive of them as mind-independent? George Berkeley thought that sensory experience can only provide us with the conception of mind-dependent things, things which cannot exist when they aren't being perceived. It's easy to dismiss Berkeley's conclusion but harder to see how to avoid it. In this book, John Campbell and Quassim Cassam propose very different solutions to Berkeley's Puzzle. For Campbell, sensory experience can be the basis of our knowledge of mind-independent things because it is a relation, more primitive than thought, between the perceiver and high-level objects and properties in the mind-independent world. Cassam opposes this 'relationalist' solution to the Puzzle and defends a 'representationalist' solution: sensory experience can give us the conception of mind-independent things because it represents its objects as mind-independent, but does so without presupposing concepts of mind-independent things. This book is written in the form of a debate between two rival approaches to understanding the relationship between concepts and sensory experience. Although Berkeley's Puzzle frames the debate, the questions addressed by Campbell and Cassam aren't just of historical interest. They are among the most fundamental questions in philosophy.

Encountering Mystery

Encountering Mystery PDF Author: Dale C. Allison
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467464341
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Despite widespread skepticism on the matter, a significant number of people today have stories of religious experience—moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions. How should rationally minded people respond? What would your reaction be if someone told you that, one night while sitting alone, she saw through the window a brilliant light descend from the sky until it was so large that it filled the room—and that it radiated a feeling of “pure love”? And what would you say if a friend confided that one night he woke up and could not move, felt he was being suffocated, and sensed an evil spirit in the room? By default in the secular age we are skeptical about anything mysterious or supernatural. More likely than not, most people would respond to the stories above with embarrassment and concern about the person’s grasp of reality, or they would attempt to explain them away through rational or scientific means. But the truth is that religious experiences like these are not as uncommon as they seem—although talking about such experiences often is. This is the case even in a faith tradition such as Christianity, despite the Bible’s numerous accounts of miraculous and mysterious happenings. In Encountering Mystery, noted biblical scholar Dale Allison makes the argument that stories of religious experience are meaningful and not to be marginalized—and that we have a moral prerogative to lovingly engage with such stories regardless of whether we have had similar experiences. Through a close look at phenomena such as moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions, Allison shows how ordinary practices of faith need not be at odds with individual religious experiences. Above all, he enjoins us to be honest about the persistence of religious experience in a secular age and to make space for those who encounter mystery in their lives.

Socratic Puzzles

Socratic Puzzles PDF Author: Robert Nozick
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674816534
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
One of the foremost philosophers of our time, Robert Nozick continues the Socratic tradition of investigation. This volume, which illustrates the originality, force, and scope of his work, also displays Nozick's trademark blending of extraordinary analytical rigor with intellectual playfulness. As such, Socratic Puzzles testifies to the great pleasure that both doing and reading philosophy can be. Comprising essays and philosophical fictions, classics and new work, the book ranges from Socrates to W. V. Quine, from the implications of an Israeli kibbutz to the flawed arguments of Ayn Rand. Nozick considers the figure of Socrates himself as well as the Socratic method (why is it a "method" of getting at the truth?). Many of these essays bring classic methods to bear on new questions about choice. How should you choose in a disconcerting situation ("Newcomb's Problem") when your decisions are completely predictable? Why do threats and not offers typically coerce our choices? How do we make moral judgments when we realize that our moral principles have exceptions? Other essays present new approaches to familiar intellectual puzzles, from the stress on simplicity in scientific hypotheses to the tendency of intellectuals to oppose capitalism. As up to date as the latest reflections on animal rights; as perennial as the essentials of aesthetic merit (doggerel by Isaac Newton goes to prove that changing our view of the world won't suffice); as whimsical as a look at how some philosophical problems might appear from God's point of view: these essays attest to the timeliness and timelessness of Nozick's thinking. With a personal introduction, in which Nozick discusses the origins, tools, and themes of his work, Socratic Puzzles demonstrates how philosophy can constitute a way of life.

Picture Puzzles For Dummies

Picture Puzzles For Dummies PDF Author: Elizabeth J. Cardenas-Nelson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470561297
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Exercise your brain with hundreds of colorful, mind-blowing photo puzzles Sudoku, crosswords, word searches, and other brainteasers are wildly popular these days-not just because they're fun, but also because they stimulate the mind and keep it active and healthy. Now there's a new puzzle guide guaranteed to hone your powers of observation and perception. Picture Puzzles For Dummies features 100 full-color puzzles that use sight to enhance your brain capacity as well as keep you amused for hours! This portable guide features 100 fun and challenging photo puzzles Includes "spot the changes" puzzles, "cut-ups", "which one of these is not like the others", and a collection of bewildering "black and white" puzzles Visual puzzles have been proven to strengthen memory, attention span, and creativity, as well as amplify logic, vocabulary, and deduction skills. Whether you're completely new to puzzles or you're a puzzle fanatic, Picture Puzzles For Dummies is the perfect guide to keep you entertained.

Encounter

Encounter PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theology
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description


Reading the Enemy's Mind

Reading the Enemy's Mind PDF Author: Paul H. Smith
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0312349602
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 779

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Book Description
If you thought The Manchurian Candidate was fiction or John Farris's The Fury, which featured a CIA mind-control program run amok, was the stuff of an overheated imagination, you were sorely mistaken. From behind the cloak of U.S. military secrecy comes the story of Star Gate, the project that for nearly a quarter of a century trained soldiers and civilian spies in extra-sensory perception (ESP). Their objective: To search out the secrets of America's cold war enemies using a skill called "remote viewing." Paul H. Smith, a U.S. Army Major, was one of these viewers. Assigned to the remote viewing unit in 1983 at a pivotal time in its history, Smith served for the rest of the decade, witnessing and taking part in many of the seminal national-security crises of the twentieth century. With the Star Gate secrets declassified and the program mothballed by the Central Intelligence Agency, the story can now be told of the ordinary soldiers drafted onto the battlefield of human consciousness. Using hundreds of interviews with the key players in the Star Gate program, and gathering thousands of pages of documents, Smith opens the records on this remarkable chapter in American military, scientific, and cultural history. He reveals many secrets about how remote viewing works and how it was used against enemy targets. Among these stories are the search for hostages in Lebanon; spying on Soviet directed energy weapons; investigating the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland; tracking foreign testing of weapons of mass destruction; combating narco-trafficking off America's coasts; aiding in the Iranian hostage situation; finding KGB moles in the CIA; pursuing Middle East terrorists; and more. Between the lines in the official records are revelations about unrelenting attempts from within and without to destroy the remote viewing program, and the efforts that kept Star Gate going for more than two decades in spite of its enemies. This is a story for the believer and the skeptic---a rare look at the innards of a top secret program and an eye-opening treatise on the power of the human mind to transcend the limitations of space and time. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

 PDF Author:
Publisher: Arihant Publications India limited
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Ancient Warfare, Volume II

Ancient Warfare, Volume II PDF Author: Jared Kreiner
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527570401
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
This volume demonstrates the wide array of topics in ancient warfare currently studied by researchers around the world. Arranged chronologically in Greek and Roman history sections, the book takes readers through all manner of current research topics on ancient warfare, from traditional battle narratives or strategic analyses of campaigns, through the logistical considerations of armies in the field, to the ideology of women in war and mythology. The study of ancient war deals with a myriad of different topics and deals with themes in all types of history: social, cultural, economic, religious, literary, numismatical, epigraphical, ethnographical, topographical, prosopographical, and mythical, as well as the usual political and military. The study of ancient war is a field that is growing in popularity and continues to surprise us with many innovative new ideas, as shown in this collection of papers by established academics and current graduate students.

Algorithmic Puzzles

Algorithmic Puzzles PDF Author: Anany Levitin
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199740445
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Algorithmic puzzles are puzzles involving well-defined procedures for solving problems. This book will provide an enjoyable and accessible introduction to algorithmic puzzles that will develop the reader's algorithmic thinking. The first part of this book is a tutorial on algorithm design strategies and analysis techniques. Algorithm design strategies — exhaustive search, backtracking, divide-and-conquer and a few others — are general approaches to designing step-by-step instructions for solving problems. Analysis techniques are methods for investigating such procedures to answer questions about the ultimate result of the procedure or how many steps are executed before the procedure stops. The discussion is an elementary level, with puzzle examples, and requires neither programming nor mathematics beyond a secondary school level. Thus, the tutorial provides a gentle and entertaining introduction to main ideas in high-level algorithmic problem solving. The second and main part of the book contains 150 puzzles, from centuries-old classics to newcomers often asked during job interviews at computing, engineering, and financial companies. The puzzles are divided into three groups by their difficulty levels. The first fifty puzzles in the Easier Puzzles section require only middle school mathematics. The sixty puzzle of average difficulty and forty harder puzzles require just high school mathematics plus a few topics such as binary numbers and simple recurrences, which are reviewed in the tutorial. All the puzzles are provided with hints, detailed solutions, and brief comments. The comments deal with the puzzle origins and design or analysis techniques used in the solution. The book should be of interest to puzzle lovers, students and teachers of algorithm courses, and persons expecting to be given puzzles during job interviews.

Uncle Steve's locker, by Brenda

Uncle Steve's locker, by Brenda PDF Author: mrs. G Castle Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description