Is the world falling apart? Is progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to stop back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the...

"An exploration of the failures of reason in human life and the enduring role of myth in science, politics, and morality"--

Philip Kitcher constructs an original and persuasive secular perspective, one that answers human needs, recognizes the objectivity of values, and provides for the universal desire for meaningfulness. Kitcher thoughtfully and sensitively considers how secularism can respond to the worries and challenges that all people confront, including the issue of mortality. He investigates how secular lives compare with those of people who adopt religious doctrines...

Life does not become empty and meaningless in a godless universe. This is the contention at the heart of humanism, the philosophy concerned with making sense of the world through reason, experience and shared human values. In this thought-provoking introduction, Peter Cave explores the humanist approach to religious belief, ethics and politics, and the key criticisms levelled against it. Revised and updated to address today's great crises - the climate...

Curiosity and wonderment about the origins of the universe are at the heart of our experience of the world. From Hesiod's Chaos, described in his poem about the origins of the Greek gods, Theogony, to today's mind-bending theories of the multiverse, humans have been consumed by the relentless pursuit of an answer to one awe inspiring question: What exactly happened during those first moments? Guido Tonelli, the acclaimed, award-winning particle physicist...

"Many people of faith believe the meaning of life depends on our connection to an eternal order of some kind. Atheists deride this belief as a childish superstition. In this wise and profound book, Anthony Kronman offers an alternative to these two entrenched positions, arguing that neither addresses the complexities of the human condition. We can never reach God, as religion promises, but cannot give up the longing to do so either. We are condemned...

"An urgent and deeply necessary work, Dear Zealots offers three ... essays that speak directly to our present age, on the rise of zealotry in Israel and around the world"--

A startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world, this historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify atrocities, asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we cannot expect to survive our religious differences indefinitely. Most controversially, argues that moderate lip service to religion only blinds us to the real perils...

Transhumanism is a movement pushing the limits of our biology-our senses, intelligence, and lifespans-in the hopes that, with technology, we can become something better, something other, than ourselves. For decades, transhumanism has been quietly exerting its influence, but in the last few years it has achieved critical mass, finding support among Silicon Valley billionaires and some of the world's biggest businesses. In To Be a Machine, journalist...