Showing titles in Agnosticism

Chris Highland, a former minister and chaplain who is now a freethinking humanist, brings together an assortment of essays from the last twenty years as he emerged from ministry and non-profit work and on into teaching, lecturing and writing. From the Preface: "To be simply secular may not actually be simple at all. As James Baldwin states, freethinkers aren’t often welcomed—some don’t want us around. Yet, we keep standing up, speaking out, raising our voices. Those of us who live with the questions need to keep asking them, pushing, pulling, nudging—we’re educators as well as ...

From Orthodox Jewish child in postwar America to mild-mannered mathematician in academia to legendary atheist activist in the heart of today's Republican South, Herb Silverman has always been outside the mainstream of American culture, politics, and religion. From this unique vantage point, he writes about the most pressing issues of our day, including those related to war, peace, patriotism, race, gender, and church-state separation.

Theism or Atheism, published in 1921, examines not only arguments for and against the existence of God, but also the practical usefulness of such a concept. The author writes, “Atheism would mean in practice an enormous concentration of energy upon purely human affairs, and a judgment of conduct in terms of human happiness and prosperity.”

A towering figure in American literature, Norman Mailer here explores his concept of the nature of God. In a series of probing, challenging, and uncommon dialogues, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, one that rejects both organized religion and atheism. He presents a view in which our world is created by an artistic God who often succeeds but can also fail in the face of determined opposition by contrary powers in the universe.

Trying to give religion definition is an almost impossible quest. The concept of faith is a contradiction; it can mean many different things to many different people. All religions preach peace and love and yet perhaps more people have died in its name than any other reason. Such is the conflict of trying to apply limited human laws and rules to divinity. What you are about to discover in this book will dramatically change the way you think and feel about everything in your life.

Throughout the ages believers have been persecuted: usually for believing in the "wrong" God. So have non-believers who have denied the existence of God as superstitious rubbish. Today it is the agnostics who are given a hard time. They are scorned by believers for their failure to find faith and by atheists for being hopelessly wishy-washy and weak-minded. But John Humphrys is proud to count himself among their ranks. In this audiobook he takes us along the spiritual road he himself has travelled.

If you’re courageous enough to challenge what is for what will be and open your mind to an alternative vision of what being human can be, this book is for you. Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis lays the foundation for the spiritual revolution humanity so desperately needs to transcend the deeply rooted struggles arising from our available systems of meaning and value. It’s time for a change, but all change begins with choice.

Freethinker, humanist celebrant and former minister and chaplain, Chris Highland, links 25 concise essays that address controversial views of religion, faith and humanistic practice. Each essay hangs on a question-mark, with a central theme drawing on the title question: Was Jesus a Humanist? Essays include: Interview with a Strange Young Teacher? A Prophetic Professor’s Greatest Challenge? The Man from Nazareth: Liar, Lunatic or Lord? Was Jesus a Humanist? What if Believing Isn’t the Point? Leaving the Choir, Still Singing? Baby Gods? Saved from What? Open for Truth? Did Jesus Teach ...

Chris Highland continues his friendly style of freethought in this new collection of essays (not published in his weekly columns) circling the theme of Nature. Chapters include:Pathfinding; Dirty Glaciers;; Eulogy for a Pond; I Sing the Body Electricity; The Phone Tree; Lessons from the Treetops; Nature’s Scripture; Natural Economics; Life is Too Short; By the Hands of Nature; How Green is God?; Green Village; Touch of Death; Wonder and Wildness; Living Bridge; Ancoutahan; Nearer to Wonder; and Mini-Migrations.

This book may allow some people to overcome their fear of the vengeful, cruel God they were taught to believe in as children. It may allow more people to speak out when they hear religious leaders use their God to incite people to harm others. It may even allow more of us to admit, "I could be wrong."

Essays from humanist freethinker, Chris Highland, explore the boundaries of belief. Includes chapters on: Freedom of Thought is Good for All; Who Builds and Buttresses the Boundaries of Belief?; Can You Be evangelical without being an Evangelical?; Sacraments, Screens and a Spirituality of Separation; Love the Believer, Hate the Beliefs?; Shining a Light on the Good Things We Do; Not for the Faint of Faith; Crazy for God; African Nativity: Stories of Refuge and Refugees; Pickpocketing, Freethinking and Breaking a Leg; Spinning with Spinoza; Charles Chesnutt’s Vision; Temple of Science, ...

Two thousand five hundred years ago, Confucius, Buddha, and Socrates all concluded, at slightly different times and thousands of miles apart, that a caring god simply did not exist. Then Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ (or rather the religion created in his name 334 years after his death) did their best to enslave humanity and hide that simple wisdom from us.

Since 2016, Chris Highland has written weekly columns for the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina. Drawing from his own experience in ministry and chaplaincy in the San Francisco Bay Area, he now writes as a freethinker from a humanist perspective. He engages many subjects and issues that concern people of faith--any faith--especially topics and ideas that also matter to non-religious people. Highland Views includes over 50 essays published as columns in the Citizen-Times. Writing with a tone of invitation, Highland welcomes readers across the spectrum from Evangelical to Atheist as ...

Another concise collection of selected short essays from Chris Highland, a freethinking humanist and former minister. With an inviting approach to the intersections of faith and freethought, the author presents a model for critical thinking beyond fearful faith and angry atheism. Companions along the way include: Sojourner Truth and John Muir, Margaret Fuller and Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin and Jesus of Nazareth, Charles Darwin and Booker T. Washington, Thomas Paine and Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Buber and Aldo Leopold. Many of these reflections come from the author's weekly "Highland ...

One of the greatest thinkers on the origins of Christianity and a renowned expert on Gnostic and Hermetic literature presents, in this snug volume first published in 1907, the lost teachings of Jesus. Not found in the canonical Gospels and, indeed, frequently dismissed as blasphemous or heretical or "reworked" by later editors to comply with perceived tradition, this beautiful hymn is not just of interest to Christian mystics but to anyone who values wise words well spoken. For those interested in mysticism, Gnosticism, and esoteric traditions.

Have you ever pondered how you came into existence, why you are here, the purpose of your life, and what awaits you after you depart from this world? These profound questions are a natural part of your existence, woven into the very fabric of your being by your creator, urging you to seek God and the meaning and purpose of your existence. The pursuit of meaning and purpose serves as a powerful driving force in your life.

Amor à maneira de Deus sugere respostas a essas questões. Em cinco capítulos, o Padre Júlio Lancellotti apresenta ao leitor o amor divino como um exercício de compaixão e de misericórdia. Aqui, o amor não é um sentimento, mas um compromisso. Não é exercício de força, mas demonstração de fraqueza. Não é uma abstração ingênua, mas a escolha de humanizar a vida dos vulneráveis e também dos poderosos.