The Transcendental Temptation

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 2013-09-10
• ISBN : 9781616148287

In this landmark work, Paul Kurtz examines the reasons why people accept supernatural and paranormal belief systems in spite of substantial evidence to the contrary. According to Kurtz, it is because there is within the human species a deeply rooted tendency toward magical thinking—the “transcendental temptation”—which undermines critical judgment and paves the way for willful beliefs. Kurtz explores in detail the three major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—finding striking psychological and sociological parallels between these religions,

• Author : Anonim
• Publisher : Unknown
• Release Date : 2015
• ISBN : OCLC:1091220756

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Routledge
• Release Date : 2018-04-17
• ISBN : 9781351294386

Paul Kurtz has been the dominant voice of secular humanism over the past thirty years. This compilation of his work reveals the scope of his thinking on the basic topics of our time and his many and varied contributions to the cause of free thought. It focuses on the central issues that have concerned Kurtz throughout his career: ethics, politics, education, religion, science, and pseudoscience. The chapters are linked by a common theme: the need for a new enlightenment, one

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Transaction Publishers
• Release Date : 2022-08-13
• ISBN : 1412834112

As we begin the third millennium there is cause for cautious optimism regarding the human prospect. Democratic revolutions and the doctrine of universal human rights have captured the imagination of large sectors of humanity, while major advances in science and technology continue to conquer disease and extend life, contributing to rising standards of living, affluence, and cultural freedom on a worldwide basis. Paradoxically, at the same time ancient authoritarian fundamentalist religions have grown in vitriolic intensity along with bizarre New

• Author : Andrei Sorin
• Publisher : Andsor Books
• Release Date : 2013-01-01
• ISBN : 9780986938900

Addressing general readers as well as software practitioners, "Software and Mind" discusses the fallacies of the mechanistic ideology and the degradation of minds caused by these fallacies. Mechanism holds that every aspect of the world can be represented as a simple hierarchical structure of entities. But, while useful in fields like mathematics and manufacturing, this idea is generally worthless, because most aspects of the world are too complex to be reduced to simple hierarchical structures. Our software-related affairs, in particular,

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 2012-06-26
• ISBN : 9781616142797

The secular age has confronted human beings with a fundamental challenge. While the naturalistic worldview rooted in science has persuasively shown that traditional religious conceptions of the universe are unsustainable, it has so far offered no compelling secular narratives to replace the religious narratives so entrenched in civilization. In the absence of religion, how do thoughtful contemporary individuals find meaning in a secular world? In this book, philosopher Paul Kurtz argues for a new approach that he calls eupraxsophy. Kurtz

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Routledge
• Release Date : 2017-07-12
• ISBN : 9781351504249

The contemporary world is witness to an intense controversy about secularism. This controversy has intensified due to the presence of fundamentalism, which challenges secular society and the secularization of philosophical ideas and ethical values. Secularists maintain that the state should not impose a religious creed upon citizens and should respect freedom of conscience, the right to believe or disbelieve in the prevailing orthodoxy. This right is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the Rights of Man

• Author : David Layton
• Publisher : McFarland
• Release Date : 2012-04-19
• ISBN : 9780786489442

From 1963 to 1989, the BBC television program Doctor Who followed a time-traveling human-like alien called “The Doctor” as he sought to help people, save civilizations and right wrongs. Since its 2005 revival, Doctor Who has become a pop culture phenomenon surpassing its “classic” period popularity and reaching a larger, more diverse audience. Though created as a family program, the series has dramatized serious themes in philosophy, science, religion, and politics. Doctor Who’s thoughtful presentation of a secular humanist view of the

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 1983
• ISBN : 9781615926404

Are the fundamentalists shaking the foundations of the American republic?When they condemn humanism's influence in the schools, are they not actually attacking modern education, science, culture, and philosophy?Is it possible to be moral without benefit of clergy or creed?Can humanism help open doors so that individuals, singly and in cooperation with others, can create lives that are rich in enjoyment, eloquent and meaningful?What is humanism, and why have humanists come under attack by religious conservatives and

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
• Release Date : 2000
• ISBN : 0847699668

Paul Kurtz argues that it is possible for rationalists and free thinkers to lead exemplary lives.

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 2015-05-13
• ISBN : 9781615929122

Happiness is within everyone's grasp and is only a matter of making the right choices. Taking destiny into one's own hands and having the creative audacity to strive, seek, and meet challenges is the essence of life's drama and exaltation. Life per se has no meaning; it only presents opportunity to be seized and acted upon, thus paving the way for personal achievement and the full life. Paul Kurtz, in Exuberance, shows his readers how to banish drudgery from life

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 2010-10-29
• ISBN : 9781615921485

Paul Kurtz, America's leading secular humanist philosopher, affirms that it is possible to live the good life and be morally responsible, without belief in religion. In this original and penetrating book, Kurtz delineates the means by which humanity can transcend the limitations of traditional religious loyalties and achieve a higher stage of ethics. Fundamentalists deny the possibility of ethics without belief in God. Conservatives rail against secularists. Yet belief in God is no guarantee of moral virtue - as the

• Author : Timothy Madigan
• Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Release Date : 2008-12-18
• ISBN : 9781443802642

The myth of Prometheus has inspired countless generations of humanists throughout the ages. Prometheus -- who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans to help them survive -- remains a symbol for those who reject theistic orthodoxies and who fearlessly challenge accepted beliefs. Artists such as Byron, Goethe, Beethoven and Wagner have been influenced by this story. Most importantly, Prometheus is a symbol for selfless love. In this collection of essays, the Promethean myth and its relationship

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Prometheus Books
• Release Date : 2010-10-29
• ISBN : 9781615929702

For more than three decades, philosopher Paul Kurtz has been a strong advocate of skepticism, not only as a philosophical position, but also as a fulfilling way of life. Contrary to the view that skepticism is merely a negative, nay saying, or debunking stance toward commonly held beliefs, skepticism as defined by Kurtz emerges reborn as "skeptical inquiry"—a decidedly positive philosophy ready and able to change the world. In this definitive collection, editor John R. Shook has gathered together

• Author : Paul Kurtz
• Publisher : Promtheus
• Release Date : 1990
• ISBN : 087975592X

Kurtz (philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo; editor, Free inquiry; and president, Prometheus Books) collects his essays, articles, and contributions to books written over the past thirty-five years. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR