Friday, February 02, 2007

Books of note...

Those looking for arguments counter to the ones espoused by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, please check out the list below:

  • The Words: the Reconstruction of Islamic Belief and Thought
    • The Words forms the first part of the Risale-i Nur Collection, an approximately 6,000-page Qur’anic commentary. In this commentary Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s main concern is how to save and strengthen one’s religious belief when confronted with the current prevalent materialist philosophy. It does not explain when or why a verse was revealed, but rather the truth that it represents. Subjects discussed are God, resurrection, prophethood, destiny, ego, worship, and how the truth of these matters is revealed through nature. The author also analyzes naturalist and materialist philosophy, as well as scientific theories and findings, and refutes them based on evidence that is clearly apparent in nature itself.
  • The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
    • "Collins, a pioneering medical geneticist who once headed the Human Genome Project, adapts his title from President Clinton's remarks announcing completion of the first phase of the project in 2000: "Today we are learning the language in which God created life." Collins explains that as a Christian believer, "the experience of sequencing the human genome, and uncovering this most remarkable of all texts, was both a stunning scientific achievement and an occasion of worship." This marvelous book combines a personal account of Collins's faith and experiences as a genetics researcher with discussions of more general topics of science and spirituality, especially centering around evolution." — Publisher's Weekly
  • Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe
    • "New England biologist Denton continues the assault on Darwinian science, especially the theories of evolution and natural selection, that he began in Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Here, Denton takes a page out of the work of 19th-century natural theologians like William Paley and 19th-century anti-Darwinian scientists like Robert Chambers to contend that, far from being random and without direction, the laws of nature operate by design. Moreover, says Denton, the design of the laws of the universe inevitably lead to one conclusion: "The entire process of biological evolution from the origin of life to the emergence of man was somehow directed from the beginning." Denton marshals a dizzying array of scientific evidence to bolster his conclusions." — Publisher's Weekly
  • God the Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World
    • "Glynn considers the recent trend away from the atheism that tends to characterize most scientists (as revealed by surveys) to what he calls a post-secularist perspective, an openness to the role of the divine. In clear, crisp prose, he examines the work of physicists who again see purpose in the design of the universe (the anthropic principle), the role of religion in the work of some contemporary psychologists (most notably M. Scott Peck), the relation between religious faith and bodily health, and out-of-body or near-death experiences (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Raymond Moody), and the disastrous effects of value-free sociology." — Library Journal

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