From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space—an authoritative and accessible guide to the most alluring and challenging phenomena of contemporary science. "[Levin will] take you on a safe black hole trip, an exciting travel story enjoyed from your chair’s event horizon.” —Boston Globe Through her writing, astrophysicist Janna Levin has focused on making the science she studies not just comprehensible but also, and perhaps more important, intriguing to the nonscientist. In this book, she helps us to understand and find delight in the black hole—perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists—illustrated with original artwork by American painter and photographer Lia Halloran. Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging, and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative—it is, as well, a wonderful read from first to last.
Reflecting on the philosophical assumptions that sustain the development debate, Rabbani analyzes how the modern project of development and the antidevelopment discourse reduce the human condition to a struggle for self-preservation and, likewise, social and international cooperation to a strategic and self-defeating process. The book centers on core inconsistencies in the rationale of both discourses as they stand for individual autonomy, collective self-determination and mutual respect. Building these social goals around the requirement of ’non-interference’ in individual or collective affairs, neither discourse can practically enhance nor coherently sustain respect to people’s freedom and diversity. The author argues that any real alternative to the normative reductions and actual destructions carried on by international development theory and practice would have to recover the non-contingent solidarity implied in people’s search for self-understanding. Awareness of this human condition, in its turn, actively fosters relations of universal inclusion and global friendship. Instructors and graduate and undergraduate students in the fields of peace studies, development studies, political sciences and political philosophy; professionals and volunteers working in governmental and non-governmental organizations and development agencies will find this volume ideally fit for purpose.
Between the sublime confidence of both biblical fundamentalists and radical atheists lie various shades of belief, agnosticism, wishful thinking and escapist fantasy. The passion to prove the existence of God has always been frustrated by rationalism and always will be, which is why the subject of God's existence will continue to be an enigma. This book comprehensively explores the many controversial issues contained within the debate, touching on such questions as the truth of scripture, the validity of miracles, the whole question of the afterlife, and whether, of course, proof on matters of faith is ever going to be possible. Atheists contend that God is an invention for those unable to face the finality of death; believers that the existence of God is the only basis on which to build and live a meaningful life. Bound up with these perennially contested themes are equally searching arguments concerning free will and determinism, morality and ethics, and the moral and social effectiveness of a secular community compared to one administered by religious authority. These questions matter, affecting the way we live our lives, both collectively and as individuals. Avoiding the black-and-white thinking of those at the incandescent core of this debate, this book offers a refreshing mix of nimble (never restrictive) logic and questioning (never unthinking) spirituality.
We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
From the world's foremost intellectual activist, an irrefutable analysis of America's pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that are sure to follow The United States is in the process of staking out not just the globe but the last unarmed spot in our neighborhood-the heavens-as a militarized sphere of influence. Our earth and its skies are, for the Bush administration, the final frontiers of imperial control. In Hegemony or Survival , Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in, and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky dissects America's quest for global supremacy, tracking the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of policies intended to achieve "full spectrum dominance" at any cost. He lays out vividly how the various strands of policy-the militarization of space, the ballistic-missile defense program, unilateralism, the dismantling of international agreements, and the response to the Iraqi crisis-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our survival. In our era, he argues, empire is a recipe for an earthly wasteland. Lucid, rigorous, and thoroughly documented, Hegemony or Survival promises to be Chomsky's most urgent and sweeping work in years, certain to spark widespread debate.