What be these fragile bodies we live inside of? Transports of forgotten and lost souls eternally enslaved by restless spirits, dammed and tormented in an endless search of peace, happiness and joy. Each soul in a constant and hectic pursuit to reconnect with something grand that was lost a long time ago. We mortals, in our mindless travels through life, grasping at, reaching for and attempting, often in vain, to understand what purpose we were created for, and by whom. Senseless it seems the torturous journey to understand the imposing plan, if there even be such a plan.
“A mock self-help book designed not to help but to provoke . . . to inveigle us into thinking about who we are and how we got into this mess.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Filled with quizzes, essays, short stories, and diagrams, Lost in the Cosmos is National Book Award–winning author Walker Percy’s humorous take on a familiar genre—as well as an invitation to serious contemplation of life’s biggest questions. One part parody and two parts philosophy, Lost in the Cosmos is an enlightening guide to the dilemmas of human existence, and an unrivaled spin on self-help manuals by one of modern America’s greatest literary masters.
A new window opens onto the cosmos... Almost every day we are challenged by new information from the outermost reaches of space. Using straightforward language, One Universe explores the physical principles that govern the workings of our own world so that we can appreciate how they operate in the cosmos around us. Bands of color in a sunlit crystal and the spectrum of starlight in giant telescopes, the arc of a hard-hit baseball and the orbit of the moon, traffic patterns on a freeway and the spiral arms in a galaxy full of stars--they're all tied together in grand and simple ways. We can understand the vast cosmos in which we live by exploring three basic concepts: motion, matter, and energy. With these as a starting point, One Universe shows how the physical principles that operate in our kitchens and backyards are actually down-to-Earth versions of cosmic processes. The book then takes us to the limits of our knowledge, asking the ultimate questions about the origins and existence of life as we know it and where the universe came from--and where it is going. Glorious photographs--many seen for the first time in these pages--and original illustrations expand and enrich our understanding. Evocative and clearly written, One Universe explains complex ideas in ways that every reader can grasp and enjoy. This book captures the grandeur of the heavens while making us feel at home in the cosmos. Above all, it helps us realize that galaxies, stars, planets, and we ourselves all belong to One Universe.
We are living in a very interesting and unique time in human history. The pace of change of technology and of our society as a whole is dizzying, perhaps even disorienting. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the decoding of the human genome, we stand at the threshold of paradigm-shifting discoveries and innovation that may redefine what it means to be human. This is an era defined by tension and infighting between the spheres of science and religion. Indeed, this has been a dominant trend since the nineteenth century. For many modern rational thinkers, the wisdom of our religious traditions has become outmoded and ought be relegated to the dustbins of history. Despite this, the human heart continues to long for the profound, the meaningful, and the sacred—things our spiritual heritage has typically provided. Cosmic Christianity aims to salvage what is most valuable about these sacred traditions while simultaneously integrating them with more modern trends that center on technological advances and artificial intelligence. Moreover it will create a novel synthesis between the values of humanism and mysticism. Apart from this, Cosmic Christianity aims to integrate the wisdom of every imaginable spiritual tradition. From traditional Eastern and Western religions to esoteric, new age, astrology and spiritualism, an all embracing framework is created that comfortably houses all perspectives. Finally, it sets forth a proposal for the origin of God and the universe. You will be inspired and made to ponder by Cosmic Christianity.
The Daily Lesson is not your average self-help book. It's a collection of thoughts and reflections that challenge you to look at life differently. With a touch of philosophy, each essay explores topics we often think about but rarely talk about. From dealing with the loss of our parents to understanding love's complex nature, this book gets to the heart of what it means to be human. These essays are straightforward and speak to modern-day experiences, bringing a fresh perspective to familiar feelings. Whether you've seen some of these ideas before or they're completely new to you, each will leave you thinking. You might find that an idea from this book becomes a turning point in how you see the world. The Daily Lesson is a call to introspection and a challenge to the status quo. For the thinker, the dreamer, and the seeker, this book is an invitation to unearth life's profound truths and transformative insights—one by one at your own pace.
This book explains the fascinating world of quarks and leptons and the forces that govern their behavior. Told from an experimental physicist's perspective, it forgoes mathematical complexity, using instead particularly accessible figures and apt analogies. In addition to the story of quarks and leptons, which are regarded as well-accepted fact, the author (who is a leading researcher at one of the world's highest energy particle physics laboratories) also discusses mysteries at both the experimental and theoretical frontiers, before tying it all together with the exciting field of cosmology and indeed the birth of the universe itself.
