Many books have been written about the success of the West, analyzing why Europe was able to pull ahead of the rest of the world by the end of the Middle Ages. The most common explanations cite the West’s superior geography, commerce, and technology. Completely overlooked is the fact that faith in reason, rooted in Christianity’s commitment to rational theology, made all these developments possible. Simply put, the conventional wisdom that Western success depended upon overcoming religious barriers to progress is utter nonsense.In The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial, and long overdue idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium. In Stark’s view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason: While the world’s other great belief systems emphasized mystery, obedience, or introspection, Christianity alone embraced logic and reason as the path toward enlightenment, freedom, and progress. That is what made all the difference.In explaining the West’s dominance, Stark convincingly debunks long-accepted “truths.” For instance, by contending that capitalism thrived centuries before there was a Protestant work ethic–or even Protestants–he counters the notion that the Protestant work ethic was responsible for kicking capitalism into overdrive. In the fifth century, Stark notes, Saint Augustine celebrated theological and material progress and the institution of “exuberant invention.” By contrast, long before Augustine, Aristotle had condemned commercial trade as “inconsistent with human virtue”–which helps further underscore that Augustine’s times were not the Dark Ages but the incubator for the West’s future glories. This is a sweeping, multifaceted survey that takes readers from the Old World to the New, from the past to the present, overturning along the way not only centuries of prejudiced scholarship but the antireligious bias of our own time. The Victory of Reason proves that what we most admire about our world–scientific progress, democratic rule, free commerce–is largely due to Christianity, through which we are all inheritors of this grand tradition.
A landmark reinterpretation of why Christianity became the dominant faith of the West The idea that Christianity started as a clandestine movement among the poor is a widely accepted notion. Yet it is one of many myths that must be discarded if we are to understand just how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of Western civilization. In a fast-paced, highly readable book that addresses beliefs as well as historical facts, Rodney Stark brings a sociologist's perspective to bear on the puzzle behind the success of early Christianity. He comes equipped not only with the logic and methods of social science but also with insights gathered firsthand into why people convert and how new religious groups recruit members. He digs deep into the historical evidence on many issues—such as the social background of converts, the mission to the Jews, the status of women in the church, the role of martyrdom—to provide a vivid and unconventional account of early Christianity. The author plots the most plausible curve of Christian growth from the year 40 to 300. By the time of Constantine, Christianity had become a considerable force, with growth patterns very similar to those of modern-day successful religious movements. An unusual number of Christian converts, for example, came from the educated, cosmopolitan classes. Because it offered a new perspective on familiar concepts and was not linked to ethnicity, Christianity had a large following among persons seeking to assimilate into the dominant culture, mainly Hellenized Jews. The oversupply of women in Christian communities—due partly to the respect and protection they received—led to intermarriages with pagans, hence more conversions, and to a high fertility rate. Stark points out, too, the role played by selflessness and faith. Amidst the epidemics, fires, and other disasters that beleaguered Greco-Roman cities, Christian communities were a stronghold of mutual aid, which resulted in a survival rate far greater than that of the pagans. In the meantime, voluntary martyrdom, especially a generation after the death of Christ, reinforced the commitment of the Christian rank and file. What Stark ultimately offers is a multifaceted portrait of early Christianity, one that appeals to practical reasoning, historical curiosity, and personal reflection.
As we all know and as many of our well-established textbooks have argued for decades, the Inquisition was one of the most frightening and bloody chapters in Western history; Pope Pius XII was anti-Semitic and rightfully called “Hitler’s Pope,” the Dark Ages were stunting the progress of knowledge to be redeemed only by the secular spirit of the Enlightenment. The religious Crusades were an early example of the rapacious Western thirst for riches and power. But what if these long held beliefs were all wrong? In this stunning, powerful, and ultimately persuasive book, Rodney Stark, one of the most highly regarded sociologists of religion and bestselling author of The Rise of Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco 1997), argues that some of our most firmly held ideas about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least favorable light are, in fact, fiction. Why have we held these wrongheaded ideas so firmly and for so long? And if our beliefs are wrong, what is the truth? In each chapter, Stark takes on a well-established anti-Catholic myth, gives a fascinating history of how each myth became conventional wisdom and presents a startling picture of the real truth. For example, instead of the Spanish Inquisition being an anomaly of torture and murder of innocent people persecuted for “imaginary” crimes such as witchcraft and blasphemy, Stark argues that not only did the Spanish Inquisition spill very little blood, but it was a major force in support of moderation and justice. Stark dispels the myth of Pope Pius XII being apathetic or even helpful to the Nazi movement, such as to merit the title “Hitler’s Pope,” and instead shows that the campaign to link Pope Pius XII to Hitler was initiated by the Soviet Union, presumably in hopes of neutralizing the Vatican in post-World War II affairs. Many praised Pope Pius XIIs vigorous and devoted efforts to saving Jewish lives during the war. Instead of understanding the Dark Ages as a millennium of ignorance and backwardness inspired by the Catholic Church’s power, Stark argues that the whole notion of the “Dark Ages” was an act of pride perpetuated by anti-religious intellectuals who were determined to claim that theirs was the era of “Enlightenment.” In the end, readers of Bearing False Witness will have a more accurate history of the Catholic Church and will also understand why it became unfairly maligned for so long. Bearing False Witness is a compelling and sobering account of how egotism and ideology often work together to give us a false truth.
Finally the Truth about the Rise of the West Modernity developed only in the West—in Europe and North America. Nowhere else did science and democracy arise; nowhere else was slavery outlawed. Only Westerners invented chimneys, musical scores, telescopes, eyeglasses, pianos, electric lights, aspirin, and soap. The question is, Why? Unfortunately, that question has become so politically incorrect that most scholars avoid it. But acclaimed author Rodney Stark provides the answers in this sweeping new look at Western civilization. How the West Won demonstrates the primacy of uniquely Western ideas—among them the belief in free will, the commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, the notion that the universe functions according to rational rules that can be discovered, and the emphasis on human freedom and secure property rights. Taking readers on a thrilling journey from ancient Greece to the present, Stark challenges much of the received wisdom about Western history. Stark also debunks absurd fabrications that have flourished in the past few decades: that the Greeks stole their culture from Africa; that the West’s “discoveries” were copied from the Chinese and Muslims; that Europe became rich by plundering the non-Western world. At the same time, he reveals the woeful inadequacy of recent attempts to attribute the rise of the West to purely material causes—favorable climates, abundant natural resources, guns and steel. How the West Won displays Rodney Stark’s gifts for lively narrative history and making the latest scholarship accessible to all readers. This bold, insightful book will force you to rethink your understanding of the West and the birth of modernity—and to recognize that Western civilization really has set itself apart from other cultures.
Together, the essays that constitute Exploring the Religious Life offer an engaging introduction to Rodney Stark's provocative insights and a fearless challenge to academic perceptions about religion's place in history, society, and private life.
How did the preaching of a peasant carpenter from Galilee spark a movement that would grow to include over two billion followers? Who listened to this "good news," and who ignored it? Where did Christianity spread, and how? Based on quantitative data and the latest scholarship, preeminent scholar and journalist Rodney Stark presents new and startling information about the rise of the early church, overturning many prevailing views of how Christianity grew through time to become the largest religion in the world. Drawing on both archaeological and historical evidence, Stark is able to provide hard statistical evidence on the religious life of the Roman Empire to discover the following facts that set conventional history on its head: Contrary to fictions such as The Da Vinci Code and the claims of some prominent scholars, Gnosticism was not a more sophisticated, more authentic form of Christianity, but really an unsuccessful effort to paganize Christianity. Paul was called the apostle to the Gentiles, but mostly he converted Jews. Paganism was not rapidly stamped out by state repression following the vision and conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 312 AD, but gradually disappeared as people abandoned the temples in response to the superior appeal of Christianity. The "oriental" faiths—such as those devoted to Isis, the Egyptian goddess of love and magic, and to Cybele, the fertility goddess of Asia Minor—actually prepared the way for the rapid spread of Christianity across the Roman Empire. Contrary to generations of historians, the Roman mystery cult of Mithraism posed no challenge to Christianity to become the new faith of the empire— it allowed no female members and attracted only soldiers. By analyzing concrete data, Stark is able to challenge the conventional wisdom about early Christianity offering the clearest picture ever of how this religion grew from its humble beginnings into the faith of more than one-third of the earth's population.
Why is it that the majority of people, from all socio-economic, education, and ethnic backgrounds, ascribe to some sort of faith? What draws us to religion? What pushes us away? And what exactly is religion anyway? Defining religion over the past century has, ironically, led to theories that exclude belief in God, proposing that all systems of thought concerning the meaning of life are religions. Of course, this makes it impossible to distinguish the village priest from the village atheist, or Communism from Catholicism. Worse yet, it makes all religious behavior irrational, presuming that, for example, people knowingly pray to an empty sky. Renowned sociologist of religion Rodney Stark offers a comprehensive, decisive, God-centered theory of religion in his book, Why God: Explaining Religious Phenomena. While his intent is not to insist that God exists, Stark limits religions to systems of thought based on belief in supernatural beings—to Gods. With this God-focused theory, Stark explores the entire range of religious topics, including the rise of monotheism, the discovery of sin, causes of religious hostility and conflict, and the role of revelations. Each chapter of Why God? builds a comprehensive framework, starting with the foundations of human motivations and ending with an explanation of why most people are religious. Stark ultimately settles what religion is, what it does, and why it is a universal feature of human societies. Why God? is a much needed guide for anyone who wants a thorough understanding of religion and our relationship to it, as well as a firm refutation to those who think religion can exist without the divine.
God is not dead." —Wall Street Journal Believe it or not, the world is more religious than ever before. Everyone seems to take it for granted that the world is getting more secular—that faith is doomed by modernity. Scientists, secularists, and atheists applaud the change; religious believers lament it. But here's the thing: they're all wrong—and the bestselling author and influential scholar of religion Rodney Stark has the numbers to prove it.The Triumph of Faith explodes the myth that people around the world are abandoning religion. Stark marshals an unprecedented body of data—surveys of more than a million people in 163 nations—to paint the full picture that both scholars and popular commentators have missed. And he explains why the astonishing growth of religion is happening and what it means for our future. Stark's bracing book is full of insights that defy the conventional wisdom. With vigorous prose he reveals: •Why claims about Millennials' lack of religion are overblown and historically ignorant •Why Islam is NOT overtaking Christianity •How 4 out of 5 people worldwide now belong to an organized religion •How 50 percent have attended a worship service in the past week •Why much-ballyhooed studies from the Pew Research Center and others get the religious landscape wrong •Why atheists remain few, anywhere—despite all the talk of the "New Atheism" As Stark shows, secularists have been predicting the imminent demise of religion for centuries. It is their unshakable faith in secularization that may be the most "irrational" of all beliefs. As the author of How the West Won, The Victory of Reason, and many other bestselling works, Rodney Stark has a richly deserved reputation for writing page-turning, myth-busting books. He is also a groundbreaking scholar who has so reshaped the social scientific study of religion that his work has become the basis of a "new paradigm." Stark puts all those talents on full display in The Triumph of Faith.This book will change how you see both religion and the forces of secularization.
This is a fully-integrated package that lets students experience the challenge and excitement of doing real social research. Included are a comprehensive textbook, a computer-based workbook, a copy of Student MicroCase, and several research-quality data files. The textbook provides an introduction to the fundamental processes and techniques of contemporary research-without the usual overload of rarely used methods. The accompanying workbook gives students hand-on training and practical experiencing in doing social research. Students receive the textbook, workbook, analysis software, and data sets-all for an amazingly low price!
Rodney Stark's provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted--almost inevitably and for the same reasons--in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian and Islamic images of God yielded such different cultural results, leading Christians but not Muslims to foster science, burn "witches," and denounce slavery. With his usual clarity and skepticism toward the received wisdom, Stark finds the origins of these disparate phenomena within monotheistic religious organizations. Endemic in such organizations are pressures to maintain religious intensity, which lead to intense conflicts and schisms that have far-reaching social results. Along the way, Stark debunks many commonly accepted ideas. He interprets the sixteenth-century flowering of science not as a sudden revolution that burst religious barriers, but as the normal, gradual, and direct outgrowth of medieval theology. He also shows that the very ideas about God that sustained the rise of science led also to intense witch-hunting by otherwise clear-headed Europeans, including some celebrated scientists. This conception of God likewise yielded the Christian denunciation of slavery as an abomination--and some of the fiercest witch-hunters were devoted participants in successful abolitionist movements on both sides of the Atlantic. For the Glory of God is an engrossing narrative that accounts for the very different histories of the Christian and Muslim worlds. It fundamentally changes our understanding of religion's role in history and the forces behind much of what we point to as secular progress.
Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Stark traces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal and controversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world’s largest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God’s Battalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decades of powerful research and discovery into one concentrated, concise, and highly readable volume that explores Christianity’s most crucial episodes. The unique format of Triumph of Christianity allows Stark to avoid dense chronologies and difficult back stories, bringing readers right to the heart of Christian history’s most vital controversies and enduring lessons.
What has the Reformation ever done for us? A lot less than you might think, as Rodney Stark shows in this enlightening and entertaining antidote to recent books about the rise of Protestantism and its legacy. ‘Rodney Stark takes no prisoners as he charges through five hundred years of history, upsetting apple carts left and right. Almost everything you thought you knew about the Reformation turns out to be a false narrative. . . In future, anyone who makes sweeping claims about the benefits of Protestantism ought to check their assumptions against Stark’s research first.’ Clifford Longley, author and journalist ‘Stark brings the insights of a distinguished sociologist of religion to bear on a range of inherited assumptions about the impact of the Reformation . . . The result makes for salutary reading in this year of commemoration and (not always justified) celebration.’ Peter Marshall, Professor of History, University of Warwick ‘Stark changed the way we think about the early Church and this book may change the way you think about Protestantism . . . Reformation Myths cuts through pious certainties and challenges us to think again about our cultural history.’ Linda Woodhead MBE DD, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University
This "fresh, blunt, and highly persuasive account of how the West was won—for Jesus" (Newsweek) is now available in paperback. Stark's provocative report challenges conventional wisdom and finds that Christianity's astounding dominance of the Western world arose from its offer of a better, more secure way of life. "Compelling reading" (Library Journal) that is sure to "generate spirited argument" (Publishers Weekly), this account of Christianity's remarkable growth within the Roman Empire is the subject of much fanfare. "Anyone who has puzzled over Christianity's rise to dominance...must read it." says Yale University's Wayne A. Meeks, for The Rise of Christianity makes a compelling case for startling conclusions. Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence, and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor, that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews—and ultimately "that Christianity was a success because it proved those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life" (Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago).
In God’s Battalions, distinguished scholar Rodney Stark puts forth a controversial argument that the Crusades were a justified war waged against Muslim terror and aggression. Stark, the author of The Rise of Christianity, reviews the history of the seven major crusades from 1095-1291 in this fascinating work of religious revisionist history.
This new work, the first to collect Rodney Stark's influential writings on the Mormon church, includes previously published essays, revised and rewritten for this volume. His work sheds light on both the growth of Mormonism and on how and why certain religions continue to grow while others fade away."--Jacket.
This text, considered to be a living classic among introductory sociology texts, is written by a major sociology researcher and scholarly author, Rodney Stark. The text introduces students to the methods and theories of sociology by introducing them to the techniques sociologists use to study society, as well as explaining the rationale behind what they chose to study. The text employs a unique perspective in a feature called A Closer View, which illustrates seminal research studies to introduce students to the sociological imagination and the world. The text has a global and multicultural perspective, which is closely related to American culture. This NEW Internet Edition incorporates the Internet throughout every chapter. It is the only text like it in the introductory sociology market.
Written by top-notch Sociologist and best-selling INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY author, Rodney Stark, this workbook is one of the first published to utilize the Microcase powerful software. This software and workbook package takes a step- by-step approach to show students how to do real sociological research using the same data and techniques used by professional researchers.
It is 1867, and twenty-three-year-old Shade McDonald is ready for a change. After spending the last few years serving in the Civil War, Shade has his sights set on marrying a good woman, settling on the family farm in Kentucky, and raising a family. Unfortunately, the only companions he has right now are a revolver, a rifle, and a strawberry roan named Rex. As he trudges along a hot, dusty road in southeastern Texas headed toward his future, Shade has no idea that trouble is not finished with him yet. Happily reunited with his family on a Texas ranch, Shade busies himself with learning the business of working and raising cattle. Yet within the dark recesses of his mind, something is casting a shadow on all that is good, and it is as ominous as a squall line. As a threat lurks in the distance, Shade must learn to rely on his past experiences to prepare for the uncertain road that lies ahead. Shade must leave all he loves to right a wrong. As he goes on a dangerous mission to find two culprits driven by evil intentions, he must summon the courage he learned on the battlefield to save not only his family, but also his own life.
This fully integrated text/workbook/software package lets students experience the challenge and excitement of doing real social research. The textbook provides a highly readable introduction to the fundamental processes and techniques of contemporary research - without the usual overload of obscure terms and rarely used methods. From the beginning of the textbook, discussions of data analysis are integrated with explanations of the research process. In this way, students understand the purpose behind - and the end result of - the techniques they learn. They stay focused on the "big picture." The accompanying workbook, written by Michael Corbett and Lynne Roberts, allows students to receive hands-on training and practical experience in doing social research. This collection of computer-based exercises requires students to think like social scientists. They work through the same questions, problems, and issues that researchers face. Social Research Using MicroCase provides the flexibility for a course, whether it follows a "lecture-and-test" format or includes independent research projects.
Duty, fidelity, honor...what's not to love about a military man? Meet these seven irresistible heroes who fight just as passionately for true love as they do for their country. Healing Beau: USA Today best-selling author Alicia Hunter Pace spins a poignant small-town story of healing and homecoming. After recklessly destroying his military career, Ranger Sergeant Beau Beauford retreats home to Beauford Bend...only to promptly impregnate his best and oldest friend. Christian Hambrick is made of guts, steel, and plain good sense, except for that lifelong torch she's held for Beau. When old secrets resurface, she'll wage full-scale war on Beau's past to preserve their future. Her Soldier's Touch: When U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Colten Taylor returns briefly to Phoenix to bury his brother, he's shocked to see Rachel Madison waiting for him at the airport. He regrets the morning he walked away from her; coming from an abusive home taught Colt to put limits on all his relationships. But now that she has his son in tow, will he keep running? California Homecoming: After returning from duty in the Middle East wounded in both body and spirit, Hunter Evans volunteers to help Sarah Ladina fix up a run-down Victorian in the beach town of Costanoa. Can they get beyond their painful past and complicated present to find the love and respect they need? Island Pursuits: Former U.S. Marine Adrian Mendez returns to his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago only to run into a feisty island goddess with one flaw--she has no love of anything military. Angel Without Wings: After resigning from a promising army career to help his mother and wounded brother, Jesse McCormick struggles to save the family farm. Only one plan will earn him enough money to get his family out of debt--a dangerous assignment with a paramilitary group. But he's slowly losing his heart to Linnea Reyes, a war widow helping to save the farm. Can he give up her love just when he's found it? The Cormorant Club: When they're reunited by chance, Holly and Scott's attraction is as undeniable as when they met in a MASH unit in Vietnam. But when a murder-for-hire group starts targeting their war contacts, will they lose their second chance at love? Enlisted by Love: Ex-army officer Matthew Blake is eager to start a new career, until he comes up against the most challenging obstacle he's ever encountered: Greta Ferguson, the interior designer who challenges his every order. Sensuality Level: Sensual
Jesus - the Man for others" is a contemporary expression of the Gospel message, with many references about how it was appropriated over the centuries, and as illustrated in art. The author, a Catholic priest who holds a doctorate from the University of Wales, taught for some years in African seminaries and has published several books including Malawi Mailings andIssues of War.
Serves as a comprehensive review to the substantial impact of gene amplification in molecular biology, genetic engineering and medical science. The book covers the mechanism of gene amplification, organization and structure of amplified genes.
In the mid-1980s, in Edinburgh, Ian Rankin was hatching a plot for a 'crime thriller' from his student digs. Knots & Crosses - like its frayed protagonist John Rebus - was rough around the edges but marked a promising debut. More than thirty years later, Rankin and Rebus have a global following. The series has been both critically acclaimed and commercially popular. Detective John Rebus is anything but conventional. The same can be said of Ian Rankin's innovative texts which take crime fiction far beyond formulaic genre, producing radical, disruptive, borderline texts. In the first ever full-length study of all twenty-two Rebus novels, Rodney Marshall argues that Rankin's fiction continues to break new ground, blurring the boundaries between traditional detective novel and modern literature. October 2018 sixth edition: includes an exclusive eighteen page interview with Ian Rankin and a chapter on In a House of Lies, Rankin's new Rebus novel.
Television drama is frequently marginalised as a piece of fleeting popular culture rather than 'a more lasting art form'. The emergence of television studies has helped to question this mind-set. Innovative television drama can rival any field of the arts in terms of material worthy of critical exploration. This series of books focuses on 'outstanding' examples of British television dramas, centring on a single episode in an attempt to explain what makes both the episode in particular, and the series in general, remarkable. The social context, script, characters sets/locations, music, and direction are all focal points. This Classic British Television Drama (CBTD) series of books continues with an exploration of Man in a Suitcase's episode Day of Execution. Elements of Cold War espionage, American gumshoe, British thriller and 'Swinging' London combine in a series which is hard to define and was, arguably, ahead of its time.
Defrauding America: Encyclopedia of Secret Operations of the CIA, the DEA, and Other Covert agencies, worldwide, for the past 50 years. It is written by former federal agent Rodney Stich with input from dozens of former government agents and drug smugglers, including many CIA assets. The author has written over a dozen books on government intrigue, and has appeared as guest on over 3,000 radio and TV shows since 1978. More information can be found at www.defraudingamerica.com.
How do bureaucracies remember? The conventional view is that institutional memory is static and singular, the sum of recorded files and learned procedures. There is a growing body of scholarship that suggests contemporary bureaucracies are failing at this core task. This Element argues that this diagnosis misses that memories are essentially dynamic stories. They reside with people and are thus dispersed across the array of actors that make up the differentiated polity. Drawing on four policy examples from four sectors (housing, energy, family violence and justice) in three countries (the UK, Australia and New Zealand), this Element argues that treating the way institutions remember as storytelling is both empirically salient and normatively desirable. It is concluded that the current conceptualisation of institutional memory needs to be recalibrated to fit the types of policy learning practices required by modern collaborative governance.
Neoliberalism, a panoply of cultural, political, and economic practices that set marketized competition at the center of social life, is rife in our age. Naming Neoliberalism lays out for pastors, thoughtful laypersons, and students, what neoliberalism is, where it has come from, and how it can be confronted through and in the church.
Francis Ford Coppola's career has spanned five decades, from low budget films he produced in the early 1960s to more personal films of recent years. Because of the tremendous popular success of The Godfather and the tremendous critical success of its sequel, Coppola is considered to be one of the best directors of all time. The entries in this encyclopedia focus on all aspects of Coppola's work—from his early days with producer Roger Corman to his films as the director of the 1970s. This extensive reference contains material on all of the films Coppola has played a role in, from screenwriter to producer to director, including such classics as Patton, The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of published sources, both in print and online, making The Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia the most comprehensive reference on this director's body of work.
These ideas started making themselves at home in my brain 30 or 40 years ago. But the ideas' arrivals have been much more detailed and frequent since I discovered the science website vixra.org at the start of 2012. I'm not a professional of any kind - just your average citizen, with a burning desire to understand how everything works (my main interest is cosmology).* I can't say I've been originating the ideas presented here. My feeling as I typed these thoughts has always been that they already exist (though, since physics' Unification appears to connect every point and time in the Cosmos, not on early 21st-century Earth in every case). And I'm just a student, learning about them. * It doesn't matter that I'm not a professional scientist. Keep the following words said in 2015 by scientist Professor Neil Turok in mind - "We need a very different view of basic physics. This is the time for radical, new ideas." He believes this is a great time in human history for the revolution to occur.
Addressing their shared passion for literature, art, and music, this book documents how Samuel Beckett and David Bowie produce extraordinarily empathetic creative outputs that reflect the experience and the effect of alienation. Through an exploration of their artistic practices, the study also illustrates how both artists articulate shared forms of human experience otherwise silenced by normative modes of representation. To liberate these experiences, Bowie and Beckett create alternative theatrical, musical, and philosophical spaces, which help frame the power relations of the psychological, verbal, and material places we inhabit. The result is that their work demonstrates how individuals are disciplined by the implicitly repressive social order of late capitalism, while, simultaneously, offering an informed political alternative. In making the injunctions of the social order apparent, Beckett and Bowie also transgress its terms, opening up new spaces beyond the conventional identities of family, nation, and gender, until both artists finally coalesce in the quantum space of the posthuman.
TheTriumph of Faith explodes the myth that people around the world are abandoning religion. Stark marshals an incredible amount of data—surveys of more than a million people in 163 nations—to paint the full picture that both scholars and popular commentators have missed. He explains why the astonishing growth of religion is happening, and what it means for our future. Stark’s lively, eye-opening book is full of insights that defy the conventional wisdom. He reveals: • Why Islam is not overtaking Christianity • 81 percent of people around the world claim to belong to an organized religious faith • Half of the people around the world attended a worship service in the past week • Despite all the attention paid to the “New Atheists,” atheists remain few, anywhere • Latin America has never been so Catholic—and that’s because there are now so many Protestants there • Of all the great world religions, only Buddhism may not be growing As Stark shows, secularists have been predicting the imminent demise of religion for centuries. It is their unshakeable faith in secularization that may be the most “irrational” of all.
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