Stephen Batchelor's seminal work on humanity's struggle between good and evilIn the national bestseller Living with the Devil, Batchelor traces the trajectory from the words of the Buddha and Christ, through the writings of Shantideva, Milton, and Pascal, to the poetry of Baudelaire, the fiction of Kafka, and the findings of modern physics and evolutionary biology to examine who we really are, and to rest in the uncertainty that we may never know. Like his...

Being human isn't easy. We might think that consciousness and free will give us control over our lives but our minds are unpredictable places. We are susceptible to forces we don't understand. We are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on one another and yet we also have the capacity to be tender, to empathise, to feel.In his thought-provoking new book Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition. By drawing on a colourful and eclectic selection of writings ...

The first book from the renowned philosopher investigates the flip side of economic self-interest: the interest of the greater good.Best known for his revolutionary free-market economics treatise The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith was first and foremost a moral philosopher. In his classic work The Theory of Moral Sentiments, he advanced ideas about conscience, moral judgment, and virtue that have taken on renewed importance in business and politics...

In "Lesser Hippias," Plato engages in a notable dialectical exploration, primarily through the character of Socrates, as he converses with Hippias of Elis. This dialogue, set in the context of Socratic irony, delves into themes of knowledge, virtue, and the nature of beauty. Employing a stylized Socratic method, Plato skillfully juxtaposes definitions of beauty against the notion of moral virtue, revealing the inherent complexities within philosophical discourse. Through its nuanced argume...

The shower scene in Psycho; Cary Grant running for his life through a cornfield; innocent” birds lined up on a fence waiting, watching - these seminal cinematic moments are as real to moviegoers as their own lives. But what makes them so? What deeper forces are at work in Hitchcock’s films that so captivate his fans? This collection of articles in the series that’s explored such pop-culture phenomena as Seinfeld and The Simpsons examines those forces with fresh ...

What is the place of individual choice and consequence in a post-Holocaust world of continuing genocidal ethnic cleansing? Is "identity" now a last-ditch cultural defence of ethnic nationalisms and competing fundamentalisms? In a climate of instant information, free markets and possible ecological disaster, how do we define "rights", self-interest and civic duties? What are the acceptable limits of scientific investigation and genetic engineering, the rights and wrongs of animal rights, eu...

The problem of understanding why an all-powerful and wholly good and loving God could permit so much evil to occur has puzzled many Christians as well as skeptics since St. Augustine grappled with the problem in the Fourth Century A.D. Many skeptics have found the evidence of evil sufficient to reject belief in God. The author believes that this book provides a comprehensive, plausible, and satisfying treatment of the problem of evil consistent with the Bible and orthodox Christianity. Tra...

Soul - The Tortures Of The DamnedChapter #1 God (What She looks like)Chapter #2 The Infinibar Cozmozez. Then The Great Big BangChapter #3 Creation of Souls and their CourgeistsChapter #4 Courgeist Creation inside the SoulChapter #5 Creation of WILLChapter #6 Creation of Emissaries - Angels, Spirits, Cherubs, DemonsChapter #7 Limbo Way Station Bosom of AbrahamChapter #8 Purgatory and the GeistwerkChapter #9 The Infinite Interlud...

Illuminating the Dark Side’s Spirits, Fiends, Devils, and Demons.Throughout human history, we have been obsessed with the dark opposites of God and angels, light, and mercy. Whether it is our religious and sacred texts, folklore and myths of old, legends, fairy tales, novels, or the movies and television shows of today, the dark entities enthrall us, terrify us, and remind us of the dualities of life. But where did they originate? Are they real? Does every religion...

It is perhaps one of the greatest intellectual stumbling blocks in all of religious thought. As much as any soul would like to avoid the topic all together, sooner or later each person will be forced to grapple with the seemingly incongruous realties resulting from the simultaneous existence of both a sovereign God and the prevalence of evil in the world.

The Analects or "Confucian Analects", also known as the Analects of Confucius, is a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius.The Analects has been one of the most widely read and studied books in China for the last 2,000 years, and continues to have a substantial influence on Chinese and East Asian thought and values today.«In China the line between the religious and non-religious is not clearly drawn. The demarcation between on faith a...