Pitchstone publishing us (124 resultados)

Paperback. Condición: New. A unique take on death and bereavement without a belief in God or an afterlife Accepting death is never easy, but we don't need religion to find peace, comfort, and solace in the face of death. In this inspiring and life-affirming collection of short essays, prominent atheist author Greta Christina offers secular ways to handle your own mortality and the death of those you love.…

Paperback. Condición: New. A unique take on death and bereavement without a belief in God or an afterlife Accepting death is never easy, but we don't need religion to find peace, comfort, and solace in the face of death. In this inspiring and life-affirming collection of short essays, prominent atheist author Greta Christina offers secular ways to handle your own mortality and the death of those you love.…

hardcover. Condición: Like New. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. An apparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact with no nicks or tears. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds of any kind.

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Paperback. Condición: New. Great journeys often start with a single question. For D. K. Evans, a newly married professional in the Christian-dominated South, that question was, "Why Do I Believe in God?" That simple query led him on a years-long search to better understand the nature of religion and faith, particularly as it applies to the Black community. While many taking such a journey today might immerse themselves in the writing of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, Evans took inspiration not only from John Henrik Clarke, Yosef-Ben Jochannan, Hubert Harrison, and John G. Jackson, champions of a rich Black tradition of challenging religious orthodoxy, but also from many others in his own community who had similarly come to question their core religious beliefs. While this journey eventually led him to discount the notion of God, he calls on all to ask their own questions, particularly those within the Black community who act on blind faith. While their own journey might not lead to his truth, he acknowledges, that is the only way they will ever emancipate themselves from the truths thrust on them by others and arrive at their most important truth-their own.…

Paperback. Condición: New. With each passing day the potential reach of a single false news story-and its ability to negatively impact all of us-grows in both size and scope. Although politicians, activists, and ordinary citizens regularly complain about deceptive or biased news reports, they tend to define fake news as anything with which they happen to disagree, thus compounding the problem even further. Seeking to bring some much-needed clarity to the subject, journalist David G. McAfee documents the myriad definitions of "fake news" and its various incarnations throughout history, from ideologically motivated disinformation operations to commercially motivated misinformation campaigns. Demonstrating that we are all culpable in the creation of the current pandemic, he presents a number of practical and actionable suggestions for combating it. In the end, however, he argues that each of us, no matter our political bent, have an important role to play in curbing the insidious spread and most dangerous effects of fake news.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Feminism and atheism are "dirty words" that Americans across the political spectrum love to debate-and hate. Throw them into a blender and you have a toxic brew that supposedly defies decency, respectability, and Americana. Add an "unapologetically" Black critique to the mix and it's a deal-breaking social taboo. Putting gender at the center of the equation, progressive "Religious Nones" of color are spearheading an anti-racist, social justice humanism that disrupts the "colorblind" ethos of European American atheist and humanist agendas, which focus principally on church-state separation. These critical interventions build on the lived experiences and social histories of segregated Black and Latinx communities that are increasingly under economic siege. In this context, Hutchinson makes a valuable and necessary call for social justice change in a polarized climate where Black women's political power has become a galvanizing national force.…

Paperback. Condición: New. For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith-and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith-but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.…

Paperback. Condición: New. From Orthodox Jewish child in postwar America to mild-mannered mathematician in academia to legendary atheist activist in the heart of today's Republican South, Herb Silverman has always been outside the mainstream of American culture, politics, and religion. From this unique vantage point, he writes about the most pressing issues of our day, including those related to war, peace, patriotism, race, gender, and church-state separation. In this entertaining and thought-provoking volume, he curates some of his best written work. Silverman may see himself as an atheist stranger in a strange religious land, but thanks in part to his work as activist and author, atheists as a whole are no longer strangers in this increasingly irreligious land.…

Paperback. Condición: New. What if we have been missing a whole stage of how the canonical gospels came to be? What if there were a whole raft of prior Jesus narratives, the fragmentary vestiges of which now appear in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? This would explain why these gospels seem over-crowded with incompatible understandings of Jesus ("Christologies")? In The Gospels Behind the Gospels, innovative biblical scholar Robert M. Price attempts to reassemble the puzzle pieces, disclosing several earlier gospels of communities who imagined Jesus as the predicted return of the prophet Elijah, the Samaritan Taheb (a second Moses), a resurrected John the Baptist, a theophany of Yahweh, a Gnostic Revealer, a Zealot revolutionary, etc. As these various sects shrank and collapsed, their remaining followers would have come together, just as modern churches and denominations seek to survive by merging and consolidating. Our canonical gospels might be the result. Similarly, Price explores the possibility that Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ were originally figureheads of rival sects who eventually merged in much the same way. You will never read the gospels the same way again.…

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Paperback. Condición: New. Within the dusty catalog of long-discarded theories about the universe and humankind' s place in it, one idea continues to permeate the popular imagination as much today as it did at its ignominious invention: the idea of "race." As a society, we treat the racial categories that were invented centuries ago as if they are, in truth, inescapable and permanent aspects of reality. We organize, divide, and judge people based on our belief in race-and we often define ourselves and our relationships with others based on this same belief. Many scholars and activists argue that this type of racialization is necessary because even if race is not real, racism is. While such an approach might help lessen some effects of racism, it inevitably strengthens the very foundation of racism. As Sheena Michele Mason argues in The Raceless Antiracist, fighting racism by reifying the idea of race is like trying to stop a flood by dousing it with water. To end racism, we must end the very idea of race itself, beginning with seeing ourselves and others as raceless humans who can and must stop racializing one another.…

Paperback. Condición: New. A call to action to address people's psychological and social motives for a belief in God, rather than debate the existence of God  With every argument for theism long since discredited, the result is that atheism has become little more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Thus, engaging in interminable debate with religious believers about the existence of God has become exactly the wrong way for nonbelievers to try to deal with misguided-and often dangerous-belief in a higher power. The key, author James Lindsay argues, is to stop that particular conversation. He demonstrates that whenever people say they believe in "God," they are really telling us that they have certain psychological and social needs that they do not know how to meet. Lindsay then provides more productive avenues of discussion and action. Once nonbelievers understand this simple point, and drop the very label of atheist, will they be able to change the way we all think about, talk about, and act upon the troublesome notion called "God.".…

Paperback. Condición: New. These are not nice stories. They're filthy. They're fearless. Some are even funny. Greta Christina's erotic stories are written change the ways you think about sex. These are dirty, kinky stories about shame, about pain, helplessness and danger, reckless behavior and bad, bad ideas. A baby dyke is manipulated into fetish porn by her beautiful, self-absorbed porn-star lover. A good Christian wife follows her duty to obey, even as her husband's sexual demands become bizarre. A student, hungry for punishment, seeks it from a professor who should know better. A woman with a dedicated fetish finds a lover who meets her more than halfway. And then there's the one about the unicorn and the rainbow. Raw, exciting, joyful, intensely believable, Greta's stories are written with a fierce respect for erotic fiction-and for sex itself. …

Paperback. Condición: New. It has become a near-universal assumption that Jesus was a courageous champion of Pacifism and non-violent resistance. But for many years, a few maverick scholars have made the case for Jesus having been an armed insurrectionist. This version of Jesus is the "black sheep" of gospel studies, unthinkable equally to conservative and liberal Christian scholars, who want the historical Jesus to have been a peace-loving precursor to Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A radical, even violent, Jesus is not the "personal savior" they feel comfortable following! But certain stubborn bits of evidence in the gospels continue to haunt them. Dare we set aside our sentimental views of Jesus to consider the alternative? In Not Peace but a Sword, New Testament scholar Robert M. Price carries this "Jesus the Zealot" hypothesis significantly further and asks the intellectually honest reader to take a fresh and fearless look at the surprising case for a militant Jesus. …

Paperback. Condición: New. In this thought-provoking and deeply moving memoir, psychiatrist Lisa Bellot recounts her personal journey as the mother of a trans-identified teen whom she did not believe was transgender. She/Him/Us offers an insightful exploration of the moral, psychological, and medical complexities surrounding the treatment of trans-identified children. Through her candid reflections and professional insights, Dr. Bellot challenges popular assumptions, urging readers to reconsider what we think we know about the gender-affirming model and the polarizing landscape inhabited by the most vulnerable among us.…

Paperback. Condición: New. A Mexican immigrant and rising star within the Christian community abandons his faith and comes out as a gay atheist In this exceptionally moving and soul-searching memoir, Fernando AlcÁntar recounts his incredible journey from poor Catholic boy on the dusty streets of Mexico to globetrotting missionary and high-profile Christian leader in the United States-where he eventually left his celebrated life behind to advocate for the liberating power of reason and equality. With heart-wrenching honesty, he shares stories of trauma, tragedy, prejudice, uncertainty, survival, and, ultimately, discovery. In the process, he gives a voice to thousands who are hiding in the shadows, afraid to publicly question their religious, cultural, or sexual identity for fear of isolation and retaliation. You will discover that his is not simply a Mexican story or an American story, a heterosexual's story or a homosexual's story, a Christian's story or an atheist's story. Rather, his is a universal story-one uniquely about and for our times.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Today, more than 1 in 20 teens say they are transgender or gender questioning-an order of magnitude higher than just a decade ago. How is it possible that so many youngsters-within just a matter of years-became persuaded that they'd been born in the wrong body? As liberal journalist Anita Bartholomew reveals in Sacrificial Lambs, the answer lies not with gender-confused children but rather with our most trusted institutions and the adults who run them: the medical professionals who "transition" children to facsimiles of the opposite sex before they are old enough to know what sex is; the teachers who tell kindergarteners that doctors only "guessed" their sex at birth; and the mainstream media outlets that label chemical and surgical experiments on children as "life-saving" care. Exposing the many lies and mistruths of gender ideology, Bartholomew shows that every "progressive" argument you've heard in favor of it is wrong. Even if you consider yourself a supporter of the trans movement, once you've seen the breadth and depth of how gender ideology has harmed young people emotionally, psychologically, and physically, you might reassess what it means to be an ally.…

Paperback. Condición: New. This book is not just for atheists but for antitheists-for people who celebrated the writing of Christopher Hitchens and miss his voice Making the provocative assertion that the entire enterprise of organized religion is a thing for which the world and our species would have been better without, Oh, Your God! follows in the footsteps of the material observations of Lucretius, Epicurus, and Democritus and the more recent antitheistic arguments of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. Drawing from timeless philosophers, modern debates, historical events, and current social climes, Joshua Kelly illustrates the shameful and debilitating damage religion has caused-and continues to cause-whether to our psyches, our bodies, our societies, or our world. Citing the murders of Nigeria's "witch children," the subversion of sexual emancipation, the tethers of slavery, the attacks of September 11, the pseudomorality of monotheistic mythology, the subjugation of women, and much more, he provides an abundance of damning evidence to back up his claims. Only by acknowledging and grappling with the real and potential dangers of religion, he argues, will we be able to thrive and develop as a species.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Within the dusty catalog of long-discarded theories about the universe and humankind' s place in it, one idea continues to permeate the popular imagination as much today as it did at its ignominious invention: the idea of "race." As a society, we treat the racial categories that were invented centuries ago as if they are, in truth, inescapable and permanent aspects of reality. We organize, divide, and judge people based on our belief in race-and we often define ourselves and our relationships with others based on this same belief. Many scholars and activists argue that this type of racialization is necessary because even if race is not real, racism is. While such an approach might help lessen some effects of racism, it inevitably strengthens the very foundation of racism. As Sheena Michele Mason argues in The Raceless Antiracist, fighting racism by reifying the idea of race is like trying to stop a flood by dousing it with water. To end racism, we must end the very idea of race itself, beginning with seeing ourselves and others as raceless humans who can and must stop racializing one another.…

Paperback. Condición: New. When we're in the Certainty Trap, we tend to view people who disagree with us as hateful, ignorant, or just plain stupid. When it comes to heated social and political issues in particular, many of us know this feeling well-a consuming state of righteous indignation and moral outrage. And this response makes sense because our very certainty tells us that there are simple and obvious causes and solutions to the hot-button issues we care about most. But the things we care about the most are-far more often than not-morally and ethically complex. If the problems that divide us are inherently complicated, then a sense that the answers are obvious-and that anyone who disagrees must be deficient in some way-is misplaced. It's an oversimplification that both leads to and reflects faulty thinking. When we're certain, we not only fail to recognize the possibility that we're wrong but also fail to be clear about the principles and values that drive our disagreement in the first place. By committing to challenging and clarifying our thinking-by avoiding the trap certainty sets for us-we can increase social trust, reduce political polarization, and better address the world's pressing challenges.…

Paperback. Condición: New. In today's modern world, we are largely isolated from the kind of savagery our ancestors faced on a daily basis. Although violence was as natural to our evolutionary development as sex and food, it has become foreign to most of us: at once demonized and glamorized, but almost always deeply misunderstood. Our hard-earned and hard-wired instincts-our evolved and trained ability to survive and overcome violent encounters-have been compromised. Yet, as even a cursory look at news headlines or a police blotter will reveal, the threat of violent crime is ever-present, and those we've entrusted to protect us cannot always be relied upon. The Gift of Violence tells the story of this vulnerability and provides the average person with all the knowledge they need to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of violence and to increase their chances of surviving a violent encounter. Based both on the author's decades of experience teaching everyday people how to defend themselves and on a rational approach to the scientific data, The Gift of Violence offers clear, easy-to-remember lessons for people of all ages and abilities. It is designed to empower those who've been affected by violence or are concerned that they or their loved ones could be-in short, it was written to help good people become more dangerous to bad people. Every reader will be armed with the necessary knowledge to harness the power of violence for him- or herself-and, in the process, to be not just smarter and stronger but also safer.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Being the parent of a gender-questioning child is confusing.You want to do what's best for your child, but doctors and therapists might make recommendations that conflict with your instincts as a parent, the person who best knows your child's unique history, challenges and struggles. Do you immediately affirm a newly professed gender identity, watch and wait, or pursue some other path?While many books have been written for parents who choose to facilitate their child's gender transition, there are almost no books for parents who do not think that social or medical transition is the best option for their child. Written by Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O'Malley-three mental health professionals who collectively have decades of experience working with trans-identified adolescents and their families-When Kids Say They're Trans is a resource designed explicitly for those parents who do not think that hasty affirmation or medicalization is the best way to ensure the long-term health and well-being of their child. It is also for those who simply aren't so sure about the best course of action and want to learn the facts before committing to a particular approach.At a time when schools, institutions and governments increasingly promote ideas about gender that confuse children and even encourage kids to keep secrets from their parents, the authors celebrate parental love and engagement as the bedrock that children need to move out into the world. As the authors make clear, parents who have successfully helped their children navigate gender distress without resorting to surgery and hormones have done so by actively taking the reins - not by reflexively outsourcing this responsibility or waiting until they found the ideal therapist or doctor.When Kids Say They're Trans tells you all you need to know as a parent to help your child struggling with gender issues-and will give you the confidence to trust your own instincts as you guide and support your child on the path toward growth, acceptance and maturity.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Blind Trust is the culmination of more than three decades of profound immersion in the most pressing sociopolitical conflicts of our time, by the psychoanalyst with probably the most direct experience with such issues of any in the world. Author Vamik Volkan applies his knowledge of depth psychology to the turbulent and destructive human experiences in the current cauldrons of the greatest unrest and disaster throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Illuminating the etiologic bases of war, revolution, massacres, and terror, as these have disturbed the world from ancient times to modern civilization, his voice speaks for the imperative of reason and the application of modern analytic knowledge for conflict resolution at the highest levels.  The subjects are large groups and their leaders; windows into the lives of the Prophet Muhammad, Stalin, Milosevic, Osama Bin Laden, and David Koresh are interspersed with examinations of religion and fundamentalism, and a sober study of suicide attackers. Volkan's detailed and scholarly description of regressive movements in large-group identities, complemented by an equal attention to progressive and creative reparative forces, represents a significant expansion of our understanding of group  psychology.…

Paperback. Condición: New. For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith-and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith-but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.…

Paperback. Condición: New. Although humankind today can peer far deeper into the universe than ever before, we still find ourselves surrounded by the unknown and perhaps the unknowable. All great science fiction has used the human imagination to explore that realm beyond the known, just as theistic religions have done since long before the genre existed. As Hugo Award-winning author Robert Charles Wilson argues in Owning the Unknown, the genre's freewheeling speculation and systematic world-building make it it a unique lens for understanding, examining, and assessing the truth claims of religions in general and Christianity in particular. Drawing on his personal experience, his work as a science fiction writer, and his deep knowledge of the classics of the genre, he makes the case for what he calls intuitive atheism-an atheism drawn from everyday personal knowledge that doesn't depend on familiarity with the scholarly debate about theology and metaphysics, any more than a robust personal Christianity does. And as he reminds us, the secrets that remain hidden beyond the borders of the known universe-should we ever discover them-will probably not resemble anything currently found in our most prized philosophies, our most sacred texts, or our most imaginative science fiction.…

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Paperback. Condición: New. Expose the lies at the heart of the evolution vs. creationism debate and discover the truth!Religious fundamentalists and biblical literalists present arguments that attempt to disprove evolution. Those with a sympathetic ear often fail to critically examine these creationist claims, leading to an ill-informed public and, perhaps more troubling, ill-advised public policy. As Aron Ra makes clear, every single argument deployed by creationists in their attacks on evolution is founded on fundamental scientific, religious, and historical falsehoods.Among their most popular claims is that evolution is a religion, that there are no transitional species, that there are no beneficial mutations, and that supposedly sacred scripture is the infallible word of God. Yet, as the evidence and data plainly show, each of these claims is demonstrably and unequivocally false. There is simply no truth to creationism whatsoever, and the entire enterprise rests on a foundation of falsehoods.This insightful book explains and exposes the worst of these lies, and should be read by all who honestly care about following the evidence no matter where it might lead in pursuit of the truth. For general readers interested in science, critical thinking, and the evolution vs. creationism debate.…

Paperback. Condición: New. While belief in religious supernatural claims is waning throughout the West, evidence suggests belief in nonreligious supernatural claims is on the rise. What explains this contradiction? How can a society with a falling belief in God have a rising belief in ghosts, psychic powers, ancient astronauts, and other supernatural or pseudo-scientific phenomena? Taking the same anthropological approach he employed in his notable studies of religion, atheist author and activist David G. McAfee turns his attention to nonreligious faith-based claims. Whether going undercover as a medium, getting tested at Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles, or interviewing celebrity paranormalists and famous skeptics, he leaves no stone unturned in his investigation. As in the case of religion, he finds an unwillingness among "believers" to critically examine their most closely held convictions. Only once individuals honestly assess their own sacred cows will they be able to ensure that their beliefs conform to the known facts-and that our decisions as a society are based on the best available evidence. …