Does it not seem strange that these patrons of truth have no actual base for the truth they espouse? Should not these champions of reason offer some plausible foundation for the rational thought they employ? Who can but doubt these adversaries of God who cannot even account for the moral sense by which they denounce Him? What shall we say of masters of science who would deprive science of the undergirding of truth and reason?

These are not lords of their own domain, as they might suppose. They are squatters on a land belonging to another--mere pretenders, plagiarizers of values not their own. Like the Prodigal Son, they have taken the resources bequeathed by a loving Father and squandered them in futile meanderings.

No one should take these men as seriously as they take themselves. They are not reaching for the far horizon line. Rather they are trapped in their tiny, cramped valley called physicality and have chosen to ignore every other doorway to reality.

They are not men reaching for the stars. They are rather like those who wade through muck and mire, stirring up more as they go.

The six lectures that make up this book were delivered in March 2011 at London University's School of Oriental and Asian Studies as the Jordan Lectures on Comparative Religion. They revolve around the intersection of two ideas, nothingness and desire, as they apply to a re-examination of the questions of self, God, morality, property, and the East-West philosophical divide.

"This Crazy Thing Called Life" is a book that makes witty and satirical comments about the journey we're all on, the journey we call life. Through his observations of human nature, and the human condition the author has formed his own unique perspective and has made comments, regarding those matters that most effects our lives, focusing on love, marriage, money, politics, education, religion, and life in general. At the same time he continually makes the point that we are all responsible for our own lives and that we can make it what ever we want. With comments, quotes, paraphrases, as well as pictures, the writer drives home his observations much in the style of Andy Rooney, and Art Buchwald. "This CrazyThing Called Life" entertains with humorous comments and pictures, but all the while it provokes thought about a multitude of subjects that we all experience on the roller coaster ride of life.

In an aggregate account, traditional churches collect more than $420 billion in tithes and donations annually. With such an extensive source of incoming wealth, it is unimaginable that the sincere needs of the donating parishioners are left unattended. The growing numbers of mega-churches are consistently ran and operated as businesses by affluent ministers who are treated more like celebrities rather than servants of Christ. They consider their church as their business and they attend to them as Corporate CEO's, leading unsuspecting would-be followers of Christ down an eternal road to spiritual destruction. This book, while destined to be controversial, promises to expose the very things celebrity-like ministers are hiding from thier unsuspecting congregation of followers. It exposes the materialism and greed that has crept its way into the church's pulpit, causing corruption so devastating that God himself has vowed not to dwell therein. It is packed full of truths and exposes an organized institution of unsound principles an immoral values that are being taught in order to keep you addicted to their incognito crack houses that are passing themselves off as churches in the name of Christ. This book should free you from the bondage of modern day church slavery and the witchcraft that many are following and practicing while being totally oblivious to what they are doing. Could it possibly be you? Are you still paying tithes and sewing seeds to get blessings from God? If your answer is yes, you need this truth You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free - but only if you are able to fully digest the truth that lies within the pages of this book.

Pierre Nicole was a major figure in the Jansenist controversy in seventeenth-century France. His essays, which were widely read and appeared in various editions during his lifetime, cover a broad range of religious subjects. John Locke first came across Nicole's work during his visit to France in the 1670s, and was so struck by it that he intended to translate all the Essais de morale into English. When he had translated three of them, however he learned that the work had been done already, so he abandoned the project and presented what he had done so far to the countess of Shaftesbury, wife of his patron. Locke's translation, in a neatly written presentation copy, is now housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. The three essays that he translated - 'Discours (...) de l'existence de Dieu & l'immortalite de l'ame', 'Traite de la faiblesse de l'homme', and 'Traite des moyens de conserver la paix avec les hommes' - deal with topics that he later discusses at length in his own writings: society, morality, toleration and opinion. This volume reproduces the text of Nicole's three essays from an early edition facing Locke's deliberately free and impressionistic rendering into English, a style which he hoped might convey the sense of the author better than a literal translation. The choice of these three essays to translate first, out of the whole of the Essais de morale, and the changes that Locke made to his French original in the course of translation, illuminate our understanding of his thought and of its development.

Solitary Thoughts is a collection of passages meant to impart a narrative of the author's struggles to cope in a society that is too preoccupied with commercial self-interest. Values such as efficiency and expedience rise to the fore in a culture polarized between production and consumption. People are stereotyped and assaulted with expectations that threaten their ability to live. The author attempts to offer a glimpse of what life becomes, having been pushed to the periphery of what is acceptable.