Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth
Author: Andrew Newberg File Type: mobi WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE? Do you remember events differently from how they really happened? Where do your superstitions come from? How do morals evolve? Why are some people religious and others nonreligious? Everyone has thoughts and questions like these, and now Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman expose, for the first time, how our complex views emerge from the neural activities of the brain. Bridging science, psychology, and religion, they demonstrate, in simple terminology, how the brain perceives reality and transforms it into an extraordinary range of personal, ethical, and creative premises that we use to build meaning, value, spirituality, and truth into our lives. When you come to understand this remarkable process, it will change forever the way you look at the world and yourself. Supported by groundbreaking research, including brain scans of people as they pray, meditate, and even speak in tongues, Newberg and Waldman propose a new model for how deep convictions emerge and influence our lives. You will even glimpse how the mind of an atheist works when contemplating God. Using personal stories, moral paradoxes, and optical illusions, the authors demonstrate how our brains construct our fondest assumptions about reality, offering recommendations for exercising your most important muscle in order to develop a more life-affirming, flexible range of attitudes. Youll discover how to Recognize when your beliefs are altered by othersGuard against mental traps and prejudicial thinkingDistinguish between destructive and constructive beliefsCultivate spiritual and ethical ideals Ultimately, we must always return to our beliefs. From the ordinary to the extraordinary, they give meaning to the mysteries of life, providing us with our individual uniqueness and the ability to fill our lives with joy. Most important, though, they give us inspiration and hope, beacons to guide us through the light and dark corners of the soul.
Author: Chase Wrenn
File Type: epub
What is truth? Is there anything that all truths have in common that makes them true rather than false? Is truth independent of human thought, or does it depend in some way on what we believe or what we would be justified in believing? In what sense, if any, is it better for beliefs or statements to be true than to be false? In this engaging and accessible new introduction Chase Wrenn surveys a variety of theories of the nature of truth and evaluates their philosophical costs and benefits. Paying particular attention to how the theories accommodate realist intuitions and make sense of truths value, he discusses a full range of theories from classical correspondence to relatively new deflationary and pluralist accounts. The book provides a clear, non-technical entry point to contemporary debates about truth for non-specialists. Specialists will also find new contributions to those debates, including a new argument for the superiority of deflationism to causal correspondence and pluralist theories. Drawing on a range of traditional and contemporary debates, this book will be of interest to students and scholars alike and anyone interested in the nature and value of truth. **
Author: Himanshu Prabha Ray
File Type: pdf
Gandhara is a name central to Buddhist heritage and iconography. It is the ancient name of a region in present-day Pakistan, bounded on the west by the Hindu Kush mountain range and to the north by the foothills of the Himalayas. Gandhara is also the term given to this regions sculptural and architectural features between the first and sixth centuries CE. This book re-examines the archaeological material excavated in the region in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and traces the link between archaeological work, histories of museum collections and related interpretations by art historians. The essays in the volume underscore the diverse cultural traditions of Gandharafrom a variety of sources and perspectives on language, ethnicity and material culture (including classical accounts, Chinese writings, coins and Sanskrit epics)as well as interrogate the grand narrative of Hellenism of which Gandhara has been a part. The book explores the making of collections of what came to be described as Gandhara art and reviews the Buddhist artistic tradition through notions of mobility and dynamic networks of transmission. Wide ranging and rigorous, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of early South Asian history, archaeology, religion (especially Buddhist studies), art history and museums. **About the Author Himanshu Prabha Ray is affiliated to Ludwig Maximillian University Munich, Germany, and is recipient of the Anneliese Maier research award of the Humboldt Foundation. She is former Chairperson of the National Monuments Authority, Ministry of Culture, Government of India and former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is Member of the Governing Board, The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Her recent books include The Archaeology of Sacred Spaces The Temple in Western India, 2nd Century BCE 8th Century CE (with Susan Verma Mishra, 2017) The Return of the Buddha Ancient Symbols for a New Nation (2014) and The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia (2003). Among her earlier works are The Winds of Change Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia (1994) and Monastery and Guild Commerce under the Satavahanas (1986), in addition to the edited volumes Bridging The Gulf Maritime Cultural Heritage of the Western Indian Ocean (2016) Indian World Heritage Sites in Context (2014) and Satish Chandra and Himanshu Prabha Ray (eds.), The Sea, Identity and History From the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea (2013). Her latest book isentitled Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia (2017). Her research interests include maritime history and archaeology of the Indian Ocean, the history of archaeology in South and Southeast Asia and the archaeology of religion in Asia.
Author: Justin Wimpole
File Type: epub
First Aid for Dogs is packed with vital information for dog owners in cases of emergency Experienced veterinarian, Justin Wimpole, explains what to include in your dogs first aid kit, how to recognise and manage a canine emergency, how to resuscitate dogs, how to deal with injuries (without being bitten), how to cope with bites, stings or poisonings. The text is complemented by clear, informative illustrations. There is information about which medication you can safely give your dog and those to avoid. You will learn how to manage heatstroke, hypothermia, convulsions and seizures as well as how to overcome common whelping difficulties. This book is a must have for all dog owners and dog lovers.
Author: Nazera Sadiq Wright
File Type: pdf
Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure the black girl. Nazera Sadiq Wright uses heavy archival research on a wide range of texts about African American girls to explore this understudied phenomenon. As Wright shows, the figure of the black girl in African American literature provided a powerful avenue for exploring issues like domesticity, femininity, and proper conduct. The characters actions, however fictional, became a rubric for African American citizenship and racial progress. At the same time, their seeming dependence and insignificance allegorized the unjust treatment of African Americans. Wright reveals fascinating girls who, possessed of a premature knowing and wisdom beyond their years, projected a courage and resiliency that made them exemplary representations of the project of racial advance and citizenship. **
Author: Gerald W. Brock
File Type: pdf
Thanks to inexpensive computers and data communications, the speed and volume of human communication are exponentially greater than they were even a quarter-century ago. Not since the advent of the telephone and telegraph in the nineteenth century has information technology changed daily life so radically. We are in the midst of what Gerald Brock calls a second information revolution. Brock traces the complex history of this revolution, from its roots in World War II through the bursting bubble of the Internet economy. As he explains, the revolution sprang from an interdependent series of technological advances, entrepreneurial innovations, and changes to public policy. Innovations in radar, computers, and electronic components for defense projects translated into rapid expansion in the private sector, but some opportunities were blocked by regulatory policies. The contentious political effort to accommodate new technology while protecting beneficiaries of the earlier regulated monopoly eventually resulted in a regulatory structure that facilitated the explosive growth in data communications. Brock synthesizes these complex factors into a readable economic history of the wholesale transformation of the way we exchange and process information. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Introduction The Promise of Regulation Conceptual Framework 2. The First Information Revolution The Development of Telegraph Services The Telephone and State Regulation Radio and Federal Regulation 3. Technological Origins of the Second Information Revolution, 1940-1950 Radar The Transistor Electronic Digital Computers 4. The SAGE Project I. THE SEPARATE WORLDS OF COMPUTERS AND COMMUNICATIONS, 1950-1968 5. The Early Semiconductor Industry The Creation of a Competitive Market Innovation and the Integrated Circuit Falling Prices, Rising Output 6. The Early Commercial Computer Industry Vacuum-Tube and Transistor Computers The System360 and IBM Dominance Alternatives to IBM Computers 7. The Regulated Monopoly Telephone Industry Antitrust and the 1956 Consent Decree Microwave Technology and Potential Long Distance Competition Central Office Switches Terminal Equipment II. BOUNDARY DISPUTES AND LIMITED COMPETITION, 1969-1984 8. Data Communications Packet-Switching and the Arpanet Network Protocols and Interconnection Local Area Networks and Ethernet 9. From Mainframes to Microprocessors Intel and the Microprocessor Personal Computers and Workstations 10. The Computer-Communications Boundary Computer-Assisted Messages Communications or Data Processing? Smart Terminals Teletypewriters or Computers? Interconnection of Customer-Owned Equipment with the Telephone Network The Deregulation of Terminal Equipment The Deregulation of Enhanced Services 11. Fringe Competition in Long Distance Telephone Service Competition in Specialized Services Competition in Switched Services The Transition to Optical Fiber 12. Divestiture and Access Charges The Divestiture Access Charges The Enhanced Service Provider Exemption III. INTERCONNECTED COMPETITION AND INTEGRATED SERVICES, 1985-2002 13. Mobile Telephones and Spectrum Reform Early Land Mobile Telephones Cellular Spectrum Allocation Cellular Licensing Problems Spectrum Institutional Reform PCS and Auctions 14. Local Competition and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Competitive Access Providers Interconnection CAP to CLEC The Telecommunications Act of 1996 Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 15. The Internet and the World Wide Web The Commercial Internet and Backbone Interconnection The Development of the Web The New Economy Financial Boom and Bust Real Growth in Telecommunication and Price Benefits 16. Conclusion Technological Progress and Policy Evolution The Process of Institutional Change Final Comment References Index Reviews of this book The Second Information Revolution is important reading for anyone who needs to understand the functioning of American telecommunications, either to be able to analyse todays financial markets or to understand or influence public policy in this area.--Wendy M. Grossman, Times Higher Education Supplement [UK]Reviews of this book Brock traces a phenomenon he refers to as the second information revolution. According to Brock, there have been two times in history when information technology has dramatically changed daily life. The first information revolution occurred with the advent of the telephone and telegraph, which made communication less expensive and more readily available. The second information revolution is currently in progress...A concise, thorough, and well-written history of the transformation in exchanging and processing of information.--K. A. Coombs, Choice
Author: Lillian Faderman
File Type: pdf
Harvey Milkeloquent, charismatic, and a smart-aleckwas elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, but he had not even served a full year in office when he was shot by a homophobic fellow supervisor. Milks assassination at the age of forty-eight made him the most famous gay man in modern history twenty years later Time magazine included him on its list of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century. Before finding his calling as a politician, however, Harvey variously tried being a schoolteacher, a securities analyst on Wall Street, a supporter of Barry Goldwater, a Broadway theater assistant, a bead-wearing hippie, the operator of a camera store and organizer of the local business community in San Francisco. He rejected Judaism as a religion, but he was deeply influenced by the cultural values of his Jewish upbringing and his understanding of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. His early influences and his many personal and professional experiences finally came together when he decided to run for elective office as the forceful champion of gays, racial minorities, women, working people, the disabled, and senior citizens. In his last five years, he focused all of his tremendous energy on becoming a successful public figure with a distinct political voice. **
Author: Patrick Crowley
File Type: pdf
Algeria Nation, Culture and Transnationalism 1988-2015 offers new insights into contemporary Algeria. Drawing on a range of different approaches to the idea of Algeria and to its contemporary realities, the chapters in this volume serve to open up any discourse that would tie Algeria to a fixed meaning or construct it in ways that neglect the weft and warp of everyday cultural production and political action. The configuration of these essays invites us to read contemporary cultural production in Algeria not as determined indices of a specific place and time (1988-2015) but as interrogations and explorations of that period and of the relationship between nation and culture. The intention of this volume is to offer historical moments, multiple contexts, hybrid forms, voices and experiences of the everyday that will prompt nuance in how we move between frames of enquiry. These chapters - written by specialists in Algerian history, politics, music, sport, youth cultures, literature, cultural associations and art - offer the granularity of microhistories, fieldwork interviews and studies of the marginal in order to break up a synthetic overview and offer keener insights into the ways in which the complexity of Algerian nation-building are culturally negotiated, public spaces are reclaimed, and Algeria reimagined through practices that draw upon the countrys past and its transnational present. **