The Atheist And The Holy City

In this series of 15 essays, which won the Letterstedt Prize, Sweden's equivalent of the Pulitzer, distinguished cell biologist George Klein shares his considerable insights on science and on human nature. Organized loosely as "The Wisdom and Folly of Scientists," "Journeys," "Viruses and Cancer," and "La Condition Humaine," the essays range from lucid explanations of biological and genetic processes to personal remembrances and studies of famous scientists to discussions of the complicity of science and medicine in the Nazi extermination camps.

As Albert Camus's famous dictum has it, the only truly important philosophical question is suicide, or whether or not life is worth living. Now, in Pieta, his latest collection of essays, George Klein -- distinguished biologist, writer, Holocaust survivor, and humanist -- faces this question head on, in a series of meditations on subjects ranging from the misuses of science to the vital importance of art, music, and literature to surviving catastrophes like the Holocaust and AIDS. Pieta is a passionate book of scientific and personal ethics, inspired by tragic events that resonate in the consciousness of each of us.Klein examines the thoughts of a number of people both famous and obscure -- whose lives may provide some sort of answer to Camus's philosophical question. One essay, for example, deals with the tormented and unstable Atilla Jozsef, one of Hungary's greatest poets and now a national hero. Other figures from the past appear, too: fellow Holocaust survivor Rudolf Vrba, one of the first people to escape from Auschwitz; Simon Srebnik, a teenaged Pole who survived the Nazis by working on their riverboats, singing sentimental ballads for them; the geneticist Benno Multler-Hill, whose meeting with Klein leads to a fascinating discussion of the role of German scientists in preparing the conceptual underpinnings of the Nazi genocide.Klein moves on to a more general elaboration of the misuses of science, from CIA-sponsored LSD experiments to medical experimentation by the Japanese in Manchuria, and ultimately to a thoughtful reconsideration of his own role and responsibility as a scientist. He uses his extensive medical background to present a discussion of the processes of the biology of individuality, concluding with an extended and impassioned look at AIDS, as both a biological problem and a situation that will require the utmost pieta from each of us.Born in prewar Hungary, George Klein was raised in Budapest in an intellectually prominent Jewish family. He has led the Department of Tumor Biology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm for more than three decades.

When Ruth Everhart was given the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land as one of several ministers taking part in a documentary about pilgrimage, she jumped at the opportunity. Little did she know just how demanding -- yet ultimately rewarding -- her transformation from Presbyterian minister, wife, and mom to pilgrim would be. Candid, down-to-earth, and delightful, Ruth recounts her experiences in Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land, inviting readers to journey alongside her on an unforgettable Holy Land pilgrimage. Watch the trailer:

Evolution as an idea is considered a rock-solid truth among secular scientists, but when you begin looking at the evidence and asking simple questions, you find their conclusions to be just fragile assumptions, unproven myth, and outright misconceptions – like a glass house built on shifting sands. Discover the pervasive influences of the atheistic religion of Darwinian evolution Learn what science is and how science is actually devastating to evolution Explore how evolution developed from unproven science to a popular and cultural worldview Now a powerful team of credentialed scientists, researchers, and Biblical apologists take on the pillars of evolution, and the truths they reveal decimate Darwin’s beliefs using a Biblical and logical approach to evidence.

There is a new breed of atheist in town. They're intelligent, vocal, and sometimes very aggressive. They communicate with boldness and conviction, but are they correct? After all, many of the things they say simply make no sense. Patrick Prill examines the ideas of several modern atheists and a few atheists of the past: Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger, Paul Kurtz, Peter Singer, Alex Rosenberg, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Bertrand Russell, and Friedrich Nietzsche—to name a few. Many of them are well-known and highly regarded, but does everything they say really make sense? Is their case for atheism sound? This book addresses thirty-six of the most common things atheists say when they challenge people of faith.After examining what prominent atheists passionately proclaim, in light of evidence and reason, it seems the case for God's existence emerges stronger than ever.