• COVER: Stem Cells: Poised for a Breakthrough - After eight years of political ostracism, stem-cell scientists like Harvard's Douglas Melton are coming back into the light--and making discoveries that may soon bring lifesaving breakthroughs • ESSAY: Obama's Fresh Start: Substance Over Showbiz - Obama has shifted the focus of the presidency from show biz to substance--at least for now • RELIGION: Rural Churches Grapple with a Pastor Exodus - The only group vanishing faster than the population in rural America is its pastors, stranding farm congregations and challenging church leaders to find new models • PEOPLE: 10 Questions for Mickey Rourke - After wrestling back into the spotlight, the actor looks ahead. Mickey Rourke will now take your questions
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Multimedia » Audio | 5 January 2009
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Bertrand Russell -- agnostic, pacifist, great humanitarian, and Nobel Prize laureate -- reviews in this volume the conflict between science and traditional religion during the last four centuries, and attempts to estimate the influence of present-day science upon present-day theology.
As the new millennium approaches the sacred and profane interface, conflict, and intermingle in novel ways. "The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society" provides a guide map for these developments. From succinct, brief notes to essay-length entries, this encyclopedia covers world religious leaders and scholars-past and present-in the United States and the world. This comprehensive volume is an essential reference for the study of the anthropology, psychology, politics, or sociology of religion.
From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Robert Park, the best-selling author of Voodoo Science, argues that it has. In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims. He examines recent controversies and concludes that science is the only way we have of understanding the world.
• COVER: How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street - For years the financial markets roared along as if there were nothing to fear. Now it's payback time--and all of us will be feeling the pain • WORLD: Death in Birth - The number of women in poor countries who die in childbirth has barely changed in two decades — and this despite a host of medical breakthroughs. How can the incidence of this devastating human tragedy be reduced? • RELIGION: The Bible Goes Green for the Prius Age - A color-coded Bible is geared to environmentalists • TECHNOLOGY: The Chevy Volt: GM's Huge Bet on the Electric Car - GM's Volt could get the company--and the country--off petroleum
