This book was first projected in 2004, when Author Hannah Fairbairn was teaching interpersonal skills at the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts. The experiences of her adult students—and her own experience of sight lost—convinced her that everyone losing vision needs access to good information about the process of adjustment to losing sight and practical ways to use assertive speech. When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes is intended for anyone going through vision loss, their friends, and families. It will inform readers how to get expert professional help, face the trauma of loss, and navigate the world using speech more than sight. Each of the twelve chapters in the book contain many short sections and bullet-point lists, intended to facilitate access to the right information. It begins where you begin—at the doctor’s office or the hospital. Since vision loss takes many forms, there are suggestions for questions you might ask to get a clear diagnosis and the best treatment. Part One also has a description of legal blindness and possible prevention, advice about your job, and tips for life at home. Part Two is about believing in yourself as you deal with the loss, the anger, and the fear before you come up for air and consider training. Parts Three and Four describe using assertive speech and action in all kinds of settings as your independence and confidence increase. Part Five gives detailed information about everything from dating, and caring for babies to senior living, volunteering, and retaining your job. It is hoped that by reading and trying out the suggestions, the reader will recover full confidence, become a positive, assertive communicator, and lead a satisfying life. Because vision loss happens mostly in older years, the book is written with seniors particularly in mind. Professionals will also find it to be a useful resource for their patients.

50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists presents a collection of original essays drawn from an international group of prominent voices in the fields of academia, science, literature, media and politics who offer carefully considered statements of why they are atheists. Features a truly international cast of contributors, ranging from public intellectuals such as Peter Singer, Susan Blackmore, and A.C. Grayling, novelists, such as Joe Haldeman, and heavyweight philosophers of religion, including Graham Oppy and Michael Tooley Contributions range from rigorous philosophical arguments to highly personal, even whimsical, accounts of how each of these notable thinkers have come to reject religion in their lives Likely to have broad appeal given the current public fascination with religious issues and the reception of such books as The God Delusion and The End of Faith

"Science doubt, resistance, and denial are not new. Galileo challenged the prevailing geocentric view of our solar system and was dismissed as a heretic. What is the history of science denial, what's different now, and why does it seem worse? In this opening chapter, What is the Problem and Why Does it Matter? Sinatra and Hofer chart the development of this problem, examine how doubt has also been manufactured, and explain how media attempts at "balance" can become a form of bias. While acknowledging the limits and fallibility of science, they argue that if the US is to be a leader in sustainable economic and social progress, a greater percentage of Americans need to value, understand, and accept scientific methods and findings. When so many US citizens deny science, the health and wellbeing of Americans and our hopes for a sustainable future are put in peril."--

Austin Farrer's writings show amazing originality and independence of thought. To the end of his life he was developing a Christian apologetic that was both thoroughly orthodox and thoroughly contemporary. Interpretation and Belief is a collection of essays grouped round three themes--Canon, Creed, and Criteria--presenting Farrer's thoughts on the foundations of Christian belief. As with Reflective Faith, a recently published collection of his essays on philosophical theology, the pieces vary considerably both in range and in date; they are chosen to stimulate interest rather than to exhaust their subject matter. Farrer's studies of the Gospels and his exploration of Christian doctrine both find their place in the larger framework of theistic belief and reveal their author's deep commitment, profound learning, and ability to hold faith and reason in a creative tension.

An intimate, philosophic quest for eternity, amidst the disenchantments and disappointments of our time “In this deceptively quiet and self-effacing book, Anthony Kronman makes an audacious argument: the most important things in our lives make sense only if we believe the world is divine. In a sense, we already believe it, if only we could find the words. Here they are.”—Jedediah Britton-Purdy, author of After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene Many people of faith believe the meaning of life depends on our connection to an eternal order of some kind. Atheists deride this belief as a childish superstition. In this wise and profound book, Anthony Kronman offers an alternative to these two entrenched positions, arguing that neither addresses the complexities of the human condition. We can never reach God, as religion promises, but cannot give up the longing to do so either. We are condemned by our nature to set goals we can neither abandon nor fulfill, yet paradoxically are able to approach more closely if we try. The human condition is one of inevitable disappointment tempered by moments of joy. Resolutely humanistic and theologically inspired, this moving book offers a rational path to the love of God amidst the disenchantments of our time.

Pastor John Piper shows how to sever the clinging roots of sin that ensnare us, including anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust in Battling Unbelief. When faith flickers, stoke the fire. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us, until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God’s superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin. Delighting in the bounty of God’s glorious gospel promises will free us for a less sin-encumbered life, to the glory of Christ. Rooted in solid biblical reflection, this book aims to help guide you through the battles to the joys of victory by the power of the gospel and its superior pleasure.

In Having Visions, the author presents an objective, respectful, and faithful translation of its content, accompanied with an historical and scientific context for understanding its insertion into the body of human affairs. In The Book of Mormon, the ancient American prophet Mormon presents the history of his people, the Nephites. The intent of the present book is to present "his story as told," and its relationship to "history as known," without altering its essence. It should be noted that exhaustive archeological, genetic, and linguistic research has been undertaken by both proponents for, and detractors of, the existence of the Nephites. So far, no evidence supporting the claim has ever been found for any place, person, or event mentioned in The Book of Mormon, while abundant contradictory evidence has been discovered and independently verified.

This collection of essays by the late Mark Searle provides insights for liturgical study and application. Expanding upon theological ideas and visions, Mark Searle's essays combine theory with practice to topics such as pastoral liturgical studies, the nature of liturgy, the operation of sacraments, and the role of culture in the Church. Introductions by current scholars precede each essay and provide background and introductory information. Chapters are: "Serving the Lord with Justice," "Liturgy as Metaphor," "The Pedagogical Function of the Liturgy," "Reflections on Liturgical Reform," "New Tasks, New Methods: The Emergence of Pastoral Liturgical Studies," "Images and Worship," "Infant Baptism Reconsidered," "Private Religion, Individualistic Society, and Common Worship," "Fons Vitae: A Case Study in the Use of Liturgy as a Theological Source," "Marriage Rites as Documents of Faith: Notes for a Theology of Marriage," "Mark Searle: A Chronology 1941-1992," and "Mark Searle: A Bibliography 1966-1995."