I am not sure if you believe in god or not but I found an interesting book on Atheism and grabbed it when it was free. I read the first chapter where the authors says that he used to believe in god but then turned to atheism when his mother died of terminal cancer. The book has lots of interesting things about atheism in general and what it is and explains why god does not exist. Considering that I actually do believe in god and this book goes against what I actually believe in but nonetheless, a very fascinating read for anyone interesting in this topic.

You can download the book below:

Atheism: Why God Does Not Exist: Atheism Explained

 

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Why I Am Not a Hindu

New edition of a classic critique of Hindutva, Hindu culture, use and misuse of tradition and religion. by a sudra. central to an ongoing debate. includes a 32 p.after ward on the controversies. 

Why I Am Not a Hindu

One reviewer says:
"Hinduism has never been a humane philosophy. It is the most brutal religious school that the history of religions has witnessed. The Dalitbahujan castes of India are the living evidence of its brutality."
The author, Kancha Ilaiah, is a "Dalitbahujan", a group which includes India's lower castes like farmers and the "untouchables". Ilaiah (sounds like "Isaiah") refuses to lump Dalitbahujans in with Hindus: "What do we, the lower [castes, or Dalitbahujans], have to do with Hinduism ...? [The Dalitbahujans of India] have never heard the word 'Hindu' - not as a word, nor as the name of a culture, nor as the name of a religion in our early childhood days. We heard about the Turukoollu (Muslims), we heard about Kirastaanapoollu (Christians), we heard about Baapanoollu (Brahmins) [the priestly caste] and Koomatoollu (Baniyas) [the merchant class] spoken of as people who were different from us. Among these four categories, the most different were the [Brahmins and the Baniyas]. There are at least some aspects of life common to us and the [Muslims and Christians]. We all eat meat, we all touch each other. With the [Muslims], we shared several other cultural relations. We both celebrated the Peerila festival. Many [Muslims] came with us to the fields. The only people with whom we had no relations, whatsoever, were the [Brahmins and Baniyas]. But today we are suddenly being told that we have a common religious and cultural relationship with the [Brahmins and Baniyas]. This is not merely surprising; it is shocking."

So begins Ilaiah's broadside against Hinduism and "Hindutva" or Hindu-ness, the ideology of the Hindu right. In the book, he argues that Hinduism, with its focus on upper caste gods, values, and culture, is a patriarchal and fascist religion and worldview. Furthermore, Hinduism should be considered the sole preserve of the upper castes - despite efforts by the Hindu right to draw the Dalitbahujan masses into the Hindu fold (in a subservient position of course) to increase their numbers and gain unity and strength in the fight against Muslims and Christians. Ilaiah identifies the Hindus as the ancestors of the Aryan tribes who were supposed to have invaded the subcontinent from the north a few thousand years ago, and the Dalitbahujans as the ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the subcontinent prior to the Aryan invasion. (He even attempts to explain Hindu sexism by proffering literary evidence tending to show how "all women, including Brahmin women, were treated in the same demeaning way because they were seen to share the same genealogical origins... because most of the ancient Aryan invaders were men and they must have married the native Sudra-Dravid women. They must have had sex with such women and must have treated them as the equivalent to Sudra slaves.")

Ilaiah explains that India today is in the sad state it is in owing to Hinduism and Hindus - meaning, again, the upper castes - which are still the ruling elite in India. During British occupation upper caste Indians were made into a comprador class: a segment of an occupied society that receives benefits and rewards from the occupier in return for collaboration. By the time India gained independence from Britain, "an all-India 'upper' caste elite - the new bhadralok (the 'upper' caste combine) - was ready to take over the whole range of post-colonial political institutions... each institution was made the preserve of the 'upper' caste forces, with Brahmins being in the lead in many of [them]." Even the anti-colonial, nationalist movements were hegemonized by the Brahmins and their upper caste allies, a process which was made possible "because the British colonialists themselves saw a possibility of manipulation of institutions, parties and organizations if they remained in the hands of the so-called upper castes... Consciously or unconsciously, the British themselves helped to construct a 'brahminical meritocracy' that came to power in post-Independence India."

"In post-colonial India, in the name of Congress [Party] democratic rule, the Hindus came to power both at Delhi and at the provincial headquarters. Parliamentary democracy in essence became brahminical democracy. Within no time the colonial bureaucracy was transformed into a brahminical bureaucracy. The same brahminical forces transformed themselves to suit an emerging global capitalism. They recast their Sanskritized life-style to anglicized life-styles, reshaping themselves, to live a semi-capitalist (and at the same time brahminical) life. Their anglicization did not undermine their casteized authoritarianism. All apex power centres in the country were brahminized and the power of the bureaucracy greatly extended. Because of their anglicization quite a few of them were integrated into the global techno-economic market. Such top brahminical elites were basically unconcerned with the development of the rural economy because it would result in changing the conditions of hte Dalitbahujan masses and thus new social forces might emerge. Thus the anglicized brahminical class also became an anti-development social force."

Even the Indian Communist Party did not escape upper caste domination. "Notionally the Communist leadership was trying to portray itself as an integral part of the masses and to stress that it was no different from the people. But in reality the Dalitbahujan masses remained distinctly different in three ways: (i) the Communist leadership came from the 'upper' caste - mainly from Brahmins; (ii) they remained Hindu in day-to-day life-styles; and (iii) by and large the masses were economically poor but the leaders came from relatively wealthy backgrounds. The masses came from Dalitbahujan castes, and these castes never found an equal place in the leadership structures. Even in states like Andrhra Pradesh and Kerala, where non-Brahmin movements were strong enough to influence the society, the pattern held good... All over the country, the Brahmin population has become leaders in all spheres of socio-political life. They never remained part of the masses. Thus even the Communist movement started functioning in two separate camps - the 'upper' caste leader camp and the Dalitbahujan cadre camp."

"What Hinduism has done is that through manipulative hierarchization, even in the socialist era, it has retained its hegemony over the managerial psots in the urban centres. In every industry the working masses are Dalitbahujans whose notions of life and work are non-Hinduistic [that is, they value labor and practical knowledge over leisure and religious knowledge], whereas, the entrepreneurs and managers of the factories - the directors, supervisors, engineers - are Brahmin, Baniya or Neo-Kshatriya [the warrior caste]. As a result, there is a total cultural divide between the managerial class and the working class. If some factory workers starve or if workers get injured or die because of an accident, the managers do not feel for them because there is no social relationship between them. They are separated not only by class but also by caste. Thus the worker's suffering or death is seen as that of the Other." Hence India's putrid wealth divide: divisions were first cut into society by caste, and now have been cemented by class.

As an interesting aside, Ilaiah argues that the "persistent theory that human beings are by nature, selfish or iniquitous or the scope for selfishness is removed only when inequality is reduced (as was done in some of hte former socialist systems) and its obverse: the theory that human systems do not survive if inequalities are totally removed, both these theories can be disproved by any systematic study of Dalitwaadas [Dalitbahujan communities], where there is no negative cut-throat competition and no withdrawing into lethargy."

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Reflections: Prayers from the Heart of a 14 - Year Old Boy

Reflections Prayers from the Heart of a 14 Year Old Boy is a Prayer book for teenagers looking to seek guidance in a world that is in constant change. In many ways it will help parents and their children bond as they come closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Author Michael Alexander Beas wrote this collection of prayer when he was only 14 years old. Somehow they have traveled with him over the course of 20 years; that in itself is truly a miracle. Thanks to the world of self-publishing they can now be put in print and offered to you for reflection and prayer with your teenager.

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The World's Weirdest Places

"Nick Redfern is the Brit with a knack for ferreting out all the dope on outrageous subjects."

--Jim Marrs, best-selling author of Alien Agenda

Just in time for that most mysterious and macabre of all nights--Halloween, of course--Nick Redfern unleashes The World's Weirdest Places, his latest darkly entertaining supernatural title.

In its mysterious pages, you will find Redfern's personal top 25 paranormal-themed locales, and the strange, amazing, and diabolical things that lurk within them.

From the legendary Loch Ness, Scotland, to the slopes of Mount Shasta, California; from the dark depths of the Solomon Islands to the heart of the Kremlin; and from the magical landscape of Sedona, Arizona, to the turbulent waters of the Devil's Sea of Japan, The World's Weirdest Places reveals the sheer astonishing scale of strangeness that dominates our planet.

Bigfoot, aliens, ghosts, vampires, UFOs, lake monsters, strange energies, enigmatic vortexes, werewolves, and terrifying demons are just some of the bizarre things that populate these parts of our planet, which provoke as much fascination and intrigue as they do fear and horror.

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Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life

For years Glennon Doyle Melton built a wall between herself and others, hiding inside a bunker of secrets and shame. But one day everything changed: Glennon woke up to life, committing herself to living out loud and giving language to our universal (yet often secret) experiences. She became a sensation when her personal essays started going viral. Her hilarious and poignant observations have been read by millions, shared among friends, discussed at water coolers, and have now inspired a social movement. In Carry On, Warrior, Melton shares new stories and the best-loved material from Momastery.com. Her mistakes and triumphs demonstrate that love wins and that together we can do hard things. Melton is a courageous truth-teller and hopespreader, a wise and witty friend who emboldens us to believe in ourselves and reminds us that the journey is the reward. Carry On, Warrior proves that by shedding our weapons and armor, we can stop hiding, competing, and striving for the mirage of perfection, to build better lives in our hearts, homes, and communities.

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The Hindus: An Alternative History

An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth, The Hindus offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions. Hinduism does not lend itself easily to a strictly chronological account. Many of its central texts cannot be reliably dated within a century; its central tenets arise at particular moments in Indian history and often differ according to gender or caste; and the differences between groups of Hindus far outnumber the commonalities. Yet the greatness of Hinduism lies precisely in many of these idiosyncratic qualities that continues to inspire debate today. This groundbreaking work elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds, the inner life and the social history of Hindus.

"Don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course froma feisty and exhilarating teacher." -The Washington Post 

Review by Vishal Agarwal:

I have read the book from cover to cover, and am afraid that it has literally hundreds of factual errors that will be noticed by anyone who has even a mediocre knowledge of Indian history. Just to give a FEW examples:

I. In the Map titled "India From 600 CE to 1600 CE" at the beginning of the book, at least four sites (Janakpur, Nagarkot, Mandu, Haldighati) are marked literally hundreds of miles from their correct geographical location.

II. In the chapter XIX titled "Dialogue and Tolerance Under the Mughals", the errors would shame even a Graduate student of Medieval Indian history. E.g.

1) Doniger (on the title page of the chapter) says that Emperor Humayun ruled from 1530 - 1556 AD. Actually, he ruled from 1530-1540 and for a few months in 1556 AD. He lived in exile in the intervening years as he was deposed by Emperor Sher Shah Suri (who in turn was followed by several rulers before Humayun returned from Iran).

2) On page 532, she claims that Emperor Akbar moved his capital from Fatehpur Sikri to Delhi in 1586. In reality, he moved it to Lahore and then to Agra. And she has got the year wrong too!

3)On page 534, she claims that Emperor Akbar was saved by Hindus from a Muslim rival. In reality, it was his father Humayun who was saved by the Hindu King of Umerkot. Unless, she wants to term every instance of Hindus fighting in the Moghul army as a life saving event for Akbar.

4) On page 536, she claims that Mumtaz Mahal (whose tomb is the famous Taj Mahal) died during the birth of her 13th child. The correct fact is that she died during the birth of her 14th child.

5) On page 537, she claims that Emperor Aurangzeb started persecuting Hindus, Sikhs and Shiite Muslims in 1687. Actually, he started doing this several decades earlier, destroying numerous Hindu temples while he was the Governor of South India (even when he was a Prince, and before he became the ruler in 1658 AD) and getting the Sikh teacher Guru Tegh Bahadur beheaded (for his refusal to convert to Islam) more than a decade earlier.

6) On pages 537-538, she claims that the Sikh teacher Govind Singh was assassinated in 1708 while 'attending Emperor Aurangzeb'. In reality, Emperor Aurangzeb had died a year earlier in 1707 and Govind Singh was assassinated during the reign of his successor Emperor Bahadur Shah I.

7) On page 539, the author implies that 'Jahandah Shah' (sic!) became the ruler after Emperor Aurangzeb. In reality, Aurangzeb was succeeded by his son (and the father of Jahandar Shah, not Jahandah Shah) Emperor Bahadur Shah I.

You can find such historically untenable statements page after page in her book. I have given a few examples from just 1 chapter because this review to you is not the appropriate medium to point out the errors in all chapters and pages of the book.

To cap it all, she claims on page 446 that there is a controversy as to whether Mahatma Gandhi uttered 'Ram Ram' or 'Ram Rahim' when he fell to his assassin's bullets. In reality, the controversy is totally artificial (and largely non-existent) and is mainly encountered in agenda driven atheist or crackpot websites. His last words are said to have been "Hey Ram" and the same are inscribed on his 'Samadhi' (his memorial) in New Delhi. His followers sometimes say that he uttered 'Ram Ram'. Or her laughable claim (page 194n) that Gandhi's commentary on the Gita (a sacred Hindu scripture) was titled 'Asakti Yoga' (=The Science of Deep attachment - she even explains the word ungrammatically!) when in fact the title of Gandhi's work was 'Anasakti Yoga' (= Science of Non-Attachment). Surely this cannot pass for an 'alternative history' because this is just bogus fiction.

Let me not even go into the racist and hateful tone of her chapters when she actually deals with Hinduism. Her claims that she loves the Hindu culture is like a Pedophile claiming that he 'loves' children.

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Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence

Uniquely inspired treasures from heaven for every day of the year by missionary Sarah Young.

Jesus Calling is a devotional filled with uniquely inspired treasures from heaven for every day of the year.  After many years of writing in her prayer journal, missionary Sarah Young decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever she believed He was saying to her.  It was awkward at first, but gradually her journaling changed from monologue to dialogue.  She knew her writings were not inspired as Scripture is, but journaling helped her grow closer to God.  Others were blessed as she shared her writings, until people all over the world were using her messages.  They are written from Jesus' point of view, thus the title Jesus Calling.  It is Sarah's fervent prayer that our Savior may bless readers with His presence and His peace in ever deeper measure.

Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence

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