Faith and its critics [[electronic resource] ] : a conversation / / David Fergusson

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910792216603321
• Autore: Fergusson David
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0-19-958568-7; 0-19-157138-5; 1-282-34648-2; 9786612346484
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (204 p.)
• Disciplina: 261.2/1
• Soggetti: Christianity and atheism; Faith; Apologetics
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Comprises the Gifford lectures delivered in Apr. 2008 at the University of Glasgow.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Atheism in historical perspective -- The credibility of religious belief : claims and counter-claims -- Darwinism : how much does it explain? -- Morality, art, and religion : invention or discovery? -- Is religion bad for our health? : saints, martyrs, and terrorists -- Sacred texts : how should we read them?
• Sommario/riassunto: Heralded as the exponents of a 'new atheism', critics of religion are highly visible in today's media, and include the household names of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris. David Fergusson explains their work in its historical perspective, drawing comparisons with earlier forms of atheism. Responding to the critics through conversations on the credibility of religious belief, Darwinism, morality, fundamentalism, and our approach to reading sacred texts, he establishes a compelling case for the practical and theoretical validity of faith in the contemporary world. An invitation to

Complex general relativity [[electronic resource] /] / by Giampiero Esposito

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780040103321
• Autore: Esposito Giampiero
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Dordrecht ; ; Boston, : Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1995
• ISBN: 1-280-53714-0; 9786610537143; 0-306-47118-3
• Edizione: [1st ed. 2002.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (219 p.)
• Collana: Fundamental theories of physics ; ; v. 69
• Disciplina: 530.1/1
• Soggetti: General relativity (Physics); Quantum gravity; Supersymmetry
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-194) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Spinor form of General Relativity -- to Complex Space-Time -- Two-Component Spinor Calculus -- Conformal Gravity -- Holomorphic Ideas in General Relativity -- Twistor spaces -- Penrose Transform for Gravitation -- Torsion and Supersymmetry -- Complex Space-Times with Torsion -- Spin-1/2 Fields in Riemannian Geometries -- Spin-3/2 Potentials -- Mathematical Foundations -- Underlying Mathematical Structures.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book is written for theoretical and mathematical physicists and mat- maticians interested in recent developments in complex general relativity and their application to classical and quantum gravity. Calculations are presented by paying attention to those details normally omitted in research papers, for pedagogical r- sons. Familiarity with fibre-bundle theory is certainly helpful, but in many cases I only rely on two-spinor calculus and conformally invariant concepts in gravitational physics. The key concepts the book is devoted to are complex manifolds, spinor techniques, conformal gravity, ?-planes, ?-surfaces, Penrose transform, complex 3 1 – – space-time models with non-vanishing torsion, spin- fields and spin- potentials. 2 2 Problems have been inserted at the end, to help the reader to check his und- standing ; of these topics. Thus, I can find at least four reasons for writing yet another book on spinor and twistor methods in general relativity: (i) to write a textbook useful to - ginning graduate students and research workers, where two-component spinor c- culus is the unifying mathematical language.