Stavans explores humans' conception of the divine, from an animistic view to Greek myths and the Aztec pantheon, onward to the development of monotheism. Stavans reflects on the difference between prophetic and wisdom religions and criticizes monotheism's link with violence. Along the way, Stavans explors his own "wrestling" with God and provides fertile ground for questioning preconceived ideas and placing them in the larger narrative of human belief....

Dawkins argues that belief in God is irrational, and describes examples of religion's negative influences on society throughout the centuries, such as war, bigotry, child abuse, and violence.

"With hundreds of illustrations and specially commissioned drawings, this is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the deities that lay at the heart of Egyptian religion and society."--Jacket.

"In Assyria, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of one of the ancient world's most accomplished civilizations, the Assyrian Empire. Tracing its origins to a minor city state in present-day Iraq, Assyria at its height, around 660 BCE, stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, the first empire the world had seen. Breath-taking, belligerent conquest -- epitomized in the motto of the seventh-century king Esarhaddon, "Before me,...