Given in honor of District Governor Hugh Summers and Mrs. Ahnise Summers by the Rotary Club of Aggieland with matching support from the Sara and John H. Lindsey '44 Fund, Texas A & M University Press, 2004.

This book critically explores answers to the big question, What produced our universe around fifteen billion years ago in a Big Bang? It critiques contemporary atheistic cosmologies, including Steady State, Oscillationism, Big Fizz, Big Divide, and Big Accident, that affirm the eternity and self-sufficiency of the universe without God. This study defends and revises Process Theology and arguments for God's existence from the universe's life-supporting order and contingent existence.

Many Christians today lack a basic understanding of the evidence that supports a Christian worldview (how one views the world). The purpose of this book is to provide the evidence for the main religions of America, both the supporting evidence and the undermining evidence. The intended audience of this book is any open-minded person with a tenth-grade education or more – it is not just for Christians struggling in their faith, but for anyone open to considering some of the major evidence available today. In short, it is for the average person. Most books on this topic are intended for one with an interest in theology or philosophy—focusing on the defense of Christianity rather than its differentiation between any other religion. These types of books tend to fall short for those convinced that Christianity is not logical and are thus not interested in a philosophical argument advocating the Christian narrative. To interest those already convinced, one must be skeptical and put the viewpoint to the test. As the French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–1784) wrote, “What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step toward truth.” The focus of this book will be upon the undisputed evidence accepted by all.

“Why is there something rather than nothing?” That’s the quintessential, philosophical question in mankind’s search not only for the existence of the universe, but also for the existence, meaning, and purpose of life. That question forms the essence for this informative and enlightening book in which author Dr. Kelly J. Walters reveals both the answer (Jesus Christ) and the abundant evidential proof. Everyone longs to know the answers to universally profound questions like “Is God real?” or “What is the true creation story of the universe and of humankind?” or “Is there an afterlife?” These questions are vast, extreme, and complex. While there are many theories, the ultimate empirical and factual answers are impossible to definitively prove for both theist and naturalistic scientism alike. Both sides require faith. In Truth and Proof for the Christian Worldview, Dr. Walters offers evidence and rational proof defending the one position that provides the best logical, experiential, and noncontradictory answer for all the above questions: Christianity. Atheist turned Christian, Dr. Walters delves into this convincing evidence, providing an organized and scholarly summary and presentation of the detailed research available for Christian apologetics. He teaches on a plethora of topics, including comparative religion worldviews, key logical arguments and formal proofs for God, the origins of the universe and life, evolution and creationism theories, who is Jesus Christ, what is true Christianity, and more. The evidence related to these theological and scientific topics rationally serve to defend, clarify, and prove the truth for the reality of the one true God of the Bible as creator of the universe and life.

This collection of writings and images by the legendary Big Bend photographer offers adventure, history, personal musings, and natural beauty. Photographer-naturalist Peter Koch first visited Big Bend National Park in February, 1945, on assignment to take promotional pictures for the National Park Service. He planned to spend a couple of weeks, and ended up staying for the rest of his life. Koch’s magnificent photographs and documentary films introduced the park to people across the United States and remain an invaluable visual record of the first four decades of Big Bend National Park. In this book, Koch’s daughter June Cooper Price draws on her father’s photographs, newspaper columns, and journal entries, as well as short pieces by other family members, to present his vision and many experiences of the Big Bend. The adventure begins with a six-day photographic trip through Santa Elena Canyon on a raft made from agave flower stalks. Koch also describes hiking on mountain trails and driving the scenic loop around Fort Davis; “wax smuggling” and other ways of making a living on the Mexican border; ranching in the Big Bend; collaborating with botanist Barton Warnock; and the history and beauty of Presidio County, the Rio Grande, and the Chihuahuan Desert.

This field guide offers information on the 450 bird species of the Big Bend, including behavior notes, status reports, statistics, records, and much more.

Are humans just complex biochemical machines, mere physical parts of a causally closed materialist universe? Are we approaching the so-called "Singularity" when human consciousness can (and will) be downloaded into computers? Or is there more to the human person--something that might be known as soul or spirit? As this book makes clear, the answers to these questions have profound implications to topics such as heroism, creativity, ecology, and the possibility of reason and science. In exploring this important topic, Dickerson engages the ideas of some well-known twentieth- and twenty-first-century espousers of physicalism, including philosopher Daniel Dennett (Consciousness Explained), biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), futurist-engineer Raymond Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines), psychologist B. F. Skinner (Beyond Freedom and Dignity), and mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell (Why I Am Not a Christian). Through a careful reading of their works, Dickerson not only provides a five-fold critique of physicalism, but also offers a Christian alternative in the form of "integrative dualism," which affirms the existence of both a physical and spiritual reality without diminishing the goodness or importance of either, and acknowledges that humans are spiritual as well as bodily persons.