{"id":12,"date":"2019-08-14T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T00:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wheelerrj.com\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:45:54","slug":"a-homepage-section","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/a-homepage-section\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture above is Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa). Picture below is Mt Blanca (Bolivia).<\/em><\/p>\n

Climbing Higher: Answering big Questions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not everyone climbs mountains, however stories of climbing adventures provide insight into the adventure of life that we all share: overcoming obstacles in life and reaching out to something bigger and higher than immediate daily activities. History and psychology indicate that this is a strong human need that includes having a sense of meaning and purpose.\u00a0 Mountains can symbolize obstacles in meeting these needs, and experiences in climbing mountains provide a vehicle both actually and figuratively for exploring mechanisms and impacts involved. The book begins with a personal experience climbing Mount Fuji that nearly ended in disaster, with the question of why people do such things.\u00a0 Subsequent chapters alternate between mountain climbing experiences and research results about why people pursue difficult tasks.\u00a0 A bottom-up approach supports culminating proposals of spirituality<\/em> as a universal personality trait, nognosticism<\/em> that recognizes knowledge is limited, ecumenical humanism<\/em> for religious tolerance, and the philosophy of pragmatic pluralism<\/em>.\u00a0 For life to be meaningful and manageable, people need a sense of purpose and coherence that is best met by having belief in a higher transcendent realm while also having enough doubt about its nature or validity to pursue a quest for ultimate reality despite the great paradox<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You can get this book from all major retailers such as (click on the name): Amazon<\/a>, Barnes and Noble,<\/a> Books-a-Million<\/a>, ThriftBooks<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What, Why, & How? Bottom-up Answers<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>is a follow-on to the more comprehensive Climbing Higher <\/strong><\/em>and has the following theme:<\/p>\n

At one time or another, most of us have wondered what is the reason for our exist\"\"en<\/span>ce. Why I am here struggling to make a living, to be comfortable and happy, an<\/span>d <\/span>how best to do it? These basic questions usually get submerged because of more immediate questions about meeting daily needs, but they are still there in the recesses of the subconscious mind. There they can create a nebulous feeling of dissatisfaction or can boil up at an inconvenient time. Today\u2019s media, politicians, and educators with their emphasis on consumerism, power, competition, and violence do little to address these basic questions. The author has spent \u00a090 plus years growing from a scrawny kid to a gung-ho soldier to a research psychologist contemplating and researching these questions. This is about what he learned.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is <\/span>available from all major book outlets such as (click on name): <\/span>Amazon<\/a>, <\/span>Barns and Noble, <\/a>\u00a0<\/span>ThriftBooks<\/a>, <\/span>Books-A-Million<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Survival of life <\/strong><\/em>is a follow-on book about the purpose and meaning of life.<\/p>\n

This book is about the purpose of life, survival. Throughout human history this has bee\"\"<\/strong>n the most important and most fundamental issue. Our ancient ancestors thought a lot about this and developed explanations to make their effort<\/span>s m<\/span>anageable and to provide other benefits such as support, morals, ethics, belongingness, and immortality. These explanations formed religions that continue to dominate societies; however, they have not kept up with modern experiences and research findings, and they have lost many of their benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the current world\u2019s problems would be alleviated if we once again thought about this fundamental issue, and if our media, politicians, and educators emphasized this topic rather than the current emphasis on consumerism, power, and violence.<\/p>\n

Studies of history reveal a pattern of continuing development of nature. From the \u201cbig bang\u201d when minute forces self-organized into atoms, then molecules, organisms, plants, animals, and humans. This pattern indicates a design and purpose of increasing complexity and sophistication that may develop life\u2019s ability to survive the eschaton predicted by most religions and the ultimate global warming predicted by science.<\/p>\n

Survival of Life <\/em><\/strong>was released July 2023 and is now available from all major book outlets such as (click on these names): Amazon,<\/a> Barns and Noble<\/a>, ThriftBooks<\/a>, Books-A-Million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The farthest Reach\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>New book coming soon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"We all think\u2014it is hard to avoid. Although there are some techniques that help avoidance, such as sleep, meditation, sunbathing, and prayer, we are usually occupied with thinking about immediate tasks and mental ideas. Sometimes we get into deeper reaches of thought about such things as why I am pursuing this stressful job, what I should do for entertainment, or what my future is. And then sometimes we may go into the farthest reaches of thinking about such things as why I am here, the purpose and meaning of my life, or where I am going. This book is about these farthest reaches of human thinking.<\/p>\n

Release May 22, 2026.\u00a0 Preorder from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture above is Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa). Picture below is Mt Blanca (Bolivia). Climbing Higher: Answering big Questions\u00a0 Not everyone climbs mountains, however stories of climbing adventures provide insight into the adventure of life that we all share: overcoming obstacles in life and reaching out to something bigger and higher than immediate daily activities. History and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOKS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150893,"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/150893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontosscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}