The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal is a non-fiction book by Paul Kurtz. In it, he analyzes the bases of religion: how provable are the claims of the famous prophets who founded religion in their name: Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Ellen G. White and others? Paul Kurtz asks what are prospects for developing humanistic society based on scientific and humane foundations? The book was published by Prometheus Books in 1986, a company founded by Kurtz in 1969, but which has published numerous book on skepticism and secular humanism by many authors.