An intriguing study for skeptics and believers alike.
Science meets religion meets good writing.
Over a century ago, Nietzsche declared that God was dead, but He just doesn’t seem to go away. Why, ask coauthors Newberg and d’Aquili (The Mystical Mind), do human beings continue to quest for the divine? Not satisfied with the usual sociological arguments, they turn to biology and find an answer in the human brain: Spiritual experiences, like prayer and meditation, are “associated . . . with a series of observable neurological events.” Teaming up with journalist Rause, the doctors examine the issues in prose clear enough so that even the most science-phobic reader will feel at ease. Before laying out their case for the connections between religion and science, the authors walk their audience through some introductory material: what the cerebral cortex is, how neurons work, how human beings turn raw information into perceptions that make sense to us; what the limbic system, hypothalamus, and hippocampus actually do. (Occasionally, those explanations get a little too cutesy, as when the authors call the hippocampus “the diplomat” or label the amygdala “the watchdog.”) Ritual, as cultural history attests, is virtually universal, and when rituals work, they help the brain “adjust its cognitive and emotional perceptions” in a way that religious folks call an encounter between human and divine. The authors use science to try and explain religion, not explain it away. They do not conclude that mystical experiences are baloney simply because the brain has something to do with them. It’s no accident that the human brain is wired to help folks get religion, the authors insist, but an evolutionary advantage: religious people tend to have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and better overall health than unbelievers. Nietzsche and other modern prophets predicted the end of religion, but that’s unlikely to happen unless the human brain changes.
An intriguing study for skeptics and believers alike.Pub Date: April 3, 2001
ISBN: 0-345-44033-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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