by Carl Sagan & edited by Ann Druyan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2006
A fitting memorial to one of the great popularizers of scientific thought.
Sagan’s 1985 Gifford lectures, edited by his widow.
Launched in 1888, this Scottish university lecture series invites speakers to explore how the natural world illuminates issues of theology. The noted American astronomer took it as an opportunity for a broad examination of the relationship between science and religion. Drawing on Thomas Carlyle’s dictum that wonder is the basis of worship, Sagan begins with a series of astronomical images, displaying the vast scope of the universe as revealed by science. He then cites Thomas Paine, noting that our idea that God is intimately concerned with the doings of creatures on one tiny planet betrays a limited conception of the deity. Beginning with Copernicus, science has steadily demonstrated the insignificance of Earth and its creatures in the grand design of the universe. In his view, the adoption by some cosmologists of the anthropic principle—the argument that the universe appears to be designed to support intelligent life—is a retreat from the lessons of Copernicus and his scientific heirs. Sagan extends this line of argument by examining several ideas common to his work: scientific evidence for the chemical origins of life on Earth, the likelihood of multiple inhabited worlds and the question of possible contact with aliens. (He remains skeptical that such contact has occurred.) He examines the “God hypothesis” from the viewpoint of science, noting that an omnipotent God could have left an early statement of some modern scientific discovery as unambiguous proof of His existence. The lectures end on a sober note, with Sagan considering the possibility of humankind’s destroying itself in a nuclear war. A lively set of exchanges with audience members is a welcome bonus.
A fitting memorial to one of the great popularizers of scientific thought.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2006
ISBN: 1-59420-107-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
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by Carl Sagan
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by Carl Sagan
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by Carl Sagan
by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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by R. Crumb ; illustrated by R. Crumb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2009
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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