An informed, but incomplete, stab at one of civilization’s greatest questions.
Sweeping attempt to explain the existence of God.
Inspired by his brush with death–which he juxtaposes with the actual death of an atheist friend–the author attempts to explain for believers and nonbelievers alike whether God exists. The task is neither new nor easy, and Dwyer calls upon a full range of thinkers and fields of study to build his case. In some ways, he gives strength to his argument through the book’s depth and complexity; in others, the answer, and even the quest for it, is lost in details. Dwyer begins with a lengthy exposition of how humans think and what constitutes consciousness. Comfortable with science, he disputes some absolutist stances. For instance, he takes the author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, to task, contrasting natural selection with natural law and finds the former wanting. After this deep foray into biology, psychology and evolution, he moves on to philosophical arguments for and against God, drawing from several thinkers: Aquinas, Anselm, Spinoza, Kant, Descartes, among others. Rather convincingly, he shows that while proving a personal God exists might not be possible, disproving his existence may be even more so. Belief in God, therefore, is dependent entirely on faith and imagination and cannot be proven by reason alone. Finally, the author discusses ethics and how society should act if we accept God’s existence. Dwyer’s writing, though sometimes too informal, is accessible enough, but the author has chosen a topic difficult to tackle and impossible to resolve, thus his task is an uphill battle–readers may find it difficult terrain.
An informed, but incomplete, stab at one of civilization’s greatest questions.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4196-6259-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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