A fascinating and oftentimes mind-bending account of how penny-a-word sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard doggedly pursued the “religion angle” in his quest to create the worldwide Church of Scientology.
Urban (Religious Studies/Ohio State Univ.) makes it clear from the outset that he could have written a lot more about Scientology than he has here—perhaps even a few volumes more. Settling on a narrower scope, however, hasn’t precluded the author from presenting a thoroughly absorbing chronicle of Scientology’s 60-year history in America. Beginning in the 1950s with the creation of the self-help system Hubbard dubbed Dianetics, the narrative quickly moves on to the founder’s audacious attempts to turn Scientology into a bona-fide tax-exempt religion, the incredible covert operations Scientologists launched against snooping federal authorities and the relentless war Scientologists still wage against unflinching critics today. Despite its conservative reputation, Urban believes that ’50s America offered Hubbard a “spiritual marketplace” teeming with new possibilities. It was a time of UFO sightings, the Red Menace and the growing influence of Eastern thought on American culture. Suddenly, there was also room for a man with a trunk full of intergalactic space operas, an abiding fascination in the occult and a talent for synthesizing already popular religious beliefs. All of which compels the author to pose the question: Just what, exactly, is religion and who gets to make the determination? Readers are ultimately left to ponder that question on their own, just as they’re left to wonder what Urban has left out. Esoteric knowledge, meanwhile, has always been Scientology’s stock and trade, but the Internet has largely taken that veil of secrecy and shredded it. That leaves another question to be answered: Does Scientology have a future? An intriguing introduction into the labyrinthine world of Scientology and its meaning in American society. For a more entertaining, behind-the-scenes look, check out Janet Reitman’s Inside Scientology (2011).
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-691-14608-9
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
The doctrine of the sanctity of human life is in deep trouble, claims Australian philospher Singer (The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology, 1981, etc.), who gives his own clear ideas of what should replace it in this decidedly provocative work. With crisp, dramatic tales involving brain-dead bodies, anencephalic infants, people in persistent vegetative states or with agonizing terminal illnesses, and other now-familiar hospital scenarios, Singer asserts that modern medical practice has become incompatible with a belief in the equal value of all human life. He argues that the ethical problems such situations pose would be simplified if we would only abandon our outdated thinking about life and death. He presents five commandments of what he calls the old ethic and suggests how they might be rewritten. In his scheme, the first, "Treat all human life as of equal worth," becomes "Recognize that the worth of human life varies"; the second, "Never intentionally take innocent human life," becomes "Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions." The third and fourth express Singer's views that people have the right to end their own lives and that unwanted children should not be brought into the world. All of these will trigger outrage in various quarters, but perhaps most provocative is his fifth revision: "Treat all human life as always more precious than any nonhuman life" becomes "Do not discriminate on the basis of species." A founder of the Animal Rights Movement, Singer argues that the right to life properly belongs not to Homo sapiens but to persons, by which he means those beings that possess self-awareness. In this view, an embryo or someone in an irreversible coma is clearly not a person, but a gorilla or a baboon is. Singer can't quite figure out how to regard newborn humans, but he gives infanticide a serious look before backing off. By going to the very core of our beliefs about life, Singer has created just about as controversial a book as possible.
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0312144016
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
American pragmatism and delight in clashing values characterize this well-informed survey of contemporary moral issues. Tivnan (The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy, 1987) sees Americans as increasingly unsure about what they believe, as the moral authority of ethnic and religious traditions plays less of a role in our society. He attempts to assemble the best arguments on all sides of the current heated debates on abortion, suicide, euthanasia, the death penalty, and affirmative action. Devoting a separate chapter to each, he begins with a brief history of the issue concerned, follows with a sampler of the arguments for and against, and concludes with his own opinion. This format makes for stimulating reading. On assisted suicide we learn of ancient philosophers' very nuanced views for and against, see how these were synthesized by Christian thinkers such as Aquinas, then observe the question blown open again by the opposing views of Kant and Hume before we reach the contemporary controversy involving the Hemlock Society and Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Here, as in most cases, Tivnan takes a liberal stance. On the fiercely contested topic of abortion, he gives an excellent summary of pro- life and pro-choice views, including feminists on both sides, and holds that abortion is the sometimes justifiable taking of a human (but pre-personal) life. Tivnan occasionally fudges on thorny philosophical issues (e.g., he equates martyrdom with suicide) and seems content with a merely legal or social stance. He celebrates American diversity and suggests that beyond tolerance there are no objective moral values; his heroes are Isaiah Berlin, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty. For Tivnan, truth is simply the way a society describes how it determines what is right. He does not ask how this would apply in Germany of the 1930s or in contemporary China, where human rights are dismissed as a purely Western cultural phenomenon. Provocative reading, whatever your point of view.
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-74708-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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