Written by a biologist with a broad, open-minded curiosity about world religions, this brief meditative essay offers a multitude of opportunities to synthesize reason and faith.
Scientists commenting on their acceptance or disavowal of religion as a source of knowledge of reality have authored weighty tomes on this topic for centuries. But Simson stands out among the dozens of recent scientist-writers in this controversial area by establishing an exceedingly clear glossary of terms germane to thinking carefully about science and religion. Through making repeated references to these glossary definitions, and by defining these terms with a disarming mix of simplicity and thoughtfulness, Simson has created an inviting way for readers to search out their own connection between scientific reason and religious faith. For example, the often ambiguous meanings attributed to “belief” and “faith” are differentiated by the position that “faith is arrived at from one’s own experience, whereas belief involves acceptance of a received doctrine, integrated into personal experience.” Bringing together more than a half-century of readings in world religions along with global travel to sacred sites, Simson presents a nondoctrinaire, lively view of how science and religion possess their own realms of legitimate authority. For Simson, science finds meaning through testing facets of external reality, and religion forges meaning through the individual and collective interpretations of beliefs, myths and practices. The author nuances religion personally to mean a gratitude to a power higher than oneself for the gift of life. The nature of what conservative believers identify as “sin” and “evil” Simson identifies as the inevitable conflict of biological instincts and societal limits—the only time in the book when the author seems an unequivocal spokesperson for the scientific point of view over the religious. In suggesting that all religions historically have promoted ideals of gratefulness, love of creation and a dedication to living a life of service to others, Simson particularly focuses upon the centrality of feelings of love and the need to make modest claims—scientifically and religiously—about what we absolutely know of ultimate reality. This well-reasoned, sensitively written meditation on the relationship of science and religion offers considerable food for thought for readers eschewing simple dogmas.
Pub Date: May 5, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450549042
Page Count: 133
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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