Succinctly and clearly suggests that the intricacy and perfection of our universe in everything from molecular structure to...
A brief treatise on God and science from debut author Viamonte.
As modern science has shown, the conditions that allow for the Earth, the universe and life as a whole to exist are unique. Whether it’s the Earth’s seemingly perfect distance from the sun or the singular conditions that resulted in the Big Bang (or whatever brought the universe into existence), many may suspect that something more than mere happenstance is responsible. The more scientists investigate everything from humans to quarks, the more complex these subjects become and the more their perfection becomes apparent. As Viamonte writes in a section on cells (describing each cell as a “mini factory”), “All of this is exquisitely coordinated, resulting in a living organism.” The question becomes: Is all of this exquisite coordination the result of (and evidence for) a creator, or have these things simply happened for reasons we humans have yet to and may never understand? Arguing the former, the author spends most of the short book detailing the complexities of the universe and quoting from scientists who have looked back in awe and decided that there must be some greater power at work. A short section on religion includes definitions of such terms as “faith,” “agnosticism” and “gospel.” Written earnestly, the main argument—the complexity of nature is indicative of a creator—is well-stated, if not necessarily persuasive. Few would refute that the universe is spectacularly complicated; however, what can be extrapolated from such complication remains very much open to debate.
Succinctly and clearly suggests that the intricacy and perfection of our universe in everything from molecular structure to the solar system points to God’s existence.Pub Date: May 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475914481
Page Count: 56
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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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