A philosophically original but needlessly strident attack on the irrationality of religious belief.
A spirited attempt to supplant a religious conception of self-identity with an evolutionary one.
Searching self-reflection is a specifically human ability, the result of our peculiar endowment of consciousness. Johnson (Had Enough Yet?, 2017, etc.) asserts that consciousness was once interpreted as evidence of an eternal soul and God—the legacy of ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, who devalued empirical enquiry in favor of imaginative intuition. Instead of looking outward to the world for answers, they turned an introspective eye inward, and according to the author, this move contaminated thousands of years of philosophy and delayed the genesis of rigorous science. The nature of consciousness, as experienced by human beings, contributed to the problem as well; it seems timeless, without beginning or end, and so the notion of personal immortality easily arises from it. The author considers all religious metaphysics to be fantastical departures from rational analysis, and the stakes of this confusion are high, he contends: because a religious worldview assigns humans a special cosmic significance, he says, it’s an instrument of mistaken aggrandizement and the origin of savage conflict. Johnson makes a theoretically fascinating argument that consciousness precludes self-knowledge, as it forces people to simultaneously be the subject and object of analysis. The author is a research chemist, and his discussion of modern science is both expert and lucidly accessible. His ambition is exhilarating, as he attempts no less than to settle the long-standing conflict between faith and reason. However, this is a very brief study, and its short length undermines the persuasiveness of his arguments; his concise survey of ancient philosophy, for instance, is remarkably lacking in meticulousness for a book that’s so devoted to its advocacy. Also, the author is prone to hyperbolic ad hominem attacks, as when he refers to creationists as “cultural terrorists.”
A philosophically original but needlessly strident attack on the irrationality of religious belief.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4781-8354-9
Page Count: 76
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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