A thorough, right-wing perspective on the philosophical vices of modern science.
A theoretical critique of scientism, the hyperbolically confident view that scientific materialism is capable of explaining the universe in its totality.
Christopher announces an ambitious agenda: to challenge the “scientific vision of life,” the reductive attempt to capture all existing phenomena—human and otherwise—in the categories of scientific materialism. The author principally devotes his attention to the relentless attempt to explain human behavior from the perspective of DNA, the alleged “language of life.” However, Christopher contends, with impressive clarity and rigor, that such an attempt has long been exposed as a failure—explanatory recourse to DNA simply doesn’t account for the whole spectrum of behavioral differences or variations in innate intelligence. Despite the mounting difficulties with the explanatory power of DNA, however, the scientific community has doubled down on its commitment to it—a type of “faith-based” rather than evidentiary allegiance. The author interprets this commitment as an expression of irrational scientism, which combines a “total confidence in the materialistic model of human life” with a self-congratulatory “hype and arrogance.” Christopher devotes so much attention to the field of genetics precisely because he sees it as the crucible of this scientism: “I suggest that biologists/geneticists are effectively in the front lines of the defense of materialism. That foundational scientific belief that life is completely describable in terms of physics dictates that DNA fulfill the heredity role. Never mind some of the extraordinary behavioral challenges, DNA has to cover all of materialism’s bets.”
Christopher also assesses the ways scientific dogma clouds discussions of environmental sustainability, race, intelligence, and even meditation—in the latter case he furnishes a fascinating discussion of the limitations of the analysis of Sam Harris, a philosopher and neuroscientist who is a well-known critic of religion. Further, he does a credible job of not only exposing the vulnerabilities and limitations of DNA as a theoretical panacea, but also the ways the scientific community routinely dismisses them, betraying their avowed commitment to intellectual openness. “Contradicting the certitude of science there are bunch [sic] of behavioral phenomena which are very difficult to explain from a materialist perspective. The inability of science to acknowledge this situation contradicts the regularly proclaimed openness and curiosity of scientists. In fact science has its own rigid materialist purview and strongly defends it.” The author, whose perspective is unmistakably locatable on the right of the political aisle, claims he does not supply a “nuanced effort,” and this is sometimes true. In his discussion of black communities, he offers common racist tropes: “A relatively weak commitment towards education and a tendency towards violence are still substantial problems in parts of the African American community.” Overall, the author’s argument is clear and free of technical convolution, a remarkable feat given the forbidding nature of much of the subject matter. His chief goal is to demonstrate the “sacred” nature of the scientific community’s fidelity to DNA as a settled theory and, as a consequence, encourage it to “start looking elsewhere for explanations.” At the very least, he accomplishes this goal.
A thorough, right-wing perspective on the philosophical vices of modern science.Pub Date: March 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62967-170-3
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Wise Media Group
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An earnest but rather lightweight critique of contemporary capitalism.
Personal-finance writer Scott seeks to remake a broken capitalist system in his latest work.
The author writes that he knows a lot about how the economy works, but he hasn’t been able to turn that knowledge into riches—and he notes that it’s easy, under such circumstances, to wonder if the system is operating correctly. “In a world that has…so much knowledge stockpiled in libraries, the internet and book stores,” asks Scott in his introduction, “how come everyone I know, including myself, are usually thrust into a life of constant struggle and strife?” To answer this question, the author delves into the ways that capitalism actually functions: how we all participate in it, benefit from it, and are victimized by it. He discusses how changes in corporate culture and shortsighted consumption habits have contributed to creating a society of haves and have-nots. Scott then explores some alternative economic systems while also suggesting changes that might make capitalism more equitable and sustainable; he calls this hypothetical reboot “Tempered Capitalism.” Overall, Scott’s prose is conversational and easy to follow, as when he discusses the advantages of life in a growing community of people who live in vans: “The sense of freedom, self-efficacy and sovereignty that they experience is worth any of the hardships they encounter. Imagine that. We live in a country that is considered ‘free’, yet people are starving for the actual experience of freedom.” However, the book is very brief considering the weightiness of its subject—less than 100 pages—and relies heavily on the ideas of others, including systems scientist Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade (1987). The solutions that Scott comes to are also fairly long-term and difficult to enact, to say the least—one of them, for instance, is the establishment of a united world government. Readers will likely agree with much of what the author says about the inequalities of the current global economic system, but his ideas aren’t much more specific or original than one might hear in a gathering of college students.
An earnest but rather lightweight critique of contemporary capitalism.Pub Date: June 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9991137-4-2
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Perisco
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A deeply thoughtful tale that skillfully depicts the origins of Judaic tradition.
In this historical novel set in 3500 B.C.E., a Bedouin tribesman travels to Sumer in search of a new god.
Tiras grows up as part of a Bedouin tribe in central Saudi Arabia worshipping Martu, the bull god, an unmerciful master who exacts terrible sacrifices as punishment for even minor transgressions. Always inquisitive and even skeptical as a child, Tiras questions the tribe’s allegiance to such a vengeful god, a defiance that fatefully leads to tragedy. When he angers the tribe’s priest, Abu-Summu, Tiras’ daughter, Shallah, is summarily sentenced to a beating so vicious it kills her. Utterly despondent, Tiras blames himself for Shallah’s death, and when he hears of gentler gods in Sumer, he travels there to learn more. He is driven by a need to find a god superior to Martu but also by a “hunger for knowledge of the world.” There, he meets Mah Ummia, a physician and scholar happy to teach Tiras about his own religion, one in which the gods resemble men and not beasts, show pity toward the suffering, and promise a new life after death in paradise. Tiras returns home, eager to proselytize about “a powerful new god, El, who’d conquered all the other gods.” The traveler is excited about his new discoveries, but he meets fierce resistance, particularly from Abu-Summu. Tiras even fears punishment from Martu: “But how to tell his tribe about those gods? Surely Martu would grow jealous and demand terrible retribution. Dare he risk his family’s life to help his people?”
Miller deftly explores a historical possibility in literary terms—the emergence of Judaism out of contact between Bedouin Arabs and Sumerians. The author intelligently traces a potential theological genealogy, a captivating and nuanced account of how one religion emerges out of the influence of another. Tiras is first motivated by personal grief but then by curiosity and astonishment, a remarkable amalgam of practical and theoretical concerns, and a moral attraction to more than just gods: “Tiras listened intently, his eyes squinting in surprise. The Sumerian gods were smiling? Gentle? No human sacrifice? How had the Sumerians learned to attract such sympathetic gods?” Eventually, with the help of Tiras’ sons, a new mythology is born, one in which the protagonist is transformed from a grieving father into a prophet heralding a new faith. Miller doesn’t allow the historical elements of the story to overwhelm the dramatic ones—the plot is by turns as gripping as it is moving. Nonetheless, this is a historically impressive work, and it is precisely this authenticity that is the book’s principal strength. The author’s research is admirably rigorous—painstakingly meticulous as well as astonishingly expansive in scope. While she permits herself some considerable artistic license, especially given the timeline of this religious transmission—“the time period in the novel has been compressed to spread events over several generations rather than several millennia”—none of that literary latitude diminishes the work’s dramatic or historical power.
A deeply thoughtful tale that skillfully depicts the origins of Judaic tradition.Pub Date: April 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4808-8444-1
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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