by Yemant and Friends ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 2014
A wide-ranging, entirely commendable explication of the humanist worldview.
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A thoroughgoing examination of life, the universe, and everything.
In a series of conversations between three anonymous, retired university professors (“Yemant and friends”), this remarkable debut discusses some of the deepest, widest-reaching subjects of human existence, including the Big Bang and the development of cosmology, the formation of galaxies and solar systems, the development of life on Earth from the first multicellular organisms, and the dominance of humans over the world. It addresses the births of language, culture, agriculture, and a dozen other large-scale topics, drawing on the latest consensus of scientific understanding and always emphasizing clarity and comprehensibility. The three friends complement one another’s accounts of the scientific fields they cover, often requesting slower, more careful explanations, and the result is unfailingly approachable and engaging. It later evolves into a long, detailed discussion of religion—its causes, manifestations, and claims of truth, even in scientific realms. Yemant and his friends come down firmly but gently on the side of scientific rationalism, especially on questions of evolution. “Biology is a science,” they agree, “and, as far as the evolution of life is concerned, should not be muddled with morality.” (They view what they see as a shameful, widespread rejection of evolutionary biology by many Americans as a product of religious indoctrination and “a monumental failure of science education.”) The book also looks into the forms and origins of religions, the mindset and psychological makeup of religious believers, and the “terrifying legacy” of religiously motivated conflicts throughout history. The end result of all this discussion is a comprehensively rational, humanist worldview that’s nevertheless sympathetic to the human yearning for spirituality. The three friends eventually work their way to a balanced, ethical, and realistic take on life that would have had Epicurus nodding in agreement.
A wide-ranging, entirely commendable explication of the humanist worldview.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4808-1124-9
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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by Kerry Egan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2016
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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