Tag Archives: religion

Articles I Like: Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray review

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The Guardian published a review of an interesting-sounding book, and I thought I would share. The review itself isn’t anything special, I confess, but the book sounds good. It’s not available on Amazon Canada yet, but it appears to be an overview of the history of atheism and all its different forms.

The argument against the first five forms of atheism discussed in this book will be familiar to readers of Gray’s excoriating reviews and the greatest interest for some will lie in his discussion of the two final forms. One is entitled “Atheism without progress”, that is, without any assumption that human beings can be changed for the better…The final chapter, “The atheism of silence”, contains a surprise. It includes a discussion of a nearly forgotten author of a four-volume history of atheism, Fritz Mauthner, who argued for what he called “a godless mysticism”. Gray argues that there is in the end an affinity between the mystical element in Christianity, which stresses that God is beyond words and incomprehensible, and this form of atheism. “A godless world is as mysterious as one suffused with divinity and the difference between the two may be less than you think.”

Source: Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray review – fascinating study of disbelief | Books | The Guardian

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Articles I Like: Dread accompanies me through life

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Firefox has this little feature when you pull up it’s built-in home page with a search engine box — just below the box are your recently viewed webpages, nothing unusual there, but between the search and history are three articles that Firefox thinks might be of interest to you. I have no idea if they are actually using an algorithm of the web history and past searches, or just curating interesting stories, but I often find one or more of the stories worthy of clicking. I figured initially that it was just clickbait, but most of the time, when I’ve actually clicked, the article has been worth the click.

Take for instance one from today. The article is written by a philosophy professor and revolves around anxiety. It starts with some powerful events — the death of his parents — that are not powerful in terms of trauma but in their normalcy. He then talks about how it impacted his sense of safety, life, religion even. His view of the universe. And then talks about his journey to understand anxiety from a personal, psychological, even existential perspective, informed by the works of philosophers and psychologists.

While it doesn’t end as strongly as it starts, and it veers into philosophy and psychology in ways that will bore a lot of people, it is a very compelling cerebral contemplation of anxiety. Here are some of my favorite highlights:

I had imagined that with my father’s death, the world had exacted its pound of flesh, a tax so terrible it would be levied only once. But in 14 years, death came calling again. One God – a child’s God, mythical and compassionate – died with my father; another – an adult’s God, a God of reasonableness, the one that ensured this world would not do excessively badly by you – died with my mother.

[…]

Prompted by the production of new traumas and losses in our lives, anxieties can interact and recombine like viruses to form newer ‘strains’ that course through us, surprising us with their ferocity and visceral feel. We should not expect our anxieties to remain the same as we age; by paying close attention to their nature, their ‘look and feel’, we can track changes in ourselves and our ‘table of values’.

I learned that I respond with anxiety to this world’s offerings. I’m a better person for this knowledge of myself.[…]My trajectory through the world is thus informed, at every step, by the anxieties that afflict me.

[…]

Our anxieties rush into the mental spaces we leave open, reminding us of all that can go terribly wrong

Source: Dread accompanies me through life but it is not without consolation | Aeon Essays

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By the Rivers of Babylon by Nelson DeMille (BR00014)

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By the Rivers of BabylonPLOT OR PREMISE

Peace in the Middle East is almost assured and two concordes fly to New York with delegates for final negotiations. Terrorists try to derail the peace conference by planting bombs on board and taking the passengers hostage. After one plane is destroyed, killing all on board, the second plane is forced to land near Babylon. At the last minute, the hostages manage to escape to the top of a small hill from which they attempt to defend against the terrorists through several days of sorties, knowing that the military probably doesn’t know where they are and therefore can’t swoop in and rescue them.

WHAT I LIKED

Long before there was Clancy, there was DeMille. This book takes the international realm and stands it on its ear — there is (excruciating) details of the relations between the characters on both sides of the peace conference who are forced to work together to fight the terrorists. In addition, the battle tactics are first-rate, the writing is almost perfect, and the story is superb as the “hostages” fight in small groups with every weapon they have — gas bombs from the plane’s fuel tanks, sounds from a war movie blasted over speakers to simulate larger weaponry, etc.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

There are a LOT of characters at the start of this book and it is hard to keep track of them all. Up until the end, there are too many small sub-plots — some are good, and necessary to flesh out the experience, but not all of them. There are fewer characters by the end though and it helps speed up the plotting. However, the ending is a little over-the-top, resembling a scene from a Die Hard movie more than keeping with the slightly more realistic tone of the rest of the book. As well, there is a meeting between the hostage-leaders and the terrorist-leader that is absolutely surreal. The likelihood of both parties treating it like a military battle with truces, etc., is virtually nil but it was at least interesting to read.

MY RATING

Original: February 18, 2001

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Legend: 1/5 Finished  2/5 Not bad  3/5 Good  4/5 Enjoyable  5/5 Excellent

THE BOTTOM LINE

DeMille is the master of the game.

See more details –> goodreads

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Book Review Index
Intro Approach Review # Title Author Year Series Rating

 

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Traffic accident (PH00009)

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There was a horrible automobile crash and the driver of the car lay on the side of the road dying. A passerby said to him kindly, “why don’t you say a prayer?”

“I don’t know any,” said the stricken man.

“Haven’t you had an contact with religion?”

“As a boy we used to live next to a Catholic Church!”

“That’s it!” said the well-wisher. “Just repeat what you heard in the church!”

“Okay,” said the injured man. “Under the B-15! Under the I-22!”

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Oy vey (PH00008)

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Henry Cohen’s parents were not happy that he was not married by the age of 30, and they kept telling him so. He wanted to please his parents, but couldn’t meet a nice girl. In desperation, he married a goyish prostitute.

His new wife’s friends worried because she had stopped showing up at her regular streetcorner, but one evening she appeared, in new clothing and fancy jewelry. Naturally, the friends were curious, and she told them how she had married a nice Jewish boy.

“What about his parents?” they asked.

She answered, “They love me. After Henry told them about us, they had a party every evening for a week. They call it shiva.”

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God's Total Quality Management Questionnaire (PH00006)

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Manufacturers of God would like to thank you for your belief and patronage of our product. In order to better serve your needs, we ask that you take a few moments to answer the following questions.

Please keep in mind that your responses will be kept completely confidential, and that you need not disclose your name or address unless you prefer a direct response to comments or suggestions.

1. How did you find out about God?

__ Newspaper
__ Television
__ Tabloid
__ Word of mouth
__ Bible
__ Koran
__ Torah
__ Divine Inspiration
__ Near Death Experience
__ Communist Manifesto
__ Bhagavad-Gita
__ Burning Shrubbery
__ Other sources (specify): _____________

2. Which model God did you acquire?
__ Father, Son & Holy Ghost Triplet
__ Jehova
__ Yoweh
__ Jesus
__ Alah
__ Satan
__ God
__ G_d
__ None of the above, I was taken in by a false god

3. Did your God come to you undamaged, with all parts in good working order and with no obvious breakage or missing attributes?
__ Yes __ No

If no, please describe the problems you initially encountered here: ____

4. What factors were relevent in your decision to acquire a god? Please check all that apply.

__ Indoctrinated by parents
__ Indoctrinated by society
__ Imaginary friend grew up
__ Wanted to meet girls/boys
__ Wanted to piss off parents
__ Desperate need for certainty
__ Need to feel Morally Superior
__ Needed a reason to live
__ Needed focus in who to despise
__ Hate to think for myself
__ Fear of murder by a missionary
__ Needed a day away from work
__ Like Organ Music
__ My shrubbery caught fire and told me to do it

5. Have you ever worshipped a God before? Is so, which false god were you fooled by? Please check all that apply.

__ Odin
__ Cthulhu
__ Zeus
__ The Almighty Dollar
__ Appolo
__ Left Wing Liberalism
__ Ra
__ Barney T.B.P.D.
__ The great Spirit
__ The Great Pumpkin
__ The Sun
__ Bill Clinton
__ The Moon
__ A burning cabbage
__ The Bomb
__ Other: ________________

6. Are you currently using any other source of inspiration in addition to God? Please check all that apply.
__ Tarot
__ Lottery
__ Astrology
__ Television
__ Fortune cookies
__ Advice columnist
__ Psychic Friends Network
__ Dianetics
__ Palmistry
__ Playboy / Playgirl
__ Self-help books
__ Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll
__ Biorythms
__ Bill Clinton
__ Tea Leaves
__ EST
__ Mantras
__ Jimmy Swaggert
__ Crystals
__ Human Sacrifice
__ Pyramids
__ Wandering around a desert
__ Insurance policies
__ Burning Shrubbery
__ Barney T.B.P.D.
__ Barney Fife
__ Other: _____________________
__ None

7. God employs a limited degree of Divine Intervention to preserve the balanced level of felt presence and blind faith. Which would you prefer (circle one)?
a. More Divine Intervention
b. Less Divine Intervention
c. Current level of Divine Intervention is just right
d. Don’t know…what’s Divine Intervention?

8. God also attempts to maintain a balanced level of disasters and miracles. Please rate on a scale of 1 – 5 his handling of the following (1=unsatisfactory, 5=excellent):
a. Disasters
flood 1 2 3 4 5
famine 1 2 3 4 5
earthquake 1 2 3 4 5
war 1 2 3 4 5
pestilence 1 2 3 4 5
plague 1 2 3 4 5
cable / cell phone providers 1 2 3 4 5
Windows / Apple / Android OS 1 2 3 4 5

b. Miracles
rescues 1 2 3 4 5
spontaneous remissions 1 2 3 4 5
stars hovering over towns 1 2 3 4 5
crying statues 1 2 3 4 5
water changing to wine 1 2 3 4 5
walking on water (except Cuyahoga) 1 2 3 4 5
talking flaming shrubbery 1 2 3 4 5
VCR that set its own clock 1 2 3 4 5
local baseball / football / hockey club winning the Series / Bowl / Cup 1 2 3 4 5

9. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions for improving the quality of God’s services? (Attach an additional sheet if necessary)

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