RE: Evan Harris Walker
March 7, 2014 at 3:35 am
(This post was last modified: March 7, 2014 at 3:41 am by Mudhammam.)
I finished the book today. Simply atrocious ending. If it wasn't for the heartfelt journey through the author's childhood diary that recounts a story of his teenage love, a girl named Merilyn who died at the age of sixteen, I'd give this book 1 or 2 stars out of 5. But because I did find his interwoven personal narrative genuinely moving, I'll give it a 3.
Here are some of the most cringe-worthy quotes I found in the final chapter called "A God For Tomorrow":
"The tools of science permit us to question, test, and dispute the atheistic doctrines posing as scientific principle just as much as they permit us to question, test, and dispute theistic doctrines." Do they really? I wish he would've provided examples of "atheistic doctrines" or specific "theistic doctrines" that have been tested by science. As you can imagine, he does not (except to tie quantum physics into consciousness and posit this as the first cause of the Universe).
He talks about the archaic religions and the evils committed by their adherents and concludes: "perversions that had nothing to do with religion." DERP DERP.
"But for all this terror, there is one thing that is worse: the thought that all the suffering and all the pleasure of life have no meaning." I get the sense that this is why he leaps from physics to quantum minds to a first cause Universal Consciousness to miracles, souls, and--wait for it--Christianity! And yet without a hint of irony, a few sentences later, he writes: "Science has the capacity to the show us the path to truth. We must go down that path and face whatever is there." Unless, of course, you find it so empty of meaning that you would believe it is WORSE than the atrocities committed by religious fundamentalism.
Another good laugh a few paragraphs down:
"Maybe now, some of us can see the justification of faith." Umm nope. And then he concludes his book with an episode he had wandering around his old neighborhood and "feeling" some sensation run through his body, to which he concludes his long lost love Merilyn "is still with us."
There really is a lot of nonsense in this book, interwoven with science and personal storytelling--to make for an utterly confusing read. When is he speaking as a physicist who has taken great care in accurately presenting facts? When is he speaking as a heartbroken Christian with sympathies for Eastern philosophy? For someone not too well studied in physics (such as myself), I fear his book will lead to many false ideas being embraced as "scientific." Overall, like I said, a decent book with interesting ideas, well written, concise, but largely unhelpful. 3/5
Here are some of the most cringe-worthy quotes I found in the final chapter called "A God For Tomorrow":
"The tools of science permit us to question, test, and dispute the atheistic doctrines posing as scientific principle just as much as they permit us to question, test, and dispute theistic doctrines." Do they really? I wish he would've provided examples of "atheistic doctrines" or specific "theistic doctrines" that have been tested by science. As you can imagine, he does not (except to tie quantum physics into consciousness and posit this as the first cause of the Universe).
He talks about the archaic religions and the evils committed by their adherents and concludes: "perversions that had nothing to do with religion." DERP DERP.
"But for all this terror, there is one thing that is worse: the thought that all the suffering and all the pleasure of life have no meaning." I get the sense that this is why he leaps from physics to quantum minds to a first cause Universal Consciousness to miracles, souls, and--wait for it--Christianity! And yet without a hint of irony, a few sentences later, he writes: "Science has the capacity to the show us the path to truth. We must go down that path and face whatever is there." Unless, of course, you find it so empty of meaning that you would believe it is WORSE than the atrocities committed by religious fundamentalism.
Another good laugh a few paragraphs down:
"Maybe now, some of us can see the justification of faith." Umm nope. And then he concludes his book with an episode he had wandering around his old neighborhood and "feeling" some sensation run through his body, to which he concludes his long lost love Merilyn "is still with us."
There really is a lot of nonsense in this book, interwoven with science and personal storytelling--to make for an utterly confusing read. When is he speaking as a physicist who has taken great care in accurately presenting facts? When is he speaking as a heartbroken Christian with sympathies for Eastern philosophy? For someone not too well studied in physics (such as myself), I fear his book will lead to many false ideas being embraced as "scientific." Overall, like I said, a decent book with interesting ideas, well written, concise, but largely unhelpful. 3/5
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
