Reading List
May. 10th, 2006 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
levertovfanOver the course of this last weekend, I started, read, and/or skimmed three very odd books, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, which Linda debated with her book club, Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, which was one of the last books my grandfather read, and Awakenings by Oliver Sacks, which I purchased for the plane ride. (I also read a book trying to debunk various personality typing schemes, which was substantially less interesting and convincing, although the chapters on the use and abuse of Rorsharch tests and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Test stood out as both interesting and disconcerting because these totally unscientific tests are often used by the legal system to test fitness to be a parent. If you're interested in those chapters it's The Cult of Personality by Annie Murphy Paul.)
The End of Faith (subtitle: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason) more or less argues that religion, in the hands of terrorists and fundamentalists, has the potential to destroy modern society. The basic equation here is religiously-motivated terrorists + modern weapons = huge potential for destruction. Duh. The thing that's interesting is that Harris argues that religion is the inherently destructive force, and that being open-minded and tolerant about others' religious beliefs, or trying to reason with fundamentalists, is misleading and dangerous. Unfortunately, although Harris postulates that mysticism is a good alternative to book-based religions, he doesn't quite "get" the role that religion plays in tribalism and the creation of community. It doesn't seem particularly likely that we can eradicate religious belief anytime soon, or ever.
Meanwhile, Bee Season, although fictional, was on a similar theme. It detailed the disolution of a Jewish family as each member of that family pursued various mystical or religious paths.
Awakenings is well worth a read, although preferably not on a plane when you don't have a dictionary including medical terms available to you. It's an account of a group of patients awakened from sleeping sickness after up to 50 years by a "miracle drug", L-DOPA, which produced wonderful responses for few months, but then after that time triggered in each of the patients a totally unpredictable, idiosyncratic response.
The End of Faith (subtitle: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason) more or less argues that religion, in the hands of terrorists and fundamentalists, has the potential to destroy modern society. The basic equation here is religiously-motivated terrorists + modern weapons = huge potential for destruction. Duh. The thing that's interesting is that Harris argues that religion is the inherently destructive force, and that being open-minded and tolerant about others' religious beliefs, or trying to reason with fundamentalists, is misleading and dangerous. Unfortunately, although Harris postulates that mysticism is a good alternative to book-based religions, he doesn't quite "get" the role that religion plays in tribalism and the creation of community. It doesn't seem particularly likely that we can eradicate religious belief anytime soon, or ever.
Meanwhile, Bee Season, although fictional, was on a similar theme. It detailed the disolution of a Jewish family as each member of that family pursued various mystical or religious paths.
Awakenings is well worth a read, although preferably not on a plane when you don't have a dictionary including medical terms available to you. It's an account of a group of patients awakened from sleeping sickness after up to 50 years by a "miracle drug", L-DOPA, which produced wonderful responses for few months, but then after that time triggered in each of the patients a totally unpredictable, idiosyncratic response.
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Date: 2006-05-11 10:14 pm (UTC)It also occurs to me that religion is the guise that that hate gets manifested in, but getting rid of religion wouldn't do everything. Religion is tied up in societal structure (in some cases far more so than others). Just because people wouldn't have a view of to disagree over, they would still have other places where they can disagree about the way that things should properly be done.
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Date: 2006-05-12 05:01 pm (UTC)