Perhaps the most comprehensive layman’s book on the science of Evolution, The Greatest Show on Earth inspires a deeper understanding of life on planet Earth.
Richard Dawkins is well known for his best selling book The God Delusion where he makes a compelling case against superstitions and religion. However, in his latest book, Dawkins makes a point to set aside supernatural disagreements and focus on the point of evolution. He does so in ernest because of the outspoken creationists who mislead young minds into believing the earth is only 10,000 years old and that people rode Dinosaurs.
The Greatest Show on Earth is written in a way that chronologically flows well and makes a point to explain the various ways in which evidence is verified. Dawkins goes into great length to explain to the average person how carbon dating and zirconium dating function and the strengths and weaknesses of each dating method. He covers the many experiments and observations being done today to watch evolution take place in bacteria, dog breeds, fish and much more. Dawkins includes detailed information on fossils and lineage that connect all living things together on the tree of life.
This book is also available on iTunes in audio formate from Audible.com. Dawkins himself narrates the book, which is a great way to glean the most accurate inflection from the author himself.
Jeff Sharlet has the balls to unearth the dirty secrets of a Christian Mafia in his book“The FamilyThe Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.” This wealthy group was established during the great depression with the ideology that power and wealth were bestowed by the christian god and should be things to be sought after. The Family openly admires Hitler, Stalin and Mau as men who understood how to attain and wield the type of power they seek to attain. The Family acts as a lobby group (unregistered) and claims non profit status as a religious organization. They also house prominent members of government in a sort of exclusive resort house call the “C Street House” where the officials are waited on hand and foot and served meals by college girls of the local Catholic College. Some of these men who are part of The Family who have recently been in the news for extramarital affairs have been Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford,
The Family regularly pays for a select group of statesmen and government officials to travel overseas to befriend third-world dictators and oppressive regimes. It is the philosophy of The Family that these dictators have god given power and deserve to be included in the christian mafia in an attempt to unite powerful, rich men all over the world with the goal of influencing public policy on a global scale.
Sharlet’s book exposes this wicked group in an in-depth manner that draws ties to a large number of elected government officials including President Ford, George W. Bush and Ronald Regan.
Sharlet recently interviewed on Jon Stewart’s Daily show (clip below). Even better is his interview on NPR.
My most recent leisure read was Walking the Big Wild by Karsten Heuer. The book was a reflection of the trip Heuer took in an effort to better understand the Y2Y corridor. This was a hot topic 10-15 years back when conservationists like Heuer were trying to work with land owners, loggers, miners and ranchers to portion off a corridor that connects Yellowstone to the Yukon. Heuer walked this trail in the span of about a year with Webster, his loyal Border Collie.
Bear encounters, hardships, and breathtaking views keep the pages turning. As you journey with Heuer through the wilderness, you get a taste of the respect he felt by the end of the trip for the big wild.
Quantum, A guide for the Perplexed by Jim Al-Khalili caught my eye at the bookstore because of the glossy pictures and example diagrams. Being a visual learner, I suspected that the best way to introduce myself to the weird world of quantum mechanics was through visual aid. This really did prove to be a great choice for my visual learning needs.
The author assumes of his reader a certain level of mathematical background and heightened interest in quantum mechanics. Each chapter requires your full attention and often some rereading to grasp difficult concepts. However, given the task of explaining quantum mechanics to the average person, Jim does a fantastic job explaining complex mathematical and conceptual oddities. I also enjoyed how he detailed some history of quantum mechanics and the ‘who’s who’ of the quantum theories. Jim Al-Khalili is the chair of the University of Surrey’s Nuclear and Particle Physics Division located in the UK.
This is a book that will remain on my bookshelf as reference and to reread again in the future. You can purchase it on Amazon for about $12 as of the date of this post.
Hitchen’s book “God is Not Great” presents a detailed look at why religion spoils everything. The extent of logic and examples he presents concerning many different religious cultures and how they commit atrocities will shock even a moderate atheist. His chapter on child abuse and religion was particularly revealing. He describes in depth the torture inflicted on young children through female circumcision in many religions (including Islam) and male circumcision in the judeo-christian religion (among others).
I highly recommend this especially to those who wish to know more when demonstrating to the religious how religion does more harm than good. The minimal “good” that religion produces by no means justifies the increasing number of large scale demonstrations of greed, manipulation and bloodshed incurred by religion. I’ll let Hitchens take it from here and plug his own book:
As an ex-catholic and professionally trained musician, I substitute as organist for local catholic churches in my area. I find ample opportunity to have a good internal laugh listening to the deception and misinformation that flows from pulpits. Let me explain:
In The God Delusion, Dawkins discusses evolutionary by-products. The example he chooses to use is a moth flying into a flame as a demonstration of what we see as abject stupidity. Why would a moth deliberately fly into a flame?
This is not an example of natural selection….it is an example of natural selection gone wrong. Moths evolved to fly at night by using celestial objects as guides: Keep the light source in a certain position and you can navigate, much as we do with a compass which points north. Dawkins notes that it was not until comparatively late in evolutionary history that there was anything like artificial lights to throw off the moths. We see only the moths who get distracted by the flames. We do not see millions of moths who merrily go on their way without self-immolating themselves.
So, what is the Darwinian answer to religion? Dawkins sees it this way.
My specific hypothesis is about children. More than any other species we survive by the accumulated experience of previous generations and that experience needs to be passed on to children for their protection and well-being. Theoretically, children might learn from personal experience not to go too near a cliff-edge, not to eat untried red berries, not to swim in crocodile-infested waters. But, to say the least, there will be a selective advantage to child brains that possess the rule of thumb: believe, without question, whatever your grown-ups tell you. Obey your parents; obey the tribal elders, especially when they adopt a solemn, minatory tone. Trust your elders without question. This is a generally valuable rule for a child. But, as with the moths, it can go wrong.
Dawkins then continues:
Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-produce is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses. For excellent reasons related to Darwinian survival, child brains need to trust parents and elders whom parents tell them to trust. An automatic consequence is that the truster has no way of distinguishing good advice from bad. The child cannot know that “Don’t paddle in the crocodile-infested Limpopo” is good advice but “You must sacrifice a goat at the time of the full moon, otherwise the rains will fail” is at best a waste of time and goats. Both admonitions sound equally trustworthy. Both come from a respected source and are delivered with a solemn earnestness that commands respect and demands obedience.
Recently I played an Easter Vigil service at a mega catholic church. They did the whole candle lighting bit where the entire place was dark and the only light emitted was from each person’s candle and one giant 4 foot tall candle on the altar. At this point in the service, I had started zoning out until a large moth flying about caught my attention. I watched it with intrigue having just read the part inDawkin’s book about moths and religion. It flew in and out of a beam of artificial light that shone on the priest reading something from the altar. Then it got distracted by the giant man-sized candle on the altar. It promptly flew over to the candle and immolated itself right there in the flame. It was a very fitting display to myself and anyone else who might have known the resemblance to the moth’s suicide and the horrible side effects of religion on humanity.
The Jesuit maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” clearly understand the net result of this principle. Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is the hallmark face of today’s front running scientists. Having the brains to converse with Einstein and the social charm to convey complex science concepts to the common person, Tyson is the perfect author for a book such as this. The Pluto files delves into the history of the now demoted orbe “Pluto” so affectionately known prior as the smallest planet, but now understood to be the largest orbe in the Kuiper belt. It is an anecdotal book, amusing at best that depicts Tyson’s headache of having to deal with the hate mail after the process of defining a planet shoved Pluto out of the Planet club. It was a fun little read that offered insight into the scientific process and how most scientists are not as concerned with what category something is in, but rather its properties and how it interacts with its surroundings.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is now at the top of my highly recommended books. Packed with witty commentary of the history of just about everything scientific,Bryson’s book appeals to the lay reader who’s curiosity streached beyond the here and now. I enjoyed how Bryson included all the science necessary to explain and orient a subject, but did so in very human terms, often inserting humor to lighten the mood.
I choose to listen to the audio recording instead of reading the book. I’m glad I took that route because it is a long read, but the audio version was excellent and a pleasure to listen to. It was a wonderful accompaniment to morning walks or long scenic drives.
My favorite quote from the book (which also summarizes the underlying premise of the book):
“…humans are the universes most supreme achievement and it’s worst nightmare at the same time”
The Greatest Show on Earth inspires a deeper understanding of life on planet Earth.
manner that draws ties to a large number of elected government officials including President Ford, George W. Bush and Ronald Regan.
This was a hot topic 10-15 years back when conservationists like Heuer were trying to work with land owners, loggers, miners and ranchers to portion off a corridor that connects Yellowstone to the Yukon. Heuer walked this trail in the span of about a year with Webster, his loyal Border Collie.
discusses evolutionary by-products. The example he chooses to use is a moth flying into a flame as a demonstration of what we see as abject stupidity. Why would a moth deliberately fly into a flame?
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