I finally got a hold of a book I've wanted to read for years - Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. It's been an eyeopener and a pleasure to read. I'm on Chapter 4...which is sort of a lot like Chapter 3 (they both deal with early American Indian relations) and I'm loving it. Why? Well, there's lots of very interesting facts like how "Wall Street" in NYC really got its name. (The Dutch paid the wrong tribe of Indians for Manhattan. So, the tribe that really owned Manhattan started fighting the Dutch. The Dutch built a wall to defend themselves against that tribe.) And Columbus...what a jerk!
I find it interesting, too, how American History textbooks try to make the youth of America more patriotic by downplaying or downright omitting the dark truth about our nation's past. We want to pretend like people didn't live here, that America was virgin territory, but that's not how it was. And we don't want to think about how Europeans enslaved Indians, spread diseases that wiped out a majority of Indians, and played Indians against other tribes! Let's face it---Europeans during 1500-1800....not so nice. I think it is very important for Americans to know the truth about their country's history so they don't wonder why most of the world envies yet despises America. And why some areas of the world are in such turmoil (OMG, can you believe it's because America intervened in their politics?).
This is such a good book that I might buy it, just to have it in my future classroom! Can you imagine a kid picking up a REAL non-fiction book?!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The God Delusion - Reviewed
My rating for this book - 7/10.
So, I finally finished Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Yes, yes, I know - it took me 2 months to read, but to be fair, June was not a reading kind of month for me with the new house and all. Anyway, I finished it. I figured out very quickly that the book wasn't what I expected. All the hype about it when it first came out, all the talks I've heard Richard Dawkins' do - I was expecting some sort of blasphemous book that blows religion out of the water with scientific rationalism. I mean, this book is supposed to be about how ridiculous religion is, right?
Well, it is and it isn't. Out of the 370+ pages, I'd say about 100 are devoted to religion and the other 270 are devoted to Dawkins' love affair with Darwin, the majesty of science, and nods to every good book or good friend he's ever read or known. For the most part, you'll read 25 pages of PURE SCIENCE and 2-3 pages explaining how that PURE SCIENCE is relevant to different facets of religion. The problem is that you have to keep reading and reading until Dawkins finally gets the point. There's definitely some excellent parts, but you have to FIND them. I enjoyed a piece about how people think praying for an ill family member or friend will help them get better. But as it turns out, prayer does nothing and some sick people who KNOW they are being prayed for get sicker due to "performance anxiety."
In some ways, I think Bill Maher did a better of pointing out the ill ways of religion in the movie Religulous than Dawkins. Both men focus on organized religion and I hope that in the future, someone will come out and address individual "belief in the supernatural" and how that harms society.
When I got to the end of The God Delusion, I was expecting a lot more from the final chapter, "The Mother of All Burkas." But let me tell you, it didn't wrap the book up, but rather explain how humanity only experiences a very small piece of the world, just like someone wearing a huuuuge burka (representing all that is and can ever be and ever was), peering out through a 1 inch slit. Great, what does this have to do with religion other than mentioning a burka metaphor? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Except, of course, Dawkins is once again praising how amazing the world is, how fulfilling science is, blah blah blah.
This book gets a 7/10. And that's being generous. It's a good topic, the book gives some very good substantial scientific arguments against God and organized religion, but if you're looking for a religious witch-hunt, you won't find it here. The book does not live up to the man who wrote it.
So, I finally finished Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Yes, yes, I know - it took me 2 months to read, but to be fair, June was not a reading kind of month for me with the new house and all. Anyway, I finished it. I figured out very quickly that the book wasn't what I expected. All the hype about it when it first came out, all the talks I've heard Richard Dawkins' do - I was expecting some sort of blasphemous book that blows religion out of the water with scientific rationalism. I mean, this book is supposed to be about how ridiculous religion is, right?
Well, it is and it isn't. Out of the 370+ pages, I'd say about 100 are devoted to religion and the other 270 are devoted to Dawkins' love affair with Darwin, the majesty of science, and nods to every good book or good friend he's ever read or known. For the most part, you'll read 25 pages of PURE SCIENCE and 2-3 pages explaining how that PURE SCIENCE is relevant to different facets of religion. The problem is that you have to keep reading and reading until Dawkins finally gets the point. There's definitely some excellent parts, but you have to FIND them. I enjoyed a piece about how people think praying for an ill family member or friend will help them get better. But as it turns out, prayer does nothing and some sick people who KNOW they are being prayed for get sicker due to "performance anxiety."
In some ways, I think Bill Maher did a better of pointing out the ill ways of religion in the movie Religulous than Dawkins. Both men focus on organized religion and I hope that in the future, someone will come out and address individual "belief in the supernatural" and how that harms society.
When I got to the end of The God Delusion, I was expecting a lot more from the final chapter, "The Mother of All Burkas." But let me tell you, it didn't wrap the book up, but rather explain how humanity only experiences a very small piece of the world, just like someone wearing a huuuuge burka (representing all that is and can ever be and ever was), peering out through a 1 inch slit. Great, what does this have to do with religion other than mentioning a burka metaphor? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Except, of course, Dawkins is once again praising how amazing the world is, how fulfilling science is, blah blah blah.
This book gets a 7/10. And that's being generous. It's a good topic, the book gives some very good substantial scientific arguments against God and organized religion, but if you're looking for a religious witch-hunt, you won't find it here. The book does not live up to the man who wrote it.
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