BookTalk.org - View topic - Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science


	HOME	FORUMS	BOOKS	LINKS	DONATE	ADVERTISE	CONTACT

View unanswered posts | View active topics

It is currently Wed May 22, 2013 10:12 pm

Forum rules

Please click here to view the forum rules

Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science Tweet This Topic

Page 1 of 1

[ 7 posts ]

Print view

Previous topic | Next topic

Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science

Author	Message
Chris OConnor BookTalk.org Hall of Fame Joined: May 2002 Posts: 13050 Location: Florida Thanks: 1284 Thanked: 545 times in 429 posts Gender: Country:	Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science Talk about Chapter 2 here or create your own threads.
Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:55 am

Loricat

Laughs at Einstein

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 433
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Gender: None specified

Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science

So in Chapter 1, Dennett proposes his virus metaphor, in Chapter 2 he uses analogies of the studies of music and sex (and Santa Claus!) to sway fundamentalists opinions towards the scientific study of religion.

I found these to be quite compelling arguments. What about the rest of you?

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd

Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:01 pm


MadArchitect The Pope of Literature Joined: Nov 2004 Posts: 2557 Location: decentralized Thanks: 0 Thanked: 0 time in 0 post Gender:	Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science My only problem with this chapter is that, from the viewpoint of someone who has already accepted the thesis that there's no reason not to examine religion through the lens of science, it's pretty tedious. In fact, I rather wish that Dennett has compacted most of this first section into a single, far more brief chapter. Fewer analogies, fewer anecdotes, more to the point. The first section is all basically the same argument towards getting religionists to continue with the larger project, and if they're not convinced by the first chapter, I seriously doubt they're going to bother with chapters two and three.
Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:29 pm


Loricat Laughs at Einstein Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 433 Thanks: 0 Thanked: 0 time in 0 post Gender:	Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science I agree, he is 'preaching to the choir' a bit in this -- I wonder how many people in this audience have actually read the book? "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book Nook Celebrating the Absurd
Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:49 pm


JulianTheApostate Masters Joined: Jul 2005 Posts: 450 Location: Sunnyvale, CA Thanks: 5 Thanked: 43 times in 34 posts Gender:	Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science I occasionally read the views of people I disagree with. Though I'm a liberal atheist, there's value in hearing the perspective of theists or conservatives. However, I'd rather someone I disagree with honestly state their views and reasoning. A conservative analysis of liberalism, for example, would probably piss me off without providing much enlightenment. A religious person would probably have a similar reaction to Breaking the Spell.
Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:35 am


Mr. Pessimistic Tenured Professor Joined: Jun 2004 Posts: 3555 Location: NJ Thanks: 1 Thanked: 5 times in 5 posts Gender: Country:	Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science I agree that the first three chapters are repetetive and could have been condensed into one. I can see how it can start to seem patronizing, to his stated target audience, after a while. Even I was like "ALRIGHT ALREADY!" But I agree with just about everything he speaks about so far...at least I do not have any strong objections to it. Mr. P. Mr. P's place. I warned you!!! The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P. The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets" I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper
Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:08 pm


ginof Freshman Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 220 Location: San Francisco, CA Thanks: 1 Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts Gender:	Re: Ch. 2 - Some Questions About Science It seems to me that the author has done as disservice to his cause here: One the one hand, he streches out this material in an attempt to get people with the opposite philosophical bent engaged in the discussion. On the other hand, he tells them to go away if they disagree with him?! It seems like there is a paradox here. If he really did get someone with a different viewpoint to read the book (despite the title) then they should not be treated so poorly for doing what the author asks. As a standing member of the choir, I do feel like I'm being preached to a little. Praise!
Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:25 pm

Page 1 of 1

[ 7 posts ]

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

BookTalk.org Links

• Forum Rules & Tips
• Frequently Asked Questions
• BBCode Explained
• Info for Authors & Publishers
• Featured Book Suggestions
• Author Interview Transcripts
• Be a Book Discussion Leader!

Love to talk about books but don't have time for our book discussion forums? For casual book talk join us on Facebook.

Advertise Here

Random Pages

Amazon.com Widgets

BookTalk.org is a free book discussion group or online reading group or book club. We read and talk about both fiction and non-fiction books as a group. We host live author chats where booktalk members can interact with and interview authors. We give away free books to our members in book giveaway contests. Our booktalks are open to everybody who enjoys talking about books. Our book forums include book reviews, author interviews and book resources for readers and book lovers. Discussing books is our passion. We're a literature forum, or reading forum. Register a free book club account today! Suggest nonfiction and fiction books. Authors and publishers are welcome to advertise their books or ask for an author chat or author interview.

Navigation

MAIN NAVIGATION

HOME • FORUMS • BOOKS • TRANSCRIPTS • OLD FORUMS • ADVERTISE • LINKS • FAQ • DONATE • TERMS OF USE • PRIVACY POLICY

BOOK FORUMS FOR ALL BOOKS WE HAVE DISCUSSED

• The Magic of Reality - by Richard Dawkins • Dubliners - by James Joyce • My Name Is Red - by Orhan Pamuk • The World Until Yesterday - by Jared Diamond • The Man Who Was Thursday - by by G. K. Chesterton • The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker • Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad • The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams • Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand • Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman • The Righteous Mind - by Jonathan Haidt • World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks • Moby Dick: or, the Whale by Herman Melville • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan • Lost Memory of Skin: A Novel by Russell Banks • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn • Hobbes: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes • The House of the Spirits - by Isabel Allende • Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens • The Falls: A Novel (P.S.) by Joyce Carol Oates • Christ in Egypt by D.M. Murdock • The Glass Bead Game: A Novel by Hermann Hesse • A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins • The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell • The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain • The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris • The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio • The Road by Cormac McCarthy • The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking • The Evolution of God by Robert Wright • The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman • Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami • ALONE: Orphaned on the Ocean by Richard Logan & Tere Duperrault Fassbender • Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes • Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks • Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol • The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin • The Genius of the Beast by Howard Bloom • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll • Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges • The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner • The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins • Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins • When Good Thinking Goes Bad by Todd C. Riniolo • House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski • American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman • Primates and Philosophers by Frans de Waal • The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde • God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens • The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco • Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama • Paradise Lost by John Milton • Bad Money by Kevin Phillips • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett • Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists by Dan Barker • The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien • The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich • Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov • Orlando by Virginia Woolf • On Being Certain by Robert A. Burton • 50 reasons people give for believing in a god by Guy P. Harrison • Walden: Or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau • Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus • Our Inner Ape by Frans de Waal • Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin • No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy • The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby • Ten Theories of Human Nature by Leslie Stevenson & David Haberman • Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad • The Stuff of Thought by Stephen Pinker • A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini • The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo • Responsibility and Judgment by Hannah Arendt • Interventions by Noam Chomsky • Godless in America by George A. Ricker • Religious Expression and the American Constitution by Franklyn S. Haiman • Deep Economy by Phil McKibben • The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins • The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond • The Woman in the Dunes by Abe Kobo • Evolution vs. Creationism by Eugenie C. Scott • The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan • I, Claudius by Robert Graves • Breaking The Spell by Daniel C. Dennett • A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin • The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger • The End of Faith by Sam Harris • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon • Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe by Erik J. Wielenberg • The March by E. L Doctorow • The Ethical Brain by Michael Gazzaniga • Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby • Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond • The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong • The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson • What is Good? by A. C. Grayling • Civilization and Its Enemies by Lee Harris • Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan • How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God by Michael Shermer • Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio • Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken • The Red Queen by Matt Ridley • The Blank Slate by Stephen Pinker • Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins • Atheism: A Reader edited by S.T. Joshi • Global Brain by Howard Bloom • The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom • Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond • The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown • Future Shock by Alvin Toffler

OTHER PAGES WORTH EXPLORING Banned Book List • Our Amazon.com Sales • Massimo Pigliucci Rationally Speaking • Online Reading Group • Top 10 Atheism Books • FACTS Book Selections