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Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!
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Dexter

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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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Chris OConnor wrote:Please only make a few suggestions per person AND please take the time to leave feedback on the suggestions other people leave.
My bad, I figured the selections would get whittled down to a couple of choices if people expressed interest.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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You're right that we do whittle them down but too many suggestions becomes an overwhelming task to research and leave feedback on. It works better if each person suggests a few books and them comments on all suggestions made. If we have a total of 20 suggestions most people are going to get frustrated and not want to spend the time to read all about each and every one. It becomes too much work. I hope I explained that properly. It is better to focus on quality over quantity.
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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While I still favor Harris' new book, this one by Antonio Damasio also interests me. Damasio is best known for Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.


"The brain, mind, self and consciousness, on their own and in relationship to each other, are the focus of Antonio Damasio's lifelong research and his latest book Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain.

Damasio, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and director of the USC Brain and Creativity Institute housed in USC College, dedicated the book to addressing two questions: How does the brain construct a mind? And, how does the brain make that mind conscious?

Damasio believes there should be a reason to write a book. In addition to having enough new material on the neurology of consciousness, his reason for writing Self Comes to Mind was to start over.

A prolific writer of scientific articles and books, including his international best-seller Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (Penguin Books), as well as an oft-quoted distinguished neuroscientist, Damasio grew dissatisfied with his account of consciousness. In this book, he discusses new and relevant research findings as well as what “we still do not know but wish we did.”

Understanding rich and complex neurological systems requires deconstruction and that is what Damasio does as he studies the processes that lead to consciousness. He underscores the need for deconstruction to facilitate a better understanding of the systems by quoting American physicist Richard Feynman: “What I cannot build, I cannot understand.”

According to Damasio, the brain uses specific mechanisms to produce consciousness, which is made of mind and self. The mind is the basic component and self is derived from the mind where consciousness emerges.

“We take consciousness for granted because it is so available, so easy to use, so elegant in its daily disappearing and reappearing acts, and yet when we think of it, scientists and nonscientists alike, we do puzzle,” Damasio writes in the book’s first chapter."
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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Any more suggestions or feedback on the current suggestions?
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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How about Anton Lavey's "Satanic Bible?" To those of you reading this and freaking out...please relax. We could read and discuss it without becoming Satanist's or giving the world the impression we endorse Satanism. I've read The Satanic Bible years ago and still have a copy of the book. In think we would have some damn interesting discussions about Anton Lavey's life philosophy.

http://www.amazon.com/Satanic-Bible-Ant ... 0380015390

Called "The Black Pope" by many of his followers, Anton La Vey began the road to High Priesthood of the (lurch of Satan when he was only 16 years old and an organ player in a carnival:

"On Saturday night I would see men lusting after halfnaked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing the organ for tent-show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at The carnival or some other place of indulgence.

"I knew then that the Christian Church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out!"

From that time early in his life his path was clear. Finally, on the last night of April, 1966 -- Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival of the believers in witchcraft -- LaVey shaved his head in the tradition of Ancient executioners and announced the formation of The Church Of Satan. He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence . . ."
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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Last call on suggestions and feedback. Participation in this process has been lacking, but thank you to those of you that have been involved. :)
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Dexter

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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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Chris OConnor wrote:How about Anton Lavey's "Satanic Bible?" To those of you reading this and freaking out...please relax. We could read and discuss it without becoming Satanist's or giving the world the impression we endorse Satanism. I've read The Satanic Bible years ago and still have a copy of the book. In think we would have some damn interesting discussions about Anton Lavey's life philosophy.
I think his story/philosophy might make for a good magazine article, but it sounds a little gimmicky to me. "Satanic" sounds cooler than "hedonist" even though it's not really Satan worshiping. JMHO
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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One of these days (soon) I will start a monthly newsletter using ConstantContact.com. Members can opt in or opt out. But once this monthly newsletter has started we will no longer send mass emails through the actual website. I think full-color HTML newsletters will have a better chance of getting more people involved in the book selection process.

This thread has been a bit disappointing. We need dozens of people participating in this process.

Shall we just announce The Moral Landscape as our January and February book?
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Re: Non-fiction suggestions and feedback needed for our Jan. & Feb. 2011 selection

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I vote for:

Jesus Legend, The: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition.

Honestly, I have not read this book so I may regret suggesting it but I think it is in a different mode than other BT discussionss, and we could probably get the author to answer questions.
n=Infinity
Sum n = -1/12
n=1

where n are natural numbers.
Locked

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