The Darling by Russell Banks The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins Collected Poems by Philip Larkin God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
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Anonymous
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Hi, Elodie. Did you finish the Dawkins? I haven't read it, but I read his earlier *Unweaving the Rainbow,* which I found brilliant.
I excerpted something from the *God is Not So Great* (which is a hilarious title, IMO) at my blog and got a lot of flack. Most folk really don't like what he's got to say, I'm afraid, and he's even less diplomatic about it than Dawkins, if that's possible.
Not yet, Wendy, but I did read God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I intend to get back to the Dawkins book, when life settles down a bit.
When I flew to New Orleans last week, I happened to find another really great book in the airport bookstore by Carl Sagan called The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God.
Sagan shows how life could've (and probably did) emerged from stardust and meteorites, etc., which contain the same organic elements that make up the life forms on our planet. Then he goes on to talk about the religions of the world, man's insatiable need for miracles, and his gullibility at the hands of religious charlatans throughout the ages. It's written in simple, layman's terms that anyone could understand, and just blew me away at the depth of his intelligence and perception. I highly recommend it.
Carl Sagan is one of our household heroes. We like the way he lived his whole life quite respectably, but made sure after his death his wife (a woman I greatly admire, Ann Druyan) let everyone know he smoked marijuana every day.
I've used that bit about our being animated stardust in poetry. It really is miracle enough, I think.
Writer, bookseller, and amateur photographer in the deep South. Elodie's poetry has appeared on Web del Sol's IBPC website and in the Hiss Quarterly. She won honorable mention in the Internet Board Poetry Competition at Web del Sol for her poem, "Cherry Grove" in July, 2007; and first place in November, 2007 for her poem, "Afterglow."
Her articles have appeared in the Magazine of Santa Clarita and Country Roads Magazine.
4 comments:
Hi, Elodie. Did you finish the Dawkins? I haven't read it, but I read his earlier *Unweaving the Rainbow,* which I found brilliant.
I excerpted something from the *God is Not So Great* (which is a hilarious title, IMO) at my blog and got a lot of flack. Most folk really don't like what he's got to say, I'm afraid, and he's even less diplomatic about it than Dawkins, if that's possible.
Not yet, Wendy, but I did read God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I intend to get back to the Dawkins book, when life settles down a bit.
When I flew to New Orleans last week, I happened to find another really great book in the airport bookstore by Carl Sagan called The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God.
Sagan shows how life could've (and probably did) emerged from stardust and meteorites, etc., which contain the same organic elements that make up the life forms on our planet. Then he goes on to talk about the religions of the world, man's insatiable need for miracles, and his gullibility at the hands of religious charlatans throughout the ages. It's written in simple, layman's terms that anyone could understand, and just blew me away at the depth of his intelligence and perception. I highly recommend it.
I will seek that out.
Carl Sagan is one of our household heroes. We like the way he lived his whole life quite respectably, but made sure after his death his wife (a woman I greatly admire, Ann Druyan) let everyone know he smoked marijuana every day.
I've used that bit about our being animated stardust in poetry. It really is miracle enough, I think.
Now I know why I always wanted to be Tinkerbell. I'm a dancing mote of stardust!
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