Book reviews

I recently read "A World of Difference" by Ken Samples. This is a "world view" book that sought to demonstrate that the Orthodox (Standard) Christian world view is superior to all others. While I agreed with his conclusion that it is superior, of course, I found his actual arguments less than compelling. I had difficulty with his choice of criteria for the "tests" he gave the several world views he looked at. For example test number 7 was what he called the "Existential Test: Does the world view address the internal needs of humanity?" In spite of his efforts to make that seem other than subjective and somewhat arbitrary it seems to me that particular test was a ringer put in to make sure his side won. He used it to discredit Pantheistic Monism in what I felt was an unfair manner. He pretty much just declared that believing you are one with the cosmos and that all is God is "unsatisfying." I never found that to be the case in the years when I embraced that philosophy. I eventually found that it was simply not true, but it was always a pretty satisfying way of looking at the world. The first 3/4 of the book laid out the Christian world view, as he sees it. Here too I found places where I strongly disagreed with him. He comes at things from a Calvinist or Reformed place while I am, of course, Lutheran, and that is not at all the same thing. Lutherans embrace paradox and accept the scripture at face value, while as far as I can discern, Calvinists and Reformed (is that the same thing?) insist on making all of scripture fit into logical arguments. All in all the book was an enjoyable read, but I would not use it to try and convince a non-believer, it might help strengthen a Christian who is afraid that his faith makes no sense in the modern world.


The book I read immediately after "A World of Difference" was "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. This is a fascinating book about neural plasticity, the ability of the brain to physically change in response to environmental changes. It can rewire itself in effect. Like a muscle it is strengthened by exercise and learning keeps us young. All pretty common sense stuff but counter to long held science up until quite recently. This one I can recommend completely. There is a web site by one of the scientists featured in the book called "Posit Science" that I'm planning on checking out in some detail some time soon. If I can remember to do it ;-)


And finally the book I've just started tonight is "The Language of God" by Francis Collins. It's about how science and evolution and Christianity are not in conflict, theistic evolution is where I think he's going actually. I'll let you know what I think of the book. I've just started this book but I wanted to mention that on page 13 he states "Like my brothers I was homeschooled by my mother..." :-) Just thought that was so cool! The leader of the human genome project and a famous scientist, was homeschooled... take that judge Croskey, you senile old git!