AboutLife - Books

Does Religion Poison Everything?

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:11:15 -0700

“Religion poisons everything. As well as a menace to civilization, it has become a threat to human survival … As I write these words, and as you read them, people of faith are in their different ways planning your and my destruction, and the destruction of all the hard-won attainments [I am touching upon]. Religion poisons everything.”

Thus Christopher Hitchens, the British-born commentator and polemicist, in his immensely readable and provocative book published last year entitled God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. What are we to make of such a trenchant claim? Are we to put it down to the nature of the polemicist’s art, staking out the most extreme opposing ground possible and slug it out from there? Or should we take him at his word? Is he right? I want to start by suggesting that he is not right, obviously. Religion, like sex or food, can be used or abused. We don’t find anyone in Austria calling for the state to legislate its way into the bedroom because one of its deranged citizens sexually assaulted his own daughter. We don’t ban fish and chip shops just because some fanatics of the fat-fry choose to carry out suicide strikes on their own bodies.

Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 09:17:41 -0700

Adrian Plass has just published his latest book. Most of you will probably know.

The other day - I found a copy left at the bottom of my stairs for me.

As I delved....I thought...oh I think I love this man just a little bit more.....

I'll share a few extracts with you.... from the A-Z book on Christian Life.

Ashurbanipal: a name slipped into the fourth chapter of Ezra by God for the purpose of preserving humility in those who think they are such good sight readers that they don't need to prepare Sunday lesson.

Quit Complaining!

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:42:30 -0800

"you are not meant to fight in this war"

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:28:38 -0800

ARAGON: Stay with the hobbits. I'll send horses for you.
ARWEN: I'm the faster rider. I'll take him.
ARAGON: the road is too dangerous.
ARWEN: I do not fear them.
ARAGON: Arwen, ride hard. don't look back.

The Good Women of China - book review

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:09:27 -0700

Brought up by the red guards during the cultural revolution in China, Xinran was taught to disregard her parents as her 'true family' and pledge alligance first and foremost to the Chinese government. Years later, working as a journalist, she is given the opportunity to present a groundbreaking radio programme for women. For eight years she gave a voice to hundreds of women in China, for whom an outlet for their stories was previously unavailable.

Till We Have Faces

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:38:54 -0700

I read a lot but there isn't a lot I read more than once. "Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold" is one of a handful of books I've read more than once.

An Autobiography in 5 Short Paragraphs

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:09:02 -0700

1. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am hopeless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

2. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in. I can't believe I'm in the same place, but it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

3. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:09:29 -0700

I've just finished "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer, author of "Everything is Illuminated". I read all the time, (my mother is convinced my eyesight is so bad because I used to read in bed with the dim light from the swtich on my electric blanket - the dull orange glow provided enough light for two lines of text!), and the stack of books that is perpetually beside my bed grows with each passing day. But few have affected me so deeply as this beautifully crafted novel.

The Camel Knows the Way-An Unabashedly Glowing Review

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:12:18 -0700

I devoured a book this weekend called The Camel Knows the Way by Lorna Kelly. Lorna Kelly had a beautiful somewhat glamorous life in New York City in the 1970s; she was Sotheby’s first woman auctioneer. But circumstances in her life led her to respond to God’s call, and go wherever he asked her. And what he put on her heart was traveling to India to work with the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa. Now, she doesn’t leave her life for good and become a nun, I don’t think I would have loved the book as much if she had. (Nothing against nuns of course.) Instead someone gives her a book about Mother Teresa for Christmas one year and she becomes entranced with her and decides to go to Calcutta for three weeks to work alongside the Sisters. It’s an impulsive move but one that pays off in so many ways.

Kafka on the Shore

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:26:33 -0800

I'm currently addicted to Huraki Murakami's novel, Kafka on the Shore... If you've ever read anything by Murakami (Japanese author), you, like me, will have come to expect the unexpected. Fish fall from the sky, people talk to cats, ghosts and illusionary characters interact together, and you're never quite sure what's real and what is surreal. I think that's why I love Murakami, there's enough reality in the everyday to allow a little fantasy to creep in...

The Big Blog Book Club

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:31:10 -0700

[WARNING: A HIGHLY INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION IS ABOUT TO FOLLOW. FOR THE SLIGHTLY DIMMER READERS OF MY BLOG PLEASE REPEAT “THE BIG BLOG BOOK CLUB” TWENTY TIMES BEFORE EJECTING. THANK YOU]

Being an opinionated SOB and quite comfortable with shooting off my mouth about books I haven’t read, I thought I would review another two books I haven’t read being Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” and its lesser known counterpart, Alister McGrath’s “The Dawkins Delusion?”

Eat, Pray, Love

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:23:12 -0700

The other night I was watching the Oprah Winfrey show, which featured the writer Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the much-acclaimed book “Eat, Pray, Love.” If, like me, you've been living with your head in a bucket, you'll want to know that her book has taken the world by storm and is set to become a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts.

As far as I can tell, Elizabeth Gilbert hoofed her husband and went on a trip to Europe and Asia where she experienced some sort of spiritual awakening after which she wrote a book and made a fortune. Generally, after reading a book I like to make a cup of tea so I was quite surprised to see members of the audience standing up one by one and paying homage to Ms. Gilbert and describing how, after reading her book, their lives were turned around in all kinds of ways.

Homosuburbiensis

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:20:31 -0700

I was reminded today of how much I enjoyed studying Bruce Dawe's poetry during high school... there's one line in the below poem that I just love, and particularly love to use to describe my relation ship with God. "one constant in a world of variables"...
Something about this poem just makes me pine for the 'ordinary' life... or at least be fascinated by its observation.

One constant in a world of variables

Nuala O'Faolain : singleness in middle-age

Fri, 16 May 2008 09:06:13 -0700

So I was listening to NPR and an interview came online with Nuala O'Faolain - an Irish writer who died recently at 68, she was single

In this interview she talks in depth about her feelings about being single and middle aged - I found that perhaps it offered some good contrasts and insights for the growing population of single women who are headed towards middle-age in the next decade. Logistically, you just have to face the fact that you probably will never get married, bec. there just enough males in the church ... so, I found Nuala's thoughts very interesting to mull over when being reminded again of this very real challenge that faces the Church in the ensuing years

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyId=90371362

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 12, 2008 · Irish journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain died May 9 in Dublin of lung cancer at the age of 68.

social shifts : from Taboo to "Normal"

Fri, 09 May 2008 14:53:21 -0700

the current Austrian incest imprisonment story is so icky and gross ... after noting that this is not the first occurence in Austria, I started Googling to see if there was a pattern and while reading up on the research, I stumbled onto a couple of rather curious articles ... well they certainly made me reach for the barf bag ... but what it does seem to reveal is that ... for all the dark secret taboos out there, there are always others across the world practising the same things - and with the internet, these ppl are contacting each other and hence feeling validated or "normalised" in this process ... hmm from a Social intellectual perspective - I thought hmm this seems to be an interesting new shift .. an accellerated shift in the taboo norrmalisation process

having travelled in Egypt, Rome and Greece and being rather surprised by the ancient practices - I also started to think about cultural practices, taboos and what we view as normal in our 21st century Christian Protestant world view

the thought of Incest for eg. makes us very nauseous ... but was common in Egypt and in fact mentioned rather nonchalantly in the Old testament. As was Paedo/gay polygamy in Ancient Greece ... all this seemed to go away for about 2000 years ... but I wonder whether with the speed of Internet communication, if these rather "out-dated and recently outlawed" practices will make a come back, a gradual return to "normal cultural practice" ... currently we've already seen a return of Porn as mainstream, after nude portrayal disappeared post-Victorian age ... hmmm

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here are the articles that raised my eyebrows

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/ Article/0,4273,4331603,00.html

Forbidden love
Can sex between close relatives ever be acceptable? Johann Hari on the queasy issue of 'consensual' incest
Johann Hari
Guardian - Wednesday January 9, 2002

It was a Friday night a few months ago. Rob was standing on my doorstep, ashen and trembling. He still couldn't speak even as he sipped at a mug of tea after my flatmate and I had ushered him into our front room. We could not guess what had happened, but a feeling of dread was fast forming in our minds; we could only assume that something terrible must have happened to Rob's fiancee, Karen. Gradually, his powers of speech returned and the story emerged. Something had happened, but that something was terrible to Rob himself, not Karen.

Now, you have to understand that Rob and Karen were the most balanced, wholesome couple I knew. They had recently moved out of their flat while it was being redecorated, each returning to their respective family homes for a couple of weeks. That Friday, she had left her keys at his place by accident. He was passing by her parents' place later that night, so he stopped off and rang the doorbell.

No answer. So he let himself in to leave the keys, with a note, on the kitchen table for her mum and dad to return to her. Only, the house wasn't empty - he heard some movement in the front room. In an instant, he blundered in on Karen - the woman he was due to marry - having sex. With her dad.

Not her stepfather. Not her adopted father. Her actual, biological dad. She was 22 years old. There was clearly no coercion taking place.

Three weeks passed. Rob had called off the wedding - obviously - and was trying to put his life back together. One morning, he got a call from Karen, asking if they could meet up to divide their mutual belongings, the accumulation of over three years' cohabitation. He agreed.

Predictably, when they met, an argument began. "I don't know why you think it's so odd!" she screamed. "I know lots of people who do this." That stopped Rob in his tracks. "Who?"

(click link to read the full article)

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http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/30/ reviews/970330.cheever.html

Innocence Betrayed By SUSAN CHEEVER