Off topic - great book:The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

A friend of mine and fellow computer scientist has written one of the great American novels of 2008! It is an incredible book and one well worth checking out. Look at this quote from Stephen Kind on the book (you can find this on amazon):

Praise from Stephen King

"I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and spent twelve happy evenings immersed in the world David Wroblewski has created. As I neared the end, I kept finding excuses to put the book aside for a little, not because I didn't like it, but because I liked it too much; I didn't want it to end. Dog-lovers in particular will find themselves riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such imagination and emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn't a novel about dogs or heartland America--although it is a deeply American work of literature. It's a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate. Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It's over, you think, and I won't read another one this good for a long, long time.

In truth, there's never been a book quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it, and Watership Down, and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi--but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it just be itself.

I'm pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be. It's also going to be the subject of a great many reading groups, and when the members take up Edgar, I think they will be apt to stick to the book and forget the neighborhood gossip.

Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer world. I envy them the trip. I don't re-read many books, because life is too short. I will be re-reading this one."

The Humanist Reviews: Humanism for Parents

The Humanist magazine (see May/June 08) has a review this month of my book Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion by Jennifer Hancock (see Sumo Girl).

It is a good review and very thorough.

if you don't get The Humanist, you should and if you do, then check out the review.

A Humanist-Life-Stories Publication?

The Humanists of Silicon Valley are sponsoring the development of a "Humanist Life Stories" book. This is akin to the Humanist Heritage effort the Humanist Society did a while back. I consider it a great idea and I hope they can pull it off. For my part, I'll be sure to submit one or two stories. If any of you are interested, let me know and I'll get you in touch with them.

We, Arthur Jackson (president) and Armineh Noravian (vice president) of the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, California, wish to share an exciting idea with you. Our constant search for ideas to promote Humanism has led us to the realization that one important area is the manner in which Humanists deal with difficult or unusual life circumstances. We believe that sharing such experiences will provide important models of how Humanists live with life’s challenges without divine guidance.

This idea has defined one of our projects, which is to compile a series of life stories by Humanists all across the world. With this goal in mind, we would like to request your help by asking that you send us a life story that might ultimately be printed in a book, which we would like to title “Humanist Life Stories- Sharing our experiences with difficult problems”. We know that projects like this have been discussed before, but are not aware of any collections that are currently available. If you know of any, please tell us.

We believe that the outcome of such an exciting project will have a number of positive consequences, both for Humanism and all those participating in the project.

Wannabe Scholars -or- What counts as evidence?

This last week I received a book
Evidence and Paul's Journeys by Jefferson White.

Jefferson is claiming to be a scholar who has spent many years investigating how "evidence" is used by scholars, especially as it relates to Paul's Journeys. He goes through a long diatribe as an introduction extolling the failures of scholars to look at real evidence and says that instead they look at theory and ideas and then try to present it as evidence.

He goes on to give a definition of evidence that he will use for the book he has written about Paul's travels. Listen to this definition of evidence:

1. The biblical record is assumed to be true unless it can be shown to be false.

2. if a contradiction is alleged to exist between the bible record and other historical evidence, and there is a reasonable explanation to account for it, the contradiction is not proved.

in other words, the bible is assumed to be true, period. Have you ever heard such utter crap? If I were to present you (him?) with the FSM Bible and said that my evidence for it being real is its claim that it is correct and that constitutes evidence unless you can prove it false, you would call me (rightly) nuts. I've done a fair bit of research into this myself (though I wouldn't claim to be a scholar) and I know very well how much the Bible was rewritten as needed over the first three centuries and how little of it is truly original writings of the claimed author (though some of Paul's letters were). Still, to say you know about "real" evidence and then to present such a ridiculous definition is pathetic at best.

How can people be so stupid/ignorant as that? And, I'm ashamed to say, he claims to be in Computer Science; if someone in computers can't get basic logic right and thinks evidence is a completely invalid assumption, how will we ever get the general population to understand?

Sigh of relief re: Left Behind series

Previously I posted an article about the Left Behind book series. The first few books actually frightened me.

Well, I'm now almost done with the sixth book and am much less scared. The series has turned more and more fictional, complete with monsters and magic and so has become much more just fun reading and less serious material with vast conversion potential.

What a sign of relief.

Hitchen's anti-religion statement getting attention

The Washington Post published an article in the On Faith section asking for comments on Hitchen's anti-religion statement:

"Religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." Why is he right or wrong?

Go to On Faith and chime in...

Left Behind [Series]

Sorry I have been lax on posting, I'll try to make up for it...

I've been reading the Left Behind series, and I have to tell you it disturbs me - on multiple levels.

The first is that I can imagine these books having significant conversion capability for those with any religious inclination. The books do an incredible job of making it sound and feel like there is a personal God out there who has tangible, physical impacts on our planet and our lives. Of course there has never been any real, scientific evidence to back this up, but many people want to believe in a God and in something more meaningful than the lives they are living. Having the hope in a God and reading these books and feeling that connection could easily aide in the conversion of many otherwise skeptical people. Frightening stuff...

Now, I am very skeptical and rational and have a lot of confidence in my Humanistic stance - but these books were able to kindle (rekindle?) very old, base feelings in me that made me (ME!) want to believe. I have to give it to the authors (Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins); they know how to invoke deep-seated religious feelings in a person and how to give a person hope that there is some truth to heaven and God and the possibility of a personal relationship with Christ.

If you are secure in your Humanistic (or Atheistic) beliefs, then read them just to understand the other side. If you have any religious tendencies, but don't want to be converted fully into religion, then stay away from them until you are secure in your beliefs.

Parenting without Religion

The press release for my book Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion finally went out. You can see a copy on PRWeb at:

PRWeb Press Release

The book is also available through my site or you can use the links to the right.

The book covers aspects of raising children without reliance on religion. It goes over rites, rituals, and practices that you might want to consider when raising children. It also has Q&A chapters for younger children and teens so that they can try to get an understanding of Humanism in a way they can relate to.

If you take a look at it or read it, please send feedback to me at humanismforparents@spiritualhumanist.info.

Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion

Well, I've been neglectful of blogging for the last month or so. Between gutting my master bathroom and starting the rebuild, starting a new job, and completing the book, I've just been too busy.

The good news is that the Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion book is not generally available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Google Books. Please, take a look at it and let me know what you think. It is slightly cheaper to order through the publisher as they don't gouge you for shipping.

The following is the short description from the publisher.

By some estimates, over 1 billion people in the world are non-religious (humanist/secular/atheist) yet we base some of our parenting techniques and traditions on religion. There are many books available on parenting around each of the major religions, but few around parenting in a Humanist household. This book is an attempt to outline how non-religious parents can have rites, rituals, and practices needed for a healthy, spiritually fulfilled family.

You can also preview it on-line through my site via the page on
parenting.

Cheers, Sean

Humanism for Parents

I am in the final stages of publishing a book called Humanism for Parents that provides information to parents and potential parents (or even caregivers) about how to raise children without reliance on religion. By some accounts there are 1.1 billion people who don't believe or don't practice religion. There are plenty of books out about parenting with religion but few that are specifically secular. This book describes the aspects of parenting that are particular to a non-religious household.

It is currently available at the publisher (Lulu), and will be available at Amazon, Google Books, Barnes&Noble, and Borders within 6-10 weeks. You can also preview the book through my page on The Spiritual Humanist web site here.

Cheers, Sean