The Books/Reading Thread

Currently on loan from the library:

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True - Mark Dice
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange's War On Secrecy - David Leigh and Luke Harding
 
The only thing I liked about The God Delusion was how it made a very solid argument that people are capable of morality without religion. I think in that book, or another one of his books, Dawkins says something about Buddhism being some kind of ethical system instead of a religion when he's trying to make a point about how religion is bad. Buddhism's not the most violent religion, and even though it was traditionally atheistic, it's still a religion.
 
Einherjar86 said:
Does he know that Indiana Jones isn't a real person?

But in all seriousness, what do you mean "spot on"?
Click to expand...

Oh, but Indiana Jones is real. He does exist my friend.

As for the Ark; in The Sign and the Seal, Graham Hancock states that, "Biblical and other archaic sources speak of the Ark blazing with fire and light, inflicting cancerous tumours and severe burns..." Which if you watch the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis open the Ark they all boil and melt and are consumed with fire and light.
 
In other words, according to the sources, the Ark of the Covenant has the properties of some kind of device utilizing nuclear energy. The Zohar gives a description of what sounds like radiation sickness of people who touched it.
 
Moreso it contains some infinitely advanced technological powers of unknown size and scale. The Ark is also claimed to be capable of "levelling mountains, stopping rivers, blasting whole armies and laying waste cities." according to Graham Hancock's research. Which is very similar to a nuclear bomb yes, but much more powerful in a sense that it is not a singular event, it can wreak havoc for an eternity. Intense.
 
Vimana said:
The only thing I liked about The God Delusion was how it made a very solid argument that people are capable of morality without religion. I think in that book, or another one of his books, Dawkins says something about Buddhism being some kind of ethical system instead of a religion when he's trying to make a point about how religion is bad. Buddhism's not the most violent religion, and even though it was traditionally atheistic, it's still a religion.
Click to expand...

The comments on Buddhism you mentioned are in The God Delusion. I have read a few books that go into great detail regarding both Mahāyāna and Theravada Buddhism, and they all did acknowledge that Buddhism is essentially atheistic. I was confused how a belief system that did not include a personal god could could be considered a religion, but from what I can tell is that religion is defined by the belief in an afterlife, the supernatural, and most importantly ritualistic worship.
 
I see. I was taught in my World Religions class that a religion was a group of people with a set of beliefs, rites and rituals, personal devotion, and a view on the supernatural. From what I understood, a religion could meet all these and be atheistic.
 
I haven't done much reading on that particular subject, but I do subscribe heavily to the stoned ape theory which Terence McKenna describes in detail. I'll read up more on the subject and get back with you. I'm absolutely fascinated with subjects like this.
 
It's an interesting thing to read into. I've just begun reading a bit into it myself. I'd advise against watching Ancient Aliens, because it spends a good amount of its time making crazy conjectures. I personally think that if you objectively look at the stories all kinds of cultures have had with the assumption that they're based on something real, the most plausible explanation is extraterrestrials. It's all completely possible. But I think, however, that stories cultures have made up were based more on imagination than fact. It's only when a bunch of cultures have similar details in common that I consider the theory.
 
Vimana said:
I see. I was taught in my World Religions class that a religion was a group of people with a set of beliefs, rites and rituals, personal devotion, and a view on the supernatural. From what I understood, a religion could meet all these and be atheistic.
Click to expand...

So, not too far off from my understanding of what religion means. Self education does work, but the act of constantly verifying my own conclusions sure is tiresome.
 
Saparmurat_Niyazov said:
The comments on Buddhism you mentioned are in The God Delusion. I have read a few books that go into great detail regarding both Mahāyāna and Theravada Buddhism, and they all did acknowledge that Buddhism is essentially atheistic. I was confused how a belief system that did not include a personal god could could be considered a religion, but from what I can tell is that religion is defined by the belief in an afterlife, the supernatural, and most importantly ritualistic worship.
Click to expand...

What makes the subject of religion so interesting academically is that there is no fully accepted definition of what a religion actually is. Most people can identify religions but when we look closer it seems like they actually dont have all that much in common, and even if they do in some ways they can be totally different in another.

Religions doesnt have to include a belief in an afterlife, the supernatural, theism, ritualistic worship.

This was the very firt thing we discussed during my studies at the university on the subject (2 years full time). At first they wanted to trick us to finding a universal definition of religion but the purpose was to show that there isnt such a thing. There are common nominators but they cant be said to be criterias for a movement to be called a religion since enough movements who are percieved as religions dont have one or several of these criterias.

It is a little bit like defining what "art" actually is. Most people have a rough idea but there is no commonly accepted definition.
 
I finished Žižek's Sublime Object of Ideology. I'm kind of bouncing around now, but I think this will be my next project:

Jameson-PU.jpg
 
I have a bunch of his stuff, although I haven't gotten to all of it yet.

I've read the first chapter of Postmodernism; or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, which was interesting. I'd suggest checking out The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. It's a collection of six essays, all of which are very good and offer a pretty good window into his thought process.

I also have his collection of science fiction critcism, Archeologies of the Future. There's an essay on Philip K. Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney that's really cool.
 
Right now I'm reading a book my Seventh Day Adventist uncle gave me. It's called "Who Do You Think You Are?" There was just some straight up batshit stuff said about atheism being bad and evolution encouraging genocide. It was like "atheism is bad, USSR, North Korea, blah blah." Yeah, nice, ignore the fact that Norway is really atheistic and has one of the highest standards of living worldwide. Religion doesn't necessarily = good society. But once I got past that, the guy gets a little more moderate and less crazy and tries to give an argument about how Christian life is happier. I disagree with him, but luckily, the book is short. I really should have a medal for not burning before finishing.
 
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