Book Review: Superstition — Belief in the Age of Science by Robert Park.
Ah, book review time again. The truth is that I finished this book a few weeks ago but failed to write a review in any kind of timely manner. Let me assure you this is not because I didn’t enjoy it, quite the opposite in fact. The incredible complications of real life, two separate jobs and simple mind numbing apathy combined to thwart my lazy ass’s best intentions. That and I felt I should read parts of it again, not that it wasn’t clear. Rather, it holds so much excellent information that my feeble wit is unable to contain. Damn my evolutionary brain!
I picked this book somewhat at random and am mildly surprised at my luck, for this has proved to be an excellent choice for both the solid and aspiring atheist or skeptic. It is not only a point by point refutation of the wide varieties of superstition present today, but it’s also a general overview of how and why people insist on living in a fantasy world rather that the scientific one. It is a strong discussion on the evidence for a “naturalist” world view as opposed to the superstitious. Quite honestly, it is one of the better refutations I have come across of not only Young Earth Creationism and the more malignant forms of fundamentalism, but theism in general.
Park is matter of fact and plain-spoken retaining a good storytelling style, and storytelling it is from personal and touching anecdotes (the tree falling on and nearly killing him is my favorite) to the creation of the Templeton foundation and the struggle of the Christian right to teach creationism in schools to the philosophical conundrum where innocents suffer. Through everything Parks weaves both the personal tales of the main people involved and the consequences of the struggles contained within. And in doing so he is never mean or petty concerning those with whom he disagrees. The tales he tells really are personal and you end up liking most of the people he discusses, even those on the other sides of the issue. Parks refuses to demonize people; he just proves that they are wrong. And he does this really well.
You could say that overall Superstition is a summary of the skeptical versus supernatural arguments of last century up until today. To give an example, the battleground involving evolution is well documented. The chapter opens with the story of Sarah Tishkoff the molecular anthropologist who tracked the evolution of lactose tolerance in adults furthering yet another branch of evolution and continues through to the evolution (pardon the funny) of the idea of Intelligent Design as a strategy to get religion back in the classroom. Through the chapter, Parks dips into the evolution of the human brain, pattern recognition being the root of superstition, the Scopes Monkey trial, the god of the gaps argument, the modern synthesis, and the discovery of DNA. And these are only the highlights of a single chapter.
This is an in-depth discussion of the issues. It is not light reading in any way yet it’s easy to read. In fact, the damned thing almost reads itself. I found myself enthralled time and time again, often late at night or pushing the limits of lunch break.
But I must tell you that my favorite chapter is the end, for I am a sucker for a good ending, and Mr. parks delivers a powerhouse blow here. I don’t agree with all his assumptions, his firm belief that humanity will never leave earth for instance. But I agree with the basic premise. Even the most optimistic calculations means that the vast majority of humans born on earth will never leave. We need to be more rational now that ever. With over population and Global warming the world is becoming more dangerous by the year, religion and other superstitions are hampering us from saving ourselves. Irrationality may doom us. The entire book culminates with an eloquent plea for science, the only tool that can save us.
If I have a complaint about Superstition, it would be this. That after I finished I could feel the solid and concise arguments for rational thought muddle themselves or slip from my mind like a wonderful dream in the morning light. I’m left with only slightly more than a great feeling and a few random mental images to go forth into battle. I cannot, in truth, blame Mr. Parks. The neuronic sieve of my mind seems reluctant to hold onto all of his points. My mind is a great pattern recognizer, just not a great pattern storer. Much to my regret, I am a sorter not a warehouse.
That’s why I’m reading it again. It’s worth it.
Uh oh,
the top of my stack is already wobbling….:)
An addition, or rather, update to the comment I posted earlier about morality. In it, I recommended a book by Harvard’s Dr. Marc Hauser “Moral Minds”. If you read it, do so with a grain, or several of salt:
The Boston Globe reports today that, according to the editor of the journal Cognition, Professor Marc Hauser of Harvard fabricated data.
(taken from the Aug 27th blog entry on Jerry Coyne’s site Why Evolution Is True).
Science can correct itself, but it still isn’t pretty when it happens. I admit to being pretty shocked myself.
I also intend to read it (I have already purchased a copy). Perhaps when I finish the book I’m reading now; “Germs, Genes and Civilisation: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today” by David Clark?
It has a lot of fascinating ideas, including how the rise of monotheistic religions was favoured over polytheistic fertility goddess based religions by the appearance of venereal diseases in increasingly crowded cities and towns, causing less fertility in its adherents, and who were therefore outcompeted.
I share your complaint about being a pattern recogniser, not storer. My greatest problem is remembering the facts. I can remember the argument being made, but not the exact facts being made to support it.
oooh—another one I wanted and couldn’t find when I was home…Sounds *extremely* interesting! Post more about it when you finish!
I know just what you mean–happens to me *all* the time. There you are, in the heat of the debate, and where are all those facts when you need ‘em? Burned off like mist before the morning sun…
Me also! It’s like my mind’s a sieve. The big events and general gist get caught but all the supporting details fall right through.
I have now finished “Germs, Genes and Civilisation: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today”. I strongly recommend it, and I intend to reread it in a year or two. David Clark makes a lot of cogent points, including the influence infectious disease has had on the evolution of religion. It also has the advantage that he repeats himself in succeeding chapters to reinforce the argument, and he writes in very short sentences (one or two lines at most; which aids comprehension).
The development of monotheism from polytheism wasn’t an advance in humans’ battle with infectious disease. With polytheism, if anyone developed disease, it was ascribed to some passing capricious demon, and the afflicted person wasn’t blamed as having been punished for some sin. With monotheism, particularly Judaism and Christianity, disease was ascribed to personal sin.
Epidemics were more difficult to explain on this basis. Priests blaming the sins of the rulers causing God to punish all his subjects doesn’t quite sound like the actions of a good god. David Clark argues (like others before him) that it was the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe in 1347 that set in progress the rise of science, modern medicine, democracy and the beginning decline in religion.
Although the book looks interesting, I’d like to quibble that last point, if I may.
A lot of Arabic scholarly works were being imported into Europe, via Spain and Venice particularly, at that time. I’ve a feeling that that gave as much, if not more, impetus to what became the renaissance.
The Black death certainly did have silver linings, not least the workers’ rights that accrued because of the ensuing labour shortages (in some countries at least), but I suspect that the people most affected (the poor, as usual) stayed just as Godly as ever.
I’ve added the book to my ever-lengthening list. Anyone know of a small mansion for sale…?
Point accepted, Daz, the Arabs also suffered greatly from the Black Death, and their science had been in decline for hundreds of years beforehand too (and it still hasn’t recovered from the corrosive influence of religion).
Anyway, I’ve just finished “Superstition”. A great book. I’m going to have to reread it and this time highlight the sections I want to contemplate (or at least quote).
“I’ve added the book to my ever-lengthening list. Anyone know of a small mansion for sale…?” I suggest buying an iPad, and just buying eBooks (such as from Amazon). At the moment I have about 400 books read and waiting to be read on mine … actually perhaps that isn’t such a good idea …?
Just finished this, and highly recommend it. Park’s voice is very Dawkins-like in the way he resists the urge to become vitriolic. Next up for me is some fiction, then Genes, Germs etc.
Wayne, you’re right of course, and a book-reader is definitely on my ‘when I can afford it’ list. Not sure about the iPad though. Apple are too fond of proprietary software for my liking. We have a format that any web-enabled device has to be able to read by default. It’s called html. I really don’t see the need for other formats, especially for mainly text-based docs, like books. That’s what html was designed for in the first place.(/mini-rant)
In the meantime, I’ve just cleared a shelf and a half by donating to my local library. Don’t know about in the U.S. but over here all libraries take such donations, as long as the books are in good condition. I’d urge everyone to do the same, especially with non-fiction. Help spread the learning!
@daz–yup, you can donate to the library in the US,too. I’ve even done that here in Japan, donated nice books that I figured would get checked out to the big main library in Yokohama since it has a fairly large foreign language section.
@wayne–I’m drooling over the wifi/3g Kindle3, since I’ve found that it can be used overseas &blogs are downloadable, too (that was the reason I didn’t buy the 1.0 version). I’m thinking, if I had one, my husband would never know nor need to complain about how many books I have…:))
Speaking of the Renaissance–has anybody read either of Gavin Menzies books (1421–the year the Chinese discovered America, and 1434–the year a Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and sparked the Renaissance). Both extremely interesting and well supported with evidence (the author was captain of a Royal Navy submarine, and know the seas and winds well). He argues, convincingly, that Leonardo and others didn’t just suddenly pull all those machines and astronomical learning out of their hats–they had a little help from Chinese visitors who were pretty far ahead of Europeans at the time. KK–have you read either of those (she asked the local history buff:))
Amy. I am ashamed to admit this, but 1421 has been in my bookshelf for two years and I have yet to read it. I hang my head in shame.
As for the Kindle: great machine but being Apple fanatics we have splurged on an ipad. This allows book to be downloaded and read between both my ipod touch when I’m away (fits nicely in my pocket even at work) to the ipad when I’m at home and wish a bigger screen. It has access to the kindle, the Nook and the ibook material. It also allows full web browsing, mail, games etc. Suffice it to say we are addicted. My wife, curse her shriveled soul, has claimed it as her own simply but deviously using the fact that we bought it for her. How unfair. You see, I had to use some excuse to get one. Who’d would have thought that she would actually have liked it. Sigh
Amy, I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that Tycho and Copernicus used Chinese, as well as Greek and Arabic astronomical records, so it certainly sounds plausible. And, according to a documentary by Marcus du Sautoy I saw recently, the Chinese were way ahead in maths, at least.
That empty space in my shelves isn’t going to stay so for long. What was that Time Thingymebob you mentioned? I could do with one, I think.
And about Tycho and Copernicus–yes, they did use mostly Chinese records since theirs were the most accurate. The Chinese also figured out longitude before anybody else, and therefore had far more accurate maps before anybody else did. Ever wonder how Columbus could be said to have “discovered” lands for which *he had a map*? Read 1421 to find out!
Re: Time Tuner. See Terry Pratchett’s ‘Pyramids’ to see where that ultimately leads!
Tycho, Copernicus, star-charts et al: What amazes me is the accuracy these people managed, whatever nationality, with nothing much more than a large stick and patience. Those are the real miracles, not the cheap special effects offered by religions.
“Those are the real miracles, not the cheap special effects offered by religions.”
Hear, hear!! Nothing ticks me off more than to see real, painstaking science cribbed and used to support some ID claim or other. Bunch of bloody plaigirists.