The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

Rating:
Summary: Profound. Simply profound.
Review: We all think. But how and why do we think the ways we do? The way we look at ourselves as beings, and how we come to acquire information about the world around us may be something few people ever think about. However upon examination of the worldview we possess, and those possessed by others, we come to a new and more objective appreciation of what it is to truly be human and aware. Sire examines the worldviews of Theism, Deism, Naturalism (and it's necessary extention - Nihilism), Existentialism, Eastern Monism, and PostModernism as well as others. Again, the analysis reveals something simply profound (dare I say life-changing) to those who seek a truly objective and realistic worldview. As a Christian, I was strengthened greatly. Not merely nominally in the conclusion Sire draws, but rather, in the new understanding of the ways and reasons others' think the way they do. Taken together with works such as Hugh Ross' "Creator and the Cosmos" or "The Fingerprint of God" which show modern cosmology to be truly in harmony with the Bible, this work by Sire presents compelling evidence for the Christian Theistic worldview and faith. One outstanding point in the work is Sire's logical analysis of Naturalism's "random chance" which is used to explain a great many things. As a tool for describing our lack of information about a system, it is proper to assign probabilities and a chance 'figure' to it. However, in the naturalistic worldview where there is no belief in a 'spirit' or that the universe may be re-ordered by God or man in that respect, determinism reigns, and there is no such thing as 'random' chance at all - only man's ignorance of deterministic cause. Profound.

Rating:
Summary: Note to self: Avoid Huston, TX
Review: Well, it looks like the Huston Idiot Society Newsletter put out a plea for all its narrow-minded rednecks to dis this book. Nice strategy "y'all". Note that almost all the other reviewers who gave the book low ratings (all but one I think) fall into two categories. 1. People that complained of bias and 2. People that are in love with Karl Barth (yuck!). The key to understanding this is...POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM. The first category of detractors don't appreciate it enough. Do they really think that unbiased philosophy is possible? (One actually said Sire should have hid his faith!) Look, everything is written from a perspective, from a point of view, so why not admit it and then go about saying what you have to say? That's what Sire does and he should not be faulted for doing so. The second category of detractors makes *too much* of postmodernism. The Calvinists (shudder) these days are head-over-heals in love with postmodernism because it validates there skeptical epistemology. Barth's famous tract _Nein!_ denied that humans can know anything substantive about God with human reason (hmm, did he use human reason to figure that out? Ohhh, that's right, he's got God's special grace for Calvinists only, I forgot (I wonder if Aristotle was a Calvinist then, because in book lambda of the Metaphysics he says God is one and infinite but triune, oh well)). It also allows them to watch movies and call it homework. The Universe Next Door is a great book, don't be fooled by nay-saying rednecks or Calvinists (hmm, which is worse?).

Rating:
Summary: Note to self: Avoid Huston, TX
Review: Well, it looks like the Huston Idiot Society Newsletter put out a plea for all its narrow-minded rednecks to dis this book. Nice strategy "y'all". Note that almost all the other reviewers who gave the book low ratings (all but one I think) fall into two categories. 1. People that complained of bias and 2. People that are in love with Karl Barth (yuck!). The key to understanding this is...POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM. The first category of detractors don't appreciate it enough. Do they really think that unbiased philosophy is possible? (One actually said Sire should have hid his faith!) Look, everything is written from a perspective, from a point of view, so why not admit it and then go about saying what you have to say? That's what Sire does and he should not be faulted for doing so. The second category of detractors makes *too much* of postmodernism. The Calvinists (shudder) these days are head-over-heals in love with postmodernism because it validates there skeptical epistemology. Barth's famous tract _Nein!_ denied that humans can know anything substantive about God with human reason (hmm, did he use human reason to figure that out? Ohhh, that's right, he's got God's special grace for Calvinists only, I forgot (I wonder if Aristotle was a Calvinist then, because in book lambda of the Metaphysics he says God is one and infinite but triune, oh well)). It also allows them to watch movies and call it homework. The Universe Next Door is a great book, don't be fooled by nay-saying rednecks or Calvinists (hmm, which is worse?).

Rating:
Summary: Great Discussion of Worldviews from Western perspective
Review: Yes, this author practically states up front which worldview he subscribes to, but for one who merely wishes to learn about other worldviews and not necessarily dabble in them, this is a great book. It has analytical discussions of all the major worldviews and why people subscribe to them or not. This book makes a good "textbook" for framing the discussion of worldviews from a western (esp. Christian) perspective. I ended up citing this book when I wanted to express my own worldview because the book is so well-written and has some great content.
I highly recomment this book if you want to learn about worldviews.