Rating: 
Summary: Huston Smith: Religiously Ambiguous?
Review: "Why Religion Matters?" Because, Dr. Smith says, it provides a "happier ending." The subtitle "the Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief" is a clue to understanding Dr. Smith's diatribe against "scientism" and his broad attack...for those reading him carefully...against all of science.The reader of WRM may almost slip by Dr. Smith's facile equating of worldview, big picture and metaphysics. To make his case, Smith pronounces "postmodernism" as generally good in the big picture without seeming to realize that accompanying it is post metaphysical thought. The matter of metaphysics is of no small consequence. Even more important is why we have post metaphysical thought. This thought is real and very much with us. Lay people feel it and scholars speak to it. Eminent philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas, whom he mentions on a less relevant point, maintain that the failure of the church's explanation of the world in a number of realms, not limited to science, reveal a deficient metaphysics, a failure of explanations. The church, in short, can no longer make a claim to explain the totality of existence. The contradictions and inadequate explanations offered by religion for fully two centuries have contributed to "the fate of the human spirit." In fact, the result is "An Age of Disbelief" created as much by religion as by science. The reason for the failure is well documented in history. It is: the tendency for religion and religious figures to offer explanations that are premature...well ahead of the facts. But surely such a wise and thoughtful person as Smith realizes this. At least his own testimony is some evidence of his understanding. For example, in one of the videos with Bill Moyers he states unequivocally to Moyers, "the world is religiously ambiguous!" Wow! What a statement! Alas, Moyers did not spend the rest of the hour exploring and probing this provocative thought. Thus, as suggested above in referring to the subtitle, Smith is happier to indict science for the creation of an age of disbelief than the source of the problem which is, at least for the West, the church. Many of us share his regret if not his pain and certainly do not accept his complicated "tunnel-vision" construction designed to blame science. Contributing to some of his discomfort is academia itself, as revealed in the book. Imagine this response to his inquiry of a colleague at lunch in the MIT faculty club: "We don't even bother to ignore you guys." We are told the tone of this scientist was "playful." Even more revealing of some of Smith's motivations, in writing this book, can be found in the candid amazon.com interview. Thanks amazon! psb 6-11-2002
Rating:
Summary: Huston Smith: Religiously Ambiguous?
Review: "Why Religion Matters?" Because, Dr. Smith says, it provides a "happier ending." The subtitle "the Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief" is a clue to understanding Dr. Smith's diatribe against "scientism" and his broad attack...for those reading him carefully...against all of science. The reader of WRM may almost slip by Dr. Smith's facile equating of worldview, big picture and metaphysics. To make his case, Smith pronounces "postmodernism" as generally good in the big picture without seeming to realize that accompanying it is post metaphysical thought. The matter of metaphysics is of no small consequence. Even more important is why we have post metaphysical thought. This thought is real and very much with us. Lay people feel it and scholars speak to it. Eminent philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas, whom he mentions on a less relevant point, maintain that the failure of the church's explanation of the world in a number of realms, not limited to science, reveal a deficient metaphysics, a failure of explanations. The church, in short, can no longer make a claim to explain the totality of existence. The contradictions and inadequate explanations offered by religion for fully two centuries have contributed to "the fate of the human spirit." In fact, the result is "An Age of Disbelief" created as much by religion as by science. The reason for the failure is well documented in history. It is: the tendency for religion and religious figures to offer explanations that are premature...well ahead of the facts. But surely such a wise and thoughtful person as Smith realizes this. At least his own testimony is some evidence of his understanding. For example, in one of the videos with Bill Moyers he states unequivocally to Moyers, "the world is religiously ambiguous!" Wow! What a statement! Alas, Moyers did not spend the rest of the hour exploring and probing this provocative thought. Thus, as suggested above in referring to the subtitle, Smith is happier to indict science for the creation of an age of disbelief than the source of the problem which is, at least for the West, the church. Many of us share his regret if not his pain and certainly do not accept his complicated "tunnel-vision" construction designed to blame science. Contributing to some of his discomfort is academia itself, as revealed in the book. Imagine this response to his inquiry of a colleague at lunch in the MIT faculty club: "We don't even bother to ignore you guys." We are told the tone of this scientist was "playful." Even more revealing of some of Smith's motivations, in writing this book, can be found in the candid amazon.com interview. Thanks amazon! psb 6-11-2002
Rating: 
Summary: Catching the Thread
Review: Huston Smith catches just the necessary loose threads in modern science's apparently seamless web of explanations, opening ways of escape for for us back to the deep reality which the worth of our lives ultimately depends on. Caught in science's models and limited definitions and methods, we are in the end separated from ourselves, and unable to believe what our hearts constantly tell us. Smith knows how to disentangle the hopeless mind from science's over-reaching grip, without debunking science. This book is good enough to save lives.
Rating: 
Summary: But does religion have any validity?
Review: Huston Smith tells us "why religion matters." He gives apologetics for faith that he never tries to prove or demonstrate. He judges religion by scaring the reading about what life would be like without religion. This is an old technique but it does not convince anyone who has brains.
Rating:
Summary: But does religion have any validity?
Review: Huston Smith tells us "why religion matters." He gives apologetics for faith that he never tries to prove or demonstrate. He judges religion by scaring the reading about what life would be like without religion. This is an old technique but it does not convince anyone who has brains.
Rating: 
Summary: The question asked is unanswered
Review: Huston Smith's book does offer any answers for those who would like to believe in God, but find it difficult. He explores philosophical developments leading into the twentieth century as well as describes how science displaced religion in the nineteenth and continues to do so today. Smith believes, however, that science has not answered the questions in its turns and it seems there is a trend back to religion. The book emphasizes the philosophical and offers little help to people who are trying to make sense of the world around them. They may still practice their religion, but they do so more out of hope that something will emerge from the mythology and irrelevant doctrines that will help them discover the meaning of the universe, their place in it and who God could possibly be. If one is looking for a book that will inspire or comfort, this is ther wrong book. Its heavy philosophizing and its centrality in academe keep it from being a source from which searching people can taste and move on. In that sense it was disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Why intellectual rigor matters
Review: I couldn't understand how an apparently important and respected academic could write such a rambling pastiche of irrelevant anecdotes, misrepresentations, evasions and downright nonsense. Then I came to the part where Smith mentions something like "When one is writing a book under a deadline one becomes illiterate for the interval". I think he meant he had no time for reading, but the confession also explains the quality of his writing. I suppose he got his money from the publisher, but I'm glad I checked out the book from the library. Although his mantra is "this is about worldviews - the Big Picture" much of the book is consists of tirades against the evil effects of science and scientists on various aspects of society, such as the legal system and academia. The low point of the book, these rants often sink to pettyness and whining (Whaaa! Professors of religion don't get paid as much as physicists!). On the other hand, the negative manifestations of religious belief, from witch hunts to genocide, are quickly dismissed with a casual "there is usually some underlying political reason". Well, yes, but that is a deterministic view, and determinism is wrong according to Smith. Doesn't the fact that just about all religions claim to have a monopoly on the Truth have something to do with it? You'll never find out by reading this book. For Smith it all comes down to: religion matters and it doesn't matter which religion. This includes a "first hand experience" with the spirit world that happened to someone else (and this after ridiculing Monica Lewinsky for saying she is "spiritual" but not "religious"). That, sadly, is the intellectual level of the first two-thirds of the book. There seems to be some deeper philosophical material near the end, but I just couldn't get there.
Rating:
Summary: Obscure and not clearly argued
Review: I found this book very heavy going and it was difficult to grasp the point that Huston Smith is making. It seems to be: "science can't explain everything; we know that God exists and explains everything that science can't; therefore religion matters". This begs the question and I was expecting something more crisply and lucidly argued. I have not read any other of Smith's books but I found his style very irritating. He says things like: "this discussion should really be at the end of the chapter" - why didn't he just move it to the end then? He also name-drops a lot and the book is full of asides about the process of writing, which make it hard work to read. I read this book straight after "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins and hoped that it would provide a balance to that totally scientific determinist view. However, where Dawkins is trying his utmost to make a complex subject understandable, Smith seems to revel in making what should be a simple subject as obscure as possible.
Rating:
Summary: Obscure and not clearly argued
Review: I found this book very heavy going and it was difficult to grasp the point that Huston Smith is making. It seems to be: "science can't explain everything; we know that God exists and explains everything that science can't; therefore religion matters". This begs the question and I was expecting something more crisply and lucidly argued. I have not read any other of Smith's books but I found his style very irritating. He says things like: "this discussion should really be at the end of the chapter" - why didn't he just move it to the end then? He also name-drops a lot and the book is full of asides about the process of writing, which make it hard work to read. I read this book straight after "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins and hoped that it would provide a balance to that totally scientific determinist view. However, where Dawkins is trying his utmost to make a complex subject understandable, Smith seems to revel in making what should be a simple subject as obscure as possible.
Rating:
Summary: Why Religion Matters
Review: I was extremely impressed with Mr. Smith's earlier work, THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS. However, this book, WHY RELIGION MATTERS, left me disappointed, disturbed and frightened. Mr. Smith seems to be little concerned with the immorality of man's inhumanity to man. What disturbs him is humankind's failure to subordinate itself to the awesomeness of God. He talks romantically of the Medieval Ages, a time, according to him, when humanity was more aware of its proper relationship to God. He talks of India as the most religious nation in the world and Sweden as the most irreligious. He revels in the spellbinding effect of their mystical rituals and one senses the joy he is experiencing as he describes the surrender to an omnipotent power. He never questions why it is, that in the most religious nation in the world, there are such horrific traditions as bride burnings, child laborers chained to their worbenches, young girls sold to the highest bidder, and a caste system that shackles a segment of society to the status of an animal. What is so frightening to me is that this notion that our relationship to God is primarily based upon a mystical experience and not primarily based upon how we treat and empathize with our fellow human beings, is becoming more pervasive in our society. We are culture hungry for instantaneous gratification, looking for [easy] thrills and quick ecstasies. The belief that the ultimate act of morality is the putting aside of these quick highs for the drudgery of the work-a-day world, for the dullness of living in a state of equality with all other people is becoming a distant ideal. I see this movement towards mysticism as laying the groundwork for our civlization slipping back into an era that was much lauded by Mr. Smith - the Medieval Ages.
| 
