Rating: 
Summary: This book offers a new perspective
Review: I love this book. It's so full of thoughts and ideas that sound logical, yet many of them are entirely new and different. It's a quick read, just finished it in about two hours or so, and this is my second time reading it. What I really love about it is how it makes your brain feel alive.A young delivery man attempts to deliver a package to an old man. However, the old man seems to ignore the attempts at delivery, and instead he asks the young man a variety of questions, beginning with a question regarding a simple coin toss. He continues to probe and prod at the young man's answers to physical phenomenon, God, free will, probability, and numerous other concepts. While this book may not radically change your life, it will encourage you to think a little bit more about what you really do know, and what you don't. I particularly find this book interesting due to the physics contained within its pages. It discusses string theory and Einstein and a bit of quantum mechanics (ironically the subject of another book I'm currently reading, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene), and it treats them in a different manner. While I'm not quite sure if the discussions of them are entirely accurate, it's interesting to see where this book compares with what I think I know. :) While I encourage people to read this book, it is not for anyone who isn't willing to read views that may be radically different from his or her own. From the introduction: "The story contains no violence, no sexual content, and no offensive language. But the ideas expressed by the characters are inappropriate for young minds. People under the age of fourteen should not read it.
"The target audience for God's Debris is people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls. After a certain age most people are uncomfortable with new ideas. That certain age varies by person, but if you're over fifty-five (mentally) you probably won't enjoy this thought experiment. If you're eighty going on thirty-five, you might like it. If you're twenty-three, your odds of liking it are very good.
"The story's central character has a view about God that you've probably never heard before. If you think you would be offended by a fictional character's untraditional view of God, please don't read this."
Rating:
Summary: A thought experiment I'm still thinking about
Review: I've been reading a lot of books on reality, perception and the universe lately, and I've read a lot of books on different religious beliefs in the past. This is the most creative take on the whole creation/purpose of life/God thing I've ever read. I don't want to say what the old man teaching the narrator believes because it would ruin the impact of reading it for yourself when you get there. (I think it's in the 12th chapter) Scott Adams includes a warning in the introduction as to who should read this book. Summarily, no one who is: under 14, uncomfortable with new ideas or strongly commited to their view of god. For these people, this book will be confusing and/or infuriating. For everyone else though, especially those who like pondering new ideas and having their beliefs questioned, this will be a very satisfying and enjoyable read. If nothing else, it's entertaing, written with the same wit and humor (although it is not a humor book) that makes Dilbert stand out.
Rating: 
Summary: An amateur rehash
Review: What a waste of pages. It's an extended dialogue of the trashiest straw man sort, badly reiterating most every argument related to relgion. If you've never read anything about religion you could mistake this as profound or interesting; if you have you'll find it incredibly underinformed and badly written.
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly entertaining, not "brain spinning"...
Review: What is the "thought experiment" here? As far as I can tell, Adams "thought" he was presenting something really earth-shattering and mind boggling. I "thought" that the book was pretty disappointing, especially given the absurd hype it has receieved by Adams, the press, and others here. As fiction, the book is pretty weak. First, there's the intro, where Adams claims that what you're about to read will "spin your brain", as if something earth shattering or important will follow. How many works of "fiction" need a prelude where they hype how interesting they're going to be? In the "meat" of the story we get rehashed philisophical debate. Some of the debates seem presented in a somewhat fresh, or at least more plain-spoken, wording, but there is little "new" or "brain spinning" here - at least to anyone whose had at least a bachelor degree level exposure to philosophy and/or logic. As a philisophical book, it has some gaping flaws. Many of the arguments put forth by the old man have significant errors, most notably the chapter on evolution theory. Instead of highlighting flaws with evolution theory, the argument put forth by the Avatar demonstrate that the he has a flawed interpretation of evolution theory. Odd coming from a character who is supposed to know "everything". And I really don't understand the shift near the end to talking about men, women and their relationships. It doesn't fit with the rest of the information presented. It sticks out and is presented like something that was thrown in at the last second. Honestly, it appears as though Adams was trying to bump up the word count. The "value" of this book, if there is any, is that as a whole it reminds people to always attempt to see things from many angles, to not accept what they have learned as "gospel", whether its the gospel of religion or science. But Adams covered all that in a single chapter in "The Dilbert Principle" (or was it the "The Dilbert Future"?). This is essentially a long-winded re-telling of the ideas presented there - though he does present a somewhat different view on affirmations. Not utterly worthless, but NO WAY near as original or entertaining as Adams' self-hype and some of the reviews presented here and elsewhere suggest. What keeps it from being a total waste is that the entire book can be read in ~2 hours, so one doesn't have to waste a whole lot of time. Mr. Adams: Please stick to comics.
Rating:
Summary: Ouch, My Brain Hurts
Review: My goodness, where to begin. This book was one of the most immediately intriguing, engaging works of... well what the heck is it? Fiction to be sure, but not quite a story in the traditional sense, although it reads like a novella. The "Thought Experiment" description fits as well as anything, I guess. Anyway, the first time through "God's Debris" I found myself thinking "I'll just finish this page, then get back to work." Before I knew it I was done with it and the hadn't gotten anything done. Good thing I'm the PHB here. While not written specifically as a humorous work, it does have some good "chuckle" moments to help make points throughout. This is every bit as thought provoking as Hawking's "Brief History of Time" (seriously, no hyperbole there), but you don't need an advanced degree in quantum mechanics to get it. A great read for anyone interested in tweaking their own perception of the Universe.
Rating:
Summary: I'm a sucker for a good title
Review: I saw this little book at my local library and was compelled to read it based solely on the title and the reviews on the back cover. Call me a sucker for marketing. This book left me profoundly disappointed. It promised mental puzzles that it just couldn't deliver. Admittedly, the author does offer the caveat that the protagonist's statements may not be true. In truth, I think the author was just trying to take himself off the hook. The platitudes that that are passed off as science are largely ridiculous. Even the concept of probability is presented in an ambiguous and lame way. At least a couple of times in the book we are presented with the idea of a coin-toss to represent the notion of probability. Absurd. Whether a coin lands either heads up or tails up is pure cause-and-effect phenomenon. If all the elements of a coin-toss could be regulated (which, in theory, they could) in terms of force, velocity, angle, position, and mass of the coin, the result would be as predictable as picking up a coin and deliberately turning it over (or not) before setting it back down. Unfortunately, there are more blunders that follow, such as the supposed inability to block a magnetic force, and the attempt to somehow remove gravity from the realm of the physical.
The reviewer from Palo Alto sums it up nicely (see below).
Rating:
Summary: A very worthwhile read
Review: This book will definitely set your brain in motion. Even though it's relatively short (I finished it in about three hours, and I'm a slow reader), there's plenty in it to think about. Adams raises some good points, and then some not-so-good points, but just about everything he says makes sense on some level and forces you to look at the way you think. The story through which the whole God's Debris theory is told makes it a bit more enjoyable. Adams' writing style is likewise engaging. One recommendation, though: get the electronic form if at all possible. It's not worth the extra money for the hardcover version considering the length (or lack thereof) of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: God's Debris
Review: Scott Adams' thought experiment was well thought out. In retrospect I say it was a good book, although it annoyed me at points during the reading. Being that it is such a small book it can sometimes be an overload of information all at once. The first half is a little slow and seems to just stretch one subject to the max, but towards the end it gets really fascinating to hear his veiw on why things are the way they are. I'm really glad I read it, and I think anyone looking to get a different opinion on life, science, theories, etc. would definately enjoy this book. :)
Rating: 
Summary: You Will Not Find the Meaning of Life (or Reality) Here
Review: But with an open mind, you will find a fun mental exercise that is neither going to make a religious zealot out of an atheist, nor vice versa. As an engineer, I did come across technical flaws; but I don't think they detract from the point of the story. On the contrary, I feel the concept of questioning the accepted precepts of science and society to be healthy. Many of the one- and two-star reviewers really took this way too seriously. (As Scott Adams anticipated many would in his Introduction.) Let's face it; if you are going to a cartoonist for deep philosophy, physics, cosmology or religion, one really needs to question your motives and rationale. However, what a gift to find one that can come out with a fun, non-comic-strip story to tweak both religious and scientific devotees with the message that we all follow the delusions that we choose to embrace.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Hofstadteresque Romp
Review: Not since "Godel, Escher, Bach" have I read a book with such relish. Yes, I know the book has some basic science errors, but I was nonetheless fascinated. I think that for most of us, the book's main value is that it gives us a light bonk on the head. We don't have to agree with everything it says; it can still get us thinking along new lines. (The same might be said of "Calculating God" by Robert Sawyer, which was also excoriated by people who thought it said something it didn't.) I chose to read "God's Debris" precisely because I was sure I wouldn't like it. I try to avoid reading only those books that affirm what I already believe. So I was astonished at how much of this book fit in well with my existing opinions. For example, I enjoyed it when Adams (err, the Avatar) points out that if people TRULY believed in God they would live their life in a much different way. By golly, I've been saying precisely that for 25 years, but I find it hard to get people to understand what the heck I'm saying. (Brief version: if you really believed that un-Saved people will burn for eternity in Hell, would you be at home at night watching reruns on TV?) Okay, I know some people with PhD's in philosophy will turn their noses up at this slim volume. But they're overlooking something: this book is enormously accessible. Anybody with a high school education should be able to "get" it. Of course, some will balk at the science errors, and some will dispute Adams's characterization of the skeptics' movement. (Not all, though: I'm a card-carrying skeptic and I think what he said is at the very least a good warning.) I'm going to read the book again in a few days. I'll probably nit-pick a bit more, but I can't change the fact that I enjoyed it immensely.
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