Rating: 
Summary: Best book on science and spirituality I've ever read
Review: This is a book for the people who seek truth based on knowledge and not based on faith. This book is a very good attempt to integrate modern science and spirituality, which I hope will lead us to the ultimate truth one day. I look forward to another book on the science of consciousness by the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Fails to establish credibility.
Review: When I read books on subjects I am not very familiar with, such as subatomic physics, I tend to access the reliability of the author by his accuracy on subjects I know more about. That's one reason I wasn't able to work up much confidence in Goswami's physics. He throws out too many low-wattage ideas on language, philosophy and history that distract me. To begin with, he uses "paradox" as a synonym for "self-contradiction." According to Goswami, religions are all founded by mystics who believe in monism, a trancendant Brahma, divine play, the whole Upanishadic kit and kaboodle. Later, disciples dumb the "real teachings" of the Master down for the masses. This is doubtful historically in almost every actual case of which I am aware -- and I study the origins of religions for a living. In the case of Jesus, still less Mohammed, only massive falsification or at least wishful thinking can save the paradigm. I realize this idea is not original with Goswami. But I am a little tired of people making a case for monism from the NT by quoting a few teachings that seem to agree with it out of context, and ignoring the rest. As for philosophy, Goswami's ideas about love seem shallower than those of theistic thinkers like C. S. Lewis, Lin Yutang, or even Scott Peck, to me. He thinks love is best when based upon the premise of monism. "How can you not love when there is one consciousness and you known that you and the other are not really separate?" A silly question; there are categories of neurosis that work precisely that way. On a philosophical level, the question is meaningless. On a historical level, if monism is the True Path to love, and if the culture that has embraced monism the most enthusiastically is India, then why did it take a foreign religion (guess which one) to challenge the cruel and inhuman institutions of caste, widow-burning and confinement, human sacrifice, etc? (See J.N. Farquhar, Crown of Hinduism; Vishal Mangalwadi.) Given that history, it is a bit bizarre for a Hindu to accuse Christians of a "world-negating" faith. Again, "If we could single out one historical concept that has propelled humans and their societies towards much violence and warfare, it is the concept of hierarchy." This kind of statement may sound good to many readers, but it strikes me as facile and historically incomplete. (Though his idea of "tangled hierarchy" is interesting.) Actually, some of the bloodiest movements, like early Islam and Marxism, have preached radical equality. And the Sisters of Charity are hierarchical, I believe. Goswami makes sweeping historical generalizations that sound good, but it seems a hit-or-miss proposition whether they are in fact true. I am less qualified to debate Goswami's science. I assume he's getting his basic facts right, and don't see any too obvious errors in that regard. But another way to access a writer on unfamiliar topics, is to see how he engages opposing points of view. Those who know more about physics than I do (I'm thinking of John Polkinghorne for one) have objected to the interpretation of quantum facts Goswami offers. It doesn't appear to me that Goswami really engages such views well. Back to philosophy, when Goswami argues that, given the facts of physics, Descarte's famous statement should be re-written as, "I choose, therefore I am," an alternative phrasing, "God choses, therefore I am," seems to me equally valid, on Goswami's premises. Why prefer his interpretation? He offers no good reason. It appears he hasn't really thought the question through from anyone else's point of view but his own. The diagrams are good; the writing clear and colloquial, the subject interesting. I think the best thing Goswami could do would be to read a lot of good books he doesn't agree with. The book would be more interesting to me were it part of a dialogue, rather than a monologue by Schrodinger's cat alone a box. But maybe that's one of the dangers of monism. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man
Rating:
Summary: Fails to establish credibility.
Review: When I read books on subjects I am not very familiar with, such as subatomic physics, I tend to access the reliability of the author by his accuracy on subjects I know more about. That's one reason I wasn't able to work up much confidence in Goswami's physics. He throws out too many low-wattage ideas on language, philosophy and history that distract me. To begin with, he uses "paradox" as a synonym for "self-contradiction." According to Goswami, religions are all founded by mystics who believe in monism, a trancendant Brahma, divine play, the whole Upanishadic kit and kaboodle. Later, disciples dumb the "real teachings" of the Master down for the masses. This is doubtful historically in almost every actual case of which I am aware -- and I study the origins of religions for a living. In the case of Jesus, still less Mohammed, only massive falsification or at least wishful thinking can save the paradigm. I realize this idea is not original with Goswami. But I am a little tired of people making a case for monism from the NT by quoting a few teachings that seem to agree with it out of context, and ignoring the rest. As for philosophy, Goswami's ideas about love seem shallower than those of theistic thinkers like C. S. Lewis, Lin Yutang, or even Scott Peck, to me. He thinks love is best when based upon the premise of monism. "How can you not love when there is one consciousness and you known that you and the other are not really separate?" A silly question; there are categories of neurosis that work precisely that way. On a philosophical level, the question is meaningless. On a historical level, if monism is the True Path to love, and if the culture that has embraced monism the most enthusiastically is India, then why did it take a foreign religion (guess which one) to challenge the cruel and inhuman institutions of caste, widow-burning and confinement, human sacrifice, etc? (See J.N. Farquhar, Crown of Hinduism; Vishal Mangalwadi.) Given that history, it is a bit bizarre for a Hindu to accuse Christians of a "world-negating" faith. Again, "If we could single out one historical concept that has propelled humans and their societies towards much violence and warfare, it is the concept of hierarchy." This kind of statement may sound good to many readers, but it strikes me as facile and historically incomplete. (Though his idea of "tangled hierarchy" is interesting.) Actually, some of the bloodiest movements, like early Islam and Marxism, have preached radical equality. And the Sisters of Charity are hierarchical, I believe. Goswami makes sweeping historical generalizations that sound good, but it seems a hit-or-miss proposition whether they are in fact true. I am less qualified to debate Goswami's science. I assume he's getting his basic facts right, and don't see any too obvious errors in that regard. But another way to access a writer on unfamiliar topics, is to see how he engages opposing points of view. Those who know more about physics than I do (I'm thinking of John Polkinghorne for one) have objected to the interpretation of quantum facts Goswami offers. It doesn't appear to me that Goswami really engages such views well. Back to philosophy, when Goswami argues that, given the facts of physics, Descarte's famous statement should be re-written as, "I choose, therefore I am," an alternative phrasing, "God choses, therefore I am," seems to me equally valid, on Goswami's premises. Why prefer his interpretation? He offers no good reason. It appears he hasn't really thought the question through from anyone else's point of view but his own. The diagrams are good; the writing clear and colloquial, the subject interesting. I think the best thing Goswami could do would be to read a lot of good books he doesn't agree with. The book would be more interesting to me were it part of a dialogue, rather than a monologue by Schrodinger's cat alone a box. But maybe that's one of the dangers of monism. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man
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