A Religion of Nature

Rating:
Summary: depends what you want
Review: This is a thoroughly academic book; the writing is almost a parody of academic writing. There are so many 70 or 80 word long sentences: clauses within clauses, caveats within caveats. It can be simply painful to read. Not only that, but a lot of his concerns relate to the world of academic philosophy; and even when I was an undergraduate philosophy major I didn't relate to that world. All this is not what I expected; buyer beware.

However, we all have our own idiosyncratic concerns, and the author is dealing with his own here, and the concerns he perceives in his academic community.

As to the content of his thoughts, I generally had little to disagree or comment on; even little to agree with, actually. However, he strained to argue that we can find values within nature, admitting that there are "anti-values" as well. He seemed concerned to avoid admitting that values come from within us; but I'm not sure that his argument amounted to anything more than semantics, a terminological shuffle.

I hesitate to give such negative reviews, especially when I am sure that the author has such good intentions; but I believe that for most people, there are better books out there. Check out Ursula Goodenough or Loyal Rue or Brian Swimme.