Where did the sun go?, The Big U, and The God Delusion

I spent the past 5 days in Pittsburgh. It was great to get to see Eric and Jess. In addition to hanging out and getting a tour of Eric's lab, we went to an Obama speech. As excited as I am about Obama I was a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of others who were there. It was really interesting to see him in person rather than just watching on TV - especially how he keeps everyone going not just through a 30 second segment on TV, but through a more than one hour speech. There was a blog post I had kind of written in my head about Hillary's "it's 3 am ad" but never actually posted (its title was going to be it's 3 am and you lost my vote) - now I wish I had written it so I'd have proof that Obama's comments were almost exactly the same as mine. Thanks to Eric and Jess for being great hosts even while working, studying for classes and studying for the boards!

While I was in PA I read The Big U by Neal Stephenson and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

The Big U is a book Stephenson wrote in 1984 as a parody of American universities. It has the same style as Snowcrash, The Diamond Age, and Zodiac (fast paced, comedic action, starting absurd and working up to super absurd and the interweaving of many characters, and not really knowing where he's going with the story till near the very end). But it doesn't have the futuristic settings and predictions of Snowcrash or Diamond Age or the environmental message of Zodiac so I'd tend to read those first, but if you've made it through them and want more then definitely grab The Big U. While the story definitely is not set in Boston, I do think the big neon sign is a take off of the citgo sign. I'd say more, but it is really hard to describe without laying out the whole story.

The God Delusion was interesting. I think Dawkins had a lot of good points and in general I agree with him, but he took on such a huge topic that I sometimes felt like he sort of wondered from point to point. There obviously was some organization, but 400 pages clearly isn't enough room to disprove the existence of god (yes singular - I'll get back to that), explore the causes of religion, discuss how religion hurts and helps society, and discuss the importance of letting children keep their minds open. In addition it is written for a wide audience so he has to explain each concept (such as how evolution can build complexity from simplicity and the concept of memes). I almost feel like this book is designed as an introduction to the topic, which corresponds to the numerous places he recommends other books and websites that go into more detail on certain subjects. One thing he did to limit the subject is to keep to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (hence god as a singular).

There are a few points I found very interesting. The first was his proof that the existence of god is unlikely. Going into all the details gets to be long winded so I'll leave it to the book to explain this one. The second is discussing the concept that religion is need (or valuable) in defining morals. The interesting thing is that all three listed religions say some really good stuff, but also say some really really bad stuff (like stoning people to death for not observing the sabbath and that's not even close to the worst). Reasonable religious people choose not to follow the bad stuff, but the fact they are picking out the good from bad, shows they already have their own set of morals that lets them pick good vs bad, so why not just use those, instead of having religion as a middle man. He also makes a point that a child is raised by parents of a particular religion, but it should not be assumed that the child is of that religion until s/he is old enough to choose for him/herself.

I would recommend this book to everyone reading this blog (I think anyone who takes scripture as fact would get very offended very fast). Although it might be more interesting to read about more specific topics - like evolution (maybe the Ancestor's Tale) or memes and why people believe in god (maybe Breaking the Spell).