The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism by Karen Armstrong

 My choices are getting more and more towards books related to religion and history (mostly around wars and colonisation). Its not good because this narrows down the topics to a very limited subjects, and after a point it looks like that the new books are not adding anything to what you've already read.

About this book, this is absolutely amazing and the only thing anyone could have asked for it an updated version. This one stops at 1999 as this was published in 2000.

It largely covers the changes in the three main monotheistic religions, and tries to paint a picture of how the different sects of practitioners and preachers responded to the immediate circumstances. People were led to believe in alternate truth, and how the acts of change between orthodox model to not so successful attempts of modernisation, and then back to fundamentals.

The larger thought is that religious ideas which were conceived long back couldn't respond to the changing environment. It was not able to answer the questions which came up with the rise of science and reason. A lot of things which were taken for granted by these ideologies were challenged in the light of new scientific findings. The problem was that those ideas were more to do with faith/belief rather than the reason, and eventually they were less accommodating to the reason.

This lead to the conflict between mythos and logos. So, this came down to the point where the fundamentalists (this word has nothing to do with the militant connotations attached to it in the modern lingo) wanted to create a society which was present at the ancient times which was a difficult task. The nostalgia (which was not even a first hand experience for anyone) passed over the generations became a mythical world where everything was great, and moral, and anything which suggests otherwise is treated as something suspicious or enemy.

The other big factor was the politics, ego, misguided understanding and greed of a lot of people who had vested interests in how the things came up. It may not have been the first intention but eventually it became so big that it was out of anybody's control.

There have been many points that have been put to the argument of why this became so but there can't be any one reason that can justify it. It is more of a mix of various reasons, circumstances, and choices which led to it.

This is worth a read for the history even if it is not up to date.

Peace

Faith, Science and Understanding by John C. Polkinghorne

 Don't fall for the title. It sounds so broad but in the first ten pages you can see how narrow this whole book is.

The religion is going downhill, and it is difficult for the preachers (not the practitioners) to keep the people. Finding the new one is relatively easier by casting a wider net but the problem is with the keeping the people who are believed to be the worthy followers(?).

There is also some larger attempts to dilute the vocabulary and replace the more conventional words to something more obscure like faith. Since, religion can't stand a reasonable argument so it hides behind the idea of god (yes, small g is not a typo) which is projected as something which is not conceivable by human faculties.

There is whole new narrative which is hellbent (choice of word because of hell) to put the religion on top of science and reasoning. Their simple argument is that since science can't give all the answers, religion is the right place to be. They summarily reject the idea of rationality that science never claimed to be the last word unlike religion. Science was always open to scrutiny, challenge, proof, and advancement. While the religious texts were the soul truth for such followers. And yes, science will have to prove everything. Remember, Copernicus waited for 400 years to be accepted.

I never heard of this author, and after reading first ten pages I knew why I didn't. One thing which is very evident from the whole narrative is that the author was trying to nullify the scientific theories, and was actually taking the ammunition from the other scientific discoveries to prove that some didn't stand for long. While he completely overlooked the fact that the science was always open for these changes and challenges. Another thing is how frequently he quotes himself to the man of science. Well, it looked like all the science has put to the efforts of justifying a pointless argument. It all goes down to create new words which look scientific or rational like Theology, Natural theology, Revealed theology. And yes the whole science is well written off as vicissitude. Brilliant!

One interesting thing I saw for the first time is the Templeton Prize. It is GBP 1.1 Million which is awarded for - "Outstanding contributions in affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works". Digest it!

Well, I'll avoid reading anything else from him.

Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds by Leo Braudy

 This is a big title. The title is so big that this should be considered as a chapter, and should be included in content table :)

Joke apart, this is not what I actually thought it to be, and it lies with me for misunderstanding the title. I expected that this will largely based on how the ghosts, and other horror elements came into existence and survived over the time.

However, this is more about how some of the older myths around such entities ended up in the media channels which are largely film, and television.

This does briefly talk about the fear, and the nature of fear but eventually delves more into movies. So, if you're looking for a guide on how ghosts, monsters, zombies etc got into the movies then this is a right reference book.

I was not looking for the above but I still enjoyed it.

Maybe not worth reading 260 pages but can give you a lot to explore further.

Love

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

 Classic again, and no surprises. Amazing from the page one. Special effects with the old english I missed. Thou, thee, orderest and what not :) Sad part is that a lot of obscenities are given as "obscenities" so that it doesn't corrupt your eyes but to your mind. I'd be glad to have these out rather than left for the imagination.

This is the story of love in war. This a story of three days of a mission in Spain where Robert Jordan, an American (addressed as Ingles) is sent to blow a bridge with the help of an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain.

The beauty is that story can be summarised in maybe 5 or so sentences but the narration lasts for about 450 pages. So, largely this is covering the thoughts, dreams, fears, and future plans. Yes, this is full of dialogues also.

It helps you connect with the characters closely. Nothing else is worth adding here because when you read it you will understand it.

Worth a read in the memory of those good old days when the writers were writers.

Love!

The Lost Executioner by Nic Dunlop

 This one I picked after reading the news of death of Duch in September.

I was not aware of such a trial earlier, and when this news came to public I looked for something about him or Cambodia in general, and ended up with this.

I read this, and this left the same impression of anger and despair. This book largely covers the Cambodian situation during Khmer but it is largely focused on the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. 20,000 people entered it, and nobody left alive. The mass graves were found later, and they were found when nobody was looking for them. Like they were having some sort of solitary existence of their own until an outsider disturbed them.

The details of torture and the common condition of prisoners is difficult to go through. It also tries to recreate the situations how the guards, and the people working there handled it. The worst part is how they treated the children just for the sake of saving themselves some trouble.

Duch was always of the opinion that he did wrong but he was merely following the order. This was not surprising as this is the most common line of defence in such cases. The narration always gets shifted from the crime to helplessness of the perpetrators of these crimes. The whole thing is projected as a doing of an organisation where anyone caught is innocent.

Survival is the most basic of the instincts because it is same in animal and human. This is one of the most quoted point to describe animal behaviour from migration, food chain, to be alpha, marking the territory or even monopolising the whole chain of offsprings. However, when it comes to human a lot of these are considered to be off limit. There is a whole cognition in process which defines how we behave. No doubt humans are also genetically designed to have that survival instinct but what separates us from the animals is that cognitive ability to assess the consequences of our actions.

If we're talking about the kind of execution that happened in Tuol Sleng, than you can argue that you were just the cog in the wheel. But unfortunately, you're cog of a wrong wheel and bear the same responsibility as wheel. And, by any definition Duch was not just a cog.

Peace

The Trial by Franz Kafka

 So, the first thought is that this is an incomplete work, and it is written all over it. Another point is that the sequence of the chapters also doesn't come from Kafka. Which I believe is the reason that it sounds so incoherent. All the characters doesn't seem to have developed enough including Josef.

But that doesn't diminish the brilliance of Kafka. If you look at different plots in isolation than you can see his style of surrealistic narration. Pity that he couldn't complete it because even the draft itself is so promising.

Finally, if you're looking for a story this might not be the best of his works (due to incompletion) but if you're looking forward to some of his master strokes than this is worth a read. It's not complete but is about 200 pages so not to worry!

Love

Untimely Meditations by Friedrich Nietzsche

 This is literally a textbook from his initial writings.

Honestly, I missed most of the references and quotes in the book because I was not aware of a lot of people mentioned here. I did look them up later but still will not comment about it.

However, it gives you enough food for thought, and some amazing lines which you will not see from any other writer. It may sound like Nietzsche was critical of everything but look closer and you can see that he was very open for the challenges to his thoughts. Rather than criticising he seems more like examining. And yes there are some lines which I found funny (I'm not sure with those were sarcastic also) but I'll not know.

Not much on this as I'm still digesting it. Fun fact, I wanted to read "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" first but it has been more than a decade since I'm thinking of reading that, and maybe now is the time.

Peace!