The Night Sky
Pin pricks of light spear its way through the darkness of space. A tornado of red, flowing energy sweeps its way through the universe, over the dark and the light. At its eye, the light is the brightest. Making all other stars in the area fade away, until it is alone.
The Science Delusion written by Rupert Sheldrake is a book that seeks to explain that modern science is based on a series of dogmas. The title seems to allude to Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and it is possible for some parallels to be made between the two. The book summarises much of Rupert Sheldrake’s previous work while also including some new ideas about materialism.
Rupert Sheldrake has structured the book into 10 main chapters; each being a different scientific dogma that he believes is holding back research. These were concepts that scientists had been using for years in development and research, and Rupert Sheldrake wanted to break them. He named them the “Ten Scientific Dogmas” which are: Nature is Mechanical, The Total Amount of Matter and Energy are Always the Same, The laws of Nature are Fixed, Matter is Unconscious, Nature is Purposeless, All Biological Inheritance Material, Memories are Stored as Material Traces, Minds are Confined to Brains,
The Science Delusion not by Rupert Sheldrake
Psychic Phenomena are Illusory, Mechanistic Medicine is the only kind that really works. As you read through them you may find that you agree or disagree with the dogmas, but in each chapter Sheldrake attempts to disprove them one at a time. The chapters are not fully connected together, as they all refer to a different dogma but still refer slightly to other chapters. If a reader was to read a single, random chapter in the book they would still be able to understand the main concepts but may not be able to relate to the finer details. For this reason reading the book from start to finish may be a better course of action.
The chapters are structured much like an essay: introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion. As this is such a simple and familiar structure to everyone it makes the chapters a lot easier to follow and understand. As he introduces the relevant dogma in every chapter, even if the reader is not familiar with the idea it they would still be able to understand and enjoy his explanations.
At the end of each chapter, Sheldrake would write a summary of its contents. This helps readers understand the harder scientific concepts and makes it possible to skip chapters and only read the summary. Included in the summary is also a series of questions, designed to question your beliefs in the dogmas. I believe this is a great idea as it doesn’t seem to force the reader to accept its concepts raised in the book but instead allows them to make their own decisions.
The Science Delusion is an interesting book that questions some fundamental scientific content. As you read it you will often find that it makes you question some things that we have always considered to be true. It makes you wonder if there are any other dogmas that you are blindly following without being aware of the whole truth.
Voted the best Science Book Ever, Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table is a book that is sure to change reader’s ideas about science writing. Contrary to most science writing books, it is not a just an explanation of a new scientific concept instead it is written in the form of an autobiography. He links his biography with the periodic table; a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements. Each chapter is a named after a different chemical element, the first being “Argon”, the second being “Hydrogen”, and so one so forth. The structure and style of his writing make the book unique and interesting.
Primo Levi
The style of writing that Primo Levi uses makes the book a lot more appealing. His characterisations of characters like his Grandmother, his friends and other characters in the book make them feel real and relatable. As he spends time making his characters relatable, when he links his anecdotes to the properties of the element that he is explaining the reader is able to better understand the thinking behind his links. He uses metaphors and other such conventions to characterise the characters, a convention of writing that is not commonly used in science writing while still being able to explain the scientific concepts. The characterisation greatly improves the book and is one reason why the book is one of the best science writing books of all time.
Metaphors are used throughout the text to conjure thought provoking images and ideas. They leave notions in the reader’s minds that may change the way that they think. Often times they are not explained in the greatest detail, leaving room in the readers mind to interpret the metaphor in their own way. An example of such is: “Man is a centaur, a tangle of flesh and mind, divine inspiration and dust.” The metaphor relates man to a centaur, stating that inspiration and art is derived from our body and that in the end we will be just dust. The metaphor states the simple meaning but it is possible that every person could understand it is a different way. The metaphors instigate interest and curiosity in the reader, and make the few boring chapters in the book a bit more groovy.
The language conventions used in The Periodic Table, make the book an interesting change to the majority of other science writing books. It shows that it is possible for science writing to have many different styles that engage different readers. Overall is an intriguing book that I would recommend to anyone.
The Periodic Table
The attributes of life often represent the attributes of atoms: inert, beautiful, precious, brittle, volatile… Inspired by the order behind the periodic table, Primo Levi describes the properties of the atoms through anecdotes of his own life. The anecdotes relate to aspects of his own life: His birth in a Jewish family, his training to be a chemist and the pain caused by the holocaust. Many readers find the structure of the book to be different and unique; while some readers love it others find it confusing and think it doesn’t fit well together. The style is partially due to the fact that the collection of stories was written over a long period of time so the writing style often changes.
As his book is basically an autobiography of his life, at times the book is often quite slow and boring while at others can be interesting and engaging. An example of this is the first chapter in which he describes his relatives in an effort write about the properties of Argon, the chapter is one of the most tedious chapters in the book, when compared to chapters like Carbon. Carbon one of the most well-known chapters in his book, is an example of one of his engaging chapters.
The chapters slowly work their way through his life, starting from infancy. As the book seems ordered by the dates in which the events happened it makes the book a lot more relatable to readers. As they are able to relate to the experiences it helps them understand the scientific concepts that are being explained in the book’s chapters.
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is mostly an interesting, entertaining read. Named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, it has quite a large reputation to live up to. Although the structure can at some stages make the book quite boring it makes the science topics explained in the book a lot easier to understand.
Flatland is a satirical novel written by English school teacher Edwin A. Abbot. The author uses the setting “Flatland” to state observations about social Victorian hierarchy. The first few chapters of the book are dedicated to explaining the ways in which the world is organised, immediately creating connections with the real world.
A part of Flatland that I could personally relate to is the concept of fear of the unknown. Society is often content with the way things are and view changes to it as threats. This is evident in the book because when Square first heard of Spaceland he refused to believe in it because it opposed his beliefs and ideas. Later in the book when Square is preaching to the Circles he is thrown in prison because the Circles do not understand what he was preaching and because of that were fearful of it. The concept is extremely prevalent in real life in which people with radical new ideas that oppose social norms are often ridiculed
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Flatland
and their ideas are often not considered
Although there are some concepts in the text that I personally can relate to there are also some that I do not. For example I can’t relate to the concept that men and women have different roles in society and are not equal. Perhaps it is possible that the readers in the 1800’s may have been able to connect to the ideas of social class displayed in the book, but as society today has less of a social structure and hierarchy it makes it harder for modern readers to fully relate to some of the concepts in the book.
An important concept in the book is that the reality that you perceive may not be entirely correct. In the book Square is amazed at the inability of Lineland and Pointland societies to experience his own perspective of reality, one which he believes is entirely true. Yet when he is dragged into Spaceland he has a similar lack of understanding but realises the possibility of endless dimensions. Each dimension is essentially a view of reality and the book shows how everyone completely believes in his or her view of reality even though it may not be faultless. This concept is evident in life as everyday you meet people that view the world in different ways and have conflicting ideas on the same topics.
The book has changed the way in which I perceive reality. It showed the way in different people can completely believe in their own version of reality when in truth they are only seeing a small part of the whole picture. It shows the way in which people of different cultures with differing beliefs and customs can have differing views on the same thing.
The God Delusion is a non-fiction book by the English biologist Richard Dawkins, its main argument is that a supernatural creator or a “God” almost certainly doesn’t exist, and a belief in one is a delusion. The book makes the reader question their own beliefs and ideas about religion, morality and decision making, and although the book starts by questioning religion it goes on to explain other concepts like atheism, natural selection and evolution.
One concept that Richard Dawkins raises is that religion should not be controlled by family and instead should be a personal decision. For example a baby born into a Christian family will be assumed to be Christian as well, but in fact it is not as it does not believe in the religious beliefs yet. As the child is assumed to be Christian it now does not have a choice and when it grows up will often feel forced to follow the religion. Dawkins has the theory that if someone was to follow a religion it should be his or her choice, and should not be instead forced onto them in their childhood.
The book states that religion is for the weak minded as it is based on superstition. It explains that religion was created to justify phenomena in the world that humans were not yet able to fully understand, such as creation and the weather. Now that science is able to explain a lot of things that were previously unexplained, he believes that religion is now irrelevant and unneeded. He provides examples that show the flaws in religion hoping to show the reader that religion is a false belief and
The God Delusion
accepting it is a delusion.
The central ideas of the book revolve around the concept that god and religion is a delusion. It states that those that support religion are weak minded science makes religion irrelevant and unneeded; it instead supports the ideas of atheism and evolution.
“The Science Delusion” is a book published by Rupert Sheldrake in January 2012. The “Delusion” that he refers to in the book is a series of statements, beliefs that he thinks are holding science back. He refers to these as the ten dogmas and believes that science needs to be an open-minded approach to investigating phenomenon rather than something that is restrained by these beliefs.
One key materialist belief is that science will eventually explain everything in chemistry and physics. In Chapter 1 it is suggested that science perhaps cannot explain everything. It explains that science can explain what we see and how we see it but cannot explain how we experience it. For example, it can explain why ice is cold, why we feel cold when we touch it, but
The Science Delusion
it cannot explain the feeling and experience we get when we touch it.
Although there is a lot to agree with in the book, there are also some things that I don’t agree with. For example the idea that science is an opposition to religion. I don’t think that science and religion are complete polar opposites and I believe that it is possible for them to coexist in some way. I also believe that evolution is not completely pointless, as it is striving to create better and longer lasting organisms.
The idea that science is not just a belief but a religion is brought up in the book. It is one of the key concepts that the authors talks about in the first chapter. It states that science is a religion because both science and religion and striving to answer the same questions. It also suggests that if you believe in science very strongly it is inevitable that you will become atheist
The book has changed the way that I think of some things. For instance, it states that science is not always right and in many circumstances can be completely incorrect. This taught me that it is not always the right thing to blindly follow what people, even scientists say. It also makes me wonder if I am also being held back by these dogmas as well.
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