Number Builder - Book Reviews
Here are some books that I have
read:
-
Finding Darwin's God - A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God
and Evolution - This one is pretty good. It takes an Anti-Intelligent
Design position. I liked the reasoning that the author gives for believing
that the earth is between 1 and 3 billion years old - based on an excellent
chart showing naturally occurring radioactive isotopes vs. all possible
radioactive isotopes. All of the possible radioactive isotopes are actually
found in nature - except for those that, due to their relatively short
half-lives, would have already decayed into their final products had they
ever naturally existed. // Finally, the author states that he
believes in God, but his conception of God is that he used evolution to
produce humans. Otherwise, I gather, he generally believes the main themes
of the Bible, i.e., that Christ is the Son of God and that he will come
again to judge everyone. As I read this I thought that here is not much
difference between this position and that which is held by the majority of
the ID crowd. But for the ID crowd, (I guess) they think that God
performed multiple individual acts of creation every few million years.
/// Here is the crux of the matter: regarding whether or not fossil layers
were created by liquefaction in Noah's flood or if they were just created
millions of years separate from each other. If there are cases in which
the fossil layers are inverted then it is not possible that they were
created over a long time span.
-
How To Stop Worrying And Start Living- This is a really
good book. It has a lot of very practical ideas for facing life and dealing
with the challenges that it brings. I have read it a couple of times.
-
The Power of Positive
Thinking- Another good one. I haven't read it in a while, but I think
that I went through it (at least twice) years
ago.
- The New Testament
- I have been going through this one off and on for my whole life. It is
about Jesus Christ. There seem to be many layers of meaning. Many people
spend their whole lives reading this book and writing books about it.
- The Old Testament
- This is also pretty good, but I have only read parts of it.
-
Darwin's Black Box - the
Biochemical Challenge to Evolution- I just finished reading this one.
The theme of this book is that macro-evolution cannot occur
bcz of the "irreducible complexity" of many cellular systems at
the molecular level. It's kind of scary, bcz, if this is true, then it
means that Something or Someone started the life
on this planet. If that is the case, then they might still be watching
what we are doing. Ties in (somewhat) nicely with Biblical Creationism.
-
Icons of Evolution
– Subtitle: “Science or Myth? Why much of what we teach about
evolution is wrong.” I
am about 4/5 done. It is
pretty good. It is about
things like “Darwin’s
Finches” and “Peppered Moths.” The authors
contention is that these famous examples of evolution in action are either
a) misleading or b) known to be wrong. The author goes through
several examples which will be typically cited by the avg person when you
ask “how do you know that evolution is correct.” In the case of the
-
HTML 4 for Dummies
- I read this to learn how to create a web page (like the one you are
reading.) Some of the pages in NumberBuilder were created with vi
directly on my hosting company's server - but most of them were created
either through FrontPage or with Word.
- MCSE Windows 95 Study
Guide - I read this one back in the summer of 2000. It was kind of
tough slogging through the 700 or so pages, but I was determined to get a
Microsoft Certification, so I did it. Generally it was well written, and
there were helpful review questions & exercises at the end of each
chapter. I would recommend similar-type books for anyone else who was
interested in getting a certification. At the same time, though, I think that
the best way to actually practice taking the MS tests is by using the
www.transcender.com software. I
finally ordered it, the night before I was scheduled to take the test.
It was nearly identical to the actual test. It cost about $250, as I
recall.
- Unix
Shell Programming 2nd Ed. - This one was great - it got me started
with scripting - I read it completely through, finishing right around
Christmas of 1999. I have referred to it so many times that, eventually,
the front cover fell off. I enjoy writing UNIX shell programs.
-
Perl and CGI for the
World Wide Web - I read this one (mainly) while riding an exercise
bike a the gym. It explains how to use Perl and
CGI to build things like my
suggestions and
donations pages. Very good book.
-
Worlds in Collision
- This one is really interesting. The premise is that many of the
so-called "mythological" folk-stories that have come down to us
are, in reality, descriptions of global catastrophe's that really happened.
The author compares folk stories from many disparate locations (i.e., Asia,
Pacific Islands,
the Americans, Africa and Europe) and
shows how they contain similar specific details. Examples:
- Stories of
"Serpents" in the sky with long tails (a near collision of
earth with an Asteroid.)
- A man who built a
large boat that carried animals during a global flood.
- Other stories from the
Bible that would have had a global impact if they were true.
Anyway, it was so long ago that I
read it that I don't recall a lot of the details. Suffice it to say it was good -
and it made sense that the physically separate societies would only come up
with similar stories if, indeed, the events actually occurred.
-
Graded German Reader
- Excellent book to get you started in reading & speaking German. It
starts out by introducing a whole slew of cognates (there are many) and then
slowly progresses you into more advanced vocabulary. Contains many
short stories - often with a moral or an entertaining twist.
-
Einstein For
Beginners - This was a great one. Every one should read it. It
describes the details behind E=mc^2 using only cartoons and a minimum of
math. I remember thinking, after I finished it, that I could derive the
formula using little more than the Pythagorean theorem as a starting
point.
-
The Dilbert Future
- another good one.
-
As a Man Thinketh
- An excellent book - also very short.
- The Success Formula
That Really Works (Homer Surbeck) - Another truly excellent short book.
Contains a Christian / scientific explanation of why the karma-idea works -
i.e., "give it all that you've got and you will be rewarded". Very
inspirational.
-
The Relaxation
Response- This was a best-seller back in the Seventies. I liked it bcz
it gives you the science behind the folk wisdom that says that meditation
is a good thing.
- Man's Unconquerable
Mind
- Las Joyas Robadas
- (Spanish) I read this one about 12 years ago. I only vaguely remember
that the plot had to do with stolen jewels in Mexico or some other Central
American country. This book, like the "Graded German Reader" is
a good example of a book that can help a person (who already has a fairly
good grasp of the fundamentals of a foreign language) to get over the
"hump" of fluency.
-
Clutter's Last Stand
- This one was great - I read about 65%. It has a lot of funny
cartoons, too. The premise of the book is "get rid of all of the junk
in your closets and drawers that you don't use and don't need."
The author goes over many of the ridiculous "reasons" that we give ourselves
for why we need to keep all of that stuff. Personally, I have gotten
rid of a lot of my junk & I intend to get rid of a lot more. 4 Stars.
-
Traipsing Into Evolution
- Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision. This
is a good one. I was reading at the gym while working out on an
elliptical machine. It is concise - which is very nice. Covers
stuff like "What is the definition of science?" when it comes to the law.
-
In The Beginning - This is an
excellent book - which you can also read online for free at the same link.
It explains in detail how a global flood might have occurred and how it
would explain many otherwise difficult to reconcile scientific observations
about the world. Includes an explanation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
(next to the oceans, this is the largest continuous feature of Earth),
multiple stacked layers of very thin sedimentary and fossil-bearing stone,
Wooly Mammoths encased in dirty ice, wave-like layering in sedimentary
stone, the origin of icy comets (and why they may contain
biological material), the origin of 100 ft thick coal seams (a stack of
fresh vegetation 1000 feet high), an amazing discussion of
cyclothems,
etc, etc. Personally, I have been thinking that I would like to do a
test - either mechanical or computational of the liquefaction idea.
Books That I Am Currently Working On
-
Perl Objects,
References & Modules I am in the middle of reading this one. It is
about using classes in Perl programming. It is mercifully short
(about 220 pgs or so?) - but it covers what you need to know to get started. My
goal is to become a good Perl OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) programmer.
-
Get a Financial Life - Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties.
This one is pretty good. The upshot is: 1) Payoff your credit card
debt and 2) Invest in mutual funds and 3) eventually you will be able to
retire.
-
Reason in the Balance - The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law &
Education. This one is very good. The upshot is that the
philosophy of atheism is dominant among scientists and this philosophy
colors their interpretation of (otherwise) empirical data.
Specifically, Darwinism, can be considered true by deduction (whether you
look at the data or not) simply because, in a materialist word view, there
is no other way to account for the origin of the species. Thus, it
must be true. BTW,
Materialism is the
metaphysical belief that mater, energy, and natural laws are the only things
that exist in the universe. Specifically, this is in contrast
with Theism, which is the
belief that God or god(s) exist outside of the natural order.
-
Darwin On Trial - (Also by Philip E. Johnson.)
Home ~~~
Poems
~~~
More Poems ~~~
Music
Plants ~~~
Ideas ~~~
Photos ~~~
Quotes
Test ~~~
CGI ~~~
Favorites ~~~
Donate