Outstanding new book out today for you atheists, agnostics, humanists, naturalists and free thinkers

by Cornbread 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Cornbread

  I just got back from the bookstore and I can't wait to sink into it based on all the reviews and press it has been getting. It's called The Big Picture - On the Origin of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll.

  “Weaving the threads of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and philosophy into a seamless narrative tapestry, Sean Carroll enthralls us with what we’ve figured out in the universe and humbles us with what we don’t yet understand. Yet in the end, it’s the meaning of it all that feeds your soul of curiosity.”
  —Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey
  
  *Publishers Weekly #1 Most Anticipated Science Book of Spring 2016*
  
  "Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on Higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void? Does human purpose and meaning fit into a scientific worldview?
  
  In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level--and then how each connects to the other. Carroll''s presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.
  
  Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.
  
  The Big Picture is an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. Wilson for years to come."

  
  
  
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  WhatshallIcallmyself

  Not available in England until September 1st for some daft reason...
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  konceptual99

  Damn....
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  Anders Andersen

  Thanks, added to my reading list
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  talesin

  Looks to be a very interesting book.  Thanks for the heads-up.   I've put in a request to the local library. I liked what he said in the Scientific American interview here:
  

  .

  As a physicist, what inspired you to write a book essentially on philosophy?

  
  It evolved over a very long time. I’ve always been interested in not only physics directly, but also the wider consequences. I was a philosophy minor as an undergraduate. I always have thought that doing physics was part of a larger intellectual project of trying to understand the whole world in different ways.

  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/godless-universe-a-physicist-searches-for-meaning-in-nature/
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  cofty

  Sounds good.

  I have two books by Sean B Carroll and they are both excellent.
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  Cornbread

  Here's am excellent interview from Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/08/the_evidence_is_pretty_incontrovertible_that_he_doesnt_exist_stephen_colberts_favorite_scientist_on_the_universe_naturalism_and_finding_meaning_without_god/
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  bohm

  I am looking forward to reading it in the summer.
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  cofty

  Actually I'm not sure now which Sean Carroll this is.

  Sean B Carroll is Professor of Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. I have two of his books.

  Sean M. Carroll is a cosmologist and Physics professor at Caltech. I think this is the author of the new book despite the fact that Amazon lists the author as Sean B Carroll.

  Very odd?
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  Diogenesister

  Thanks for the heads up! Not available in the UK until August according to Amazon....I'm definitely going to make a purchase!