Dennis B Murphy >>>>>>>>>>

Literature

August 2008- currently reading The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jakoby, which aptly describes America's bi-polar attitudes toward intellectual thought and rational thinking vs. simply dismissing intellectuals as "elitists" in favor of the so-called "everyman."

God Delusion- not Dawkins' best book but still interesting and is the challenge to theism with empiricism.

1.02.07 Just finished reading Sam Harris' book, "Letter to a Christian Nation."
book- rather like the atheist version of C.S.Lewis' "Mere Christianity." I think my
favorite section is where he challenges christians as to why they don't believe in
Allah and the Kuran, essentially calling them A-islamists (i.e. atheistic toward
Islam). I still have a Barne's&Noble gift card left intend to read
Richard Dawkin's new book "The God Delusion."

11.10.06 Caught up on Atlantic Monthly Magazine.
Currently reading: The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by
Peter Singer & Jim Mason

7-9-06: I am not starting any new books right now... I am working through six back issues of the Atlantic Monthly.
I've had a subscription to this excellent magazine for about 20 years ! I got behind on my reading

Recommended reading: The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. This is an excellent exposition in layman's terms of the principles of evolution. If you don't have time to read the whole book, I suggest reading four chapters- The Salamander's Tale, The Lamprey's Tale, Taq's Tale and Canterbury. The Salamander's Tale explains how species can evolve to be come different species. The Lamprey's Tale discusses two chromosomes in our gene's that split apart over 400 million years ago. So- how can man have chromosomes in our genes that split 400 mya if man is only (approximately) 40 million years old (at most generous estimate from australoepethicus)? Answer- we get these split-apart genes from OUR ancestors... other species from which we evolved. Taq's tale discusses the origin of advanced life through the mechanisms of the bacterias and Canterbury discusses the origin of life from organic chemicals and culminates the book.

Favorite fiction novel: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Favorite fictional hero: Howard Roark from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

Non-fiction historical hero and book: Michael Collins. The bio on Collins is Tim Pat Coogan's "Michael Collins: the man who made Ireland"

Complete Library listings (coming eventually- list of over 400 books both fiction and non-fiction)