I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of the most important non-fiction books. A couple of them you may never have heard of before, but I am willing to guess you at least are familiar with the next three. Here we go
6. Mein Kampf, Adolph Hilter, 1925 and Night, Elie Wiesel, 1960. I was torn in few places which books to choose, so in cases like this one I am combining two books that in a weird way talk about the same event, but from completely different angles. These two books both deal with the most important even in the 20th century, World War II. An event that took the lives of 50,000,000 people world wide.
Mein Kamf, translates into My Struggle, was written by Hilter while he was a prisoner in Germany after his failed revolution known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He wrote it partly as an autobiography and partly to get his message to the public. In the book he established his theories of the importance of propaganda, and of need to gain more territory for the German people. It is also in Mein Kamf where he discussed the Jewish peril, and the conspiracy of the Jews to take over the world. Germany was in the throws of the Great Depression, leaving the German people desperate and looking for anything to give them hope. In Mein Kamf, Hitler offers Germans the hope they sought by providing a scape goat for all their problems, mainly the Democratic German Government that took power in the months before the end of WWI. It was this Weimar government that surrendered, backed of course by the jews, not the German people. He blaimed all the ills of Germany on these two groups. He then went on to discuss his plans of how he would re-arm Germany and than ally with Italy and England to conquer the world. What I find most amazing about Mein Kamf is that Hitler told everyone his plans, yet no one seemed to have read it outside of Germany or we would have known when he took power in 1934 what he planned on doing. Instead England and France continued to apease Hitler as he conquered nation after nation, until finaly in 1938 they declared war after it was too late. The reason this book is significant is that Hitler followed his plan and launched the world into the bloodiest struggle ever.
Where as Mein Kamf tells of how WW II began, Night tells of its consequences. Elie Wiesel wrote Night after surviving a Nazi concentration camp. In May of 1944 Wiesel and his Father, Mother, and sister were sent to Auschwitz. His is the story of one of the worst eposides in human history and he details the life of Jews under the Nazi control. I do not have time or space here to detail his account, everyone should read it for themselves, but I want to give one line that hit me strongly. In one passage they were speaking about God. Understandably, Wiesel was having diffuculties with God, how could God allow such horror to happen. He makes the statement along the lines of the only one I believe in now is Hitler, he is the only one that keeps his promises. There was so much power in this converstation about the nature and power of God, as well the nature and power of Hitler. There are many books that talk about the Holicaust, but Night transcends them, not only is Wiesel’s story gripping, but he has a gift for writing that allows the reader to feel his pains. It is a short book, and an easy read, and has the power to change the reader.
5. Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, 1859. Darwin and this book are well known today as the book that introduced evolution and the ideas of survival of the fittests. These ideas by themselves may merit one of the most imporant books in history, but from my standpoint, Origin of Species is important because it marks the historical end of the co-habitation of the scientist and the believer. Throughout history religious men and scholars have always been able to function together. The idea that enlightenment and religion were at odds is incorrect. Great thinkers have always been able to remain religious. One of the greatest thinkers ever was Issac Newton, his work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica could and maybe should have made this list. It was there that Newton gave his laws of physics and princples such as gravity. However, Newton wrote many other, less known works such as, An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, which were very religious texts. Newton believed in God and believed in science and did not see the two as exclusive. Most scientist believed this same way. A good example from today is the big bang theory to explain the creation of the Universe. Scientiest believe a big explosion created the matter that makes up our Universe, but the religious man can agree with the big bang, but believe that God made the bang as his way of creating everything. In other words, God uses nature for his purposes.
All that changed in 1859 with the Origin of Species. For the first time there was a division between science and religion and even within religion between what were called liberals and those eventually called fundamentals. Evolution directly challenged the teaching of the Bible. It said man was not made in the image of God, but in fact evolved from lesser animals. Some liberal religious thinkers, wanted to work evolution into their cannon the way past scientific theories were, but most religious thinks drew the line there. What I find most intersting about this debate is that most scolars and media will have us believe that the scientic views have won out in this country and many even point to the Scopes Trial as the beginning. In 1925 John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for breaking the law of the state by teaching evolution. Two of the greatest minds of their day took on the case on opposite sides. This was the greatest trial of the 1900s, Clarance Darrow for the defence and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and God was on trial. Scopes lost, and Bryan died within the month, and history has always taught that Bryan died believing that he won, but in fact people saw the error of their ways with the trial and this was the end of religious involvment in public schools. I do not agree with with the standard text book interpretation of Scopes. Sure today evolution is taught, but it took almost 50 years after Scopes to do so in most places. In some schools today it is not taught at all (private schools). To say that evolution is accepted today by most Americans is false. But the fact that it is so hotly debated today, and has politizied much of the scientific word from the religious world is evidence that Origin of Species deserves its number five ranking.
6. Mein Kampf, Adolph Hilter, 1925 and Night, Elie Wiesel, 1960. I was torn in few places which books to choose, so in cases like this one I am combining two books that in a weird way talk about the same event, but from completely different angles. These two books both deal with the most important even in the 20th century, World War II. An event that took the lives of 50,000,000 people world wide.
Mein Kamf, translates into My Struggle, was written by Hilter while he was a prisoner in Germany after his failed revolution known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He wrote it partly as an autobiography and partly to get his message to the public. In the book he established his theories of the importance of propaganda, and of need to gain more territory for the German people. It is also in Mein Kamf where he discussed the Jewish peril, and the conspiracy of the Jews to take over the world. Germany was in the throws of the Great Depression, leaving the German people desperate and looking for anything to give them hope. In Mein Kamf, Hitler offers Germans the hope they sought by providing a scape goat for all their problems, mainly the Democratic German Government that took power in the months before the end of WWI. It was this Weimar government that surrendered, backed of course by the jews, not the German people. He blaimed all the ills of Germany on these two groups. He then went on to discuss his plans of how he would re-arm Germany and than ally with Italy and England to conquer the world. What I find most amazing about Mein Kamf is that Hitler told everyone his plans, yet no one seemed to have read it outside of Germany or we would have known when he took power in 1934 what he planned on doing. Instead England and France continued to apease Hitler as he conquered nation after nation, until finaly in 1938 they declared war after it was too late. The reason this book is significant is that Hitler followed his plan and launched the world into the bloodiest struggle ever.
Where as Mein Kamf tells of how WW II began, Night tells of its consequences. Elie Wiesel wrote Night after surviving a Nazi concentration camp. In May of 1944 Wiesel and his Father, Mother, and sister were sent to Auschwitz. His is the story of one of the worst eposides in human history and he details the life of Jews under the Nazi control. I do not have time or space here to detail his account, everyone should read it for themselves, but I want to give one line that hit me strongly. In one passage they were speaking about God. Understandably, Wiesel was having diffuculties with God, how could God allow such horror to happen. He makes the statement along the lines of the only one I believe in now is Hitler, he is the only one that keeps his promises. There was so much power in this converstation about the nature and power of God, as well the nature and power of Hitler. There are many books that talk about the Holicaust, but Night transcends them, not only is Wiesel’s story gripping, but he has a gift for writing that allows the reader to feel his pains. It is a short book, and an easy read, and has the power to change the reader.
5. Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, 1859. Darwin and this book are well known today as the book that introduced evolution and the ideas of survival of the fittests. These ideas by themselves may merit one of the most imporant books in history, but from my standpoint, Origin of Species is important because it marks the historical end of the co-habitation of the scientist and the believer. Throughout history religious men and scholars have always been able to function together. The idea that enlightenment and religion were at odds is incorrect. Great thinkers have always been able to remain religious. One of the greatest thinkers ever was Issac Newton, his work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica could and maybe should have made this list. It was there that Newton gave his laws of physics and princples such as gravity. However, Newton wrote many other, less known works such as, An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, which were very religious texts. Newton believed in God and believed in science and did not see the two as exclusive. Most scientist believed this same way. A good example from today is the big bang theory to explain the creation of the Universe. Scientiest believe a big explosion created the matter that makes up our Universe, but the religious man can agree with the big bang, but believe that God made the bang as his way of creating everything. In other words, God uses nature for his purposes.
All that changed in 1859 with the Origin of Species. For the first time there was a division between science and religion and even within religion between what were called liberals and those eventually called fundamentals. Evolution directly challenged the teaching of the Bible. It said man was not made in the image of God, but in fact evolved from lesser animals. Some liberal religious thinkers, wanted to work evolution into their cannon the way past scientific theories were, but most religious thinks drew the line there. What I find most intersting about this debate is that most scolars and media will have us believe that the scientic views have won out in this country and many even point to the Scopes Trial as the beginning. In 1925 John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for breaking the law of the state by teaching evolution. Two of the greatest minds of their day took on the case on opposite sides. This was the greatest trial of the 1900s, Clarance Darrow for the defence and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and God was on trial. Scopes lost, and Bryan died within the month, and history has always taught that Bryan died believing that he won, but in fact people saw the error of their ways with the trial and this was the end of religious involvment in public schools. I do not agree with with the standard text book interpretation of Scopes. Sure today evolution is taught, but it took almost 50 years after Scopes to do so in most places. In some schools today it is not taught at all (private schools). To say that evolution is accepted today by most Americans is false. But the fact that it is so hotly debated today, and has politizied much of the scientific word from the religious world is evidence that Origin of Species deserves its number five ranking.
3 comments:
Interesting observations. I think this polarization is an unfortunate byproduct of the Christian world having used the bible as a reference point for truths about the physical world for so long. As long as most of Christianity holds on to the creation story in Genesis as being a literal event then it is much harder to reconcile with evolution, though not impossible.
To me, the creation story in Genesis is more allegory about the nature of man and his relationship to God than a literal account of creation. We live in a world that no longer understand symbology and so literalism is the only lens many can see this through.
I see no reason why science and religion cannot reconcile on the issue of evolution if each can admit its limitations.
Why I find this comment by matt interesting is that it is the same argument made by Darrow in the Scopes Trial. They called Bryan to the stand to ask him how literal he took the bible. Most famously (as seen in the movie Inherit the Wind) they ask if he believed Jonas was swallowed by a Whale, which Bryan said no, he was swallowed by a fish, and yes it did happen. Bryan’s best line was it is better to know the Rock of Ages than to know the ages of rocks. The literal interpretation of the Bible really got going in the early 1900s with the creation of the Pentecostal Church in Kansas. They published a series of books called the Fundamentals (giving us the term fundamentalists). They argued that the Bible should be taken literally. The Pentecosts influenced other religions in the south and had a hand in leading to the trial.
As for myself I disagree with my wise old friend Matt. I do take the Bible literally and do not see Genius as symbolic. What ever doubts I may have with the Bible’s account, in my opinion I think the Temple clears it up. So I am one of those who has problems with evolution. Go to Matt’s blog listed on my wife’s page and watch his clip on what is a fundamentalist. I guess I fall into that category. This is why Matt has always been one of my best friends, he too likes talking about this stuff, so thanks for the comments and I look forward to more.
I don't want to be misinterpreted as saying that I don't think it is possible the Genesis account is literal, I am just not compelled to that conclusion. That is probably what I should have said. Actually, I think it can be both. Also, and I'm sure we part company here based on your other comments, but I think the temple is even more symbolic than the Genesis account. Particularly because we are told that we are seeing something "represented."
Anyway, I don't claim to know and think there is room for genuine disagreement on that point. I have come to believe that faith answers the "whys" where are science answers the "hows." Your big bang example is a perfect one. Science now believes that it can describe the universe hundredths of seconds after it was born. How the forces came into being. Assume all that is true. The question of why there was a big bang and what caused it, if anything, are religious questions that science can't really give insight into.
I have a feeling I'm going to be wasting increasing amounts of time on your site James.
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