03-09-2008, 05:33 PM
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| Senior Member | | Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 642
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Amazon books top review on Dawkin's 'The Selfish Gene' .... Amazon.com: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author: Richard Dawkins: Books Quote: ' But at the same time, I largely blame "The Selfish Gene" for a series of bouts of depression I suffered from for more than a decade, and part of me wants to rate the book at zero stars for its effect on my life. Never sure of my spiritual outlook on life, but trying to find something deeper - trying to believe, but not quite being able to - I found that this book just about blew away any vague ideas I had along these lines, and prevented them from coalescing any further. This created quite a strong personal crisis for me some years ago......
......Some critics of this book have found its reasoning unconvincing, its materialist reductionism too superficial and shallow. But, from my perspective, the problem does not lie here; the problem with the book is that it is *too* convincing, that it is *entirely* convincing. The book makes it very difficult to continue to believe in anything that contradicts its basic premise, but which might be more comforting, and might give a greater sense of hope and inspiration, and provide a real sense of purpose in life.
Such have its effects on my life been that, in my more depressed moments, I have desperately wished I could unread the book, and continue life from where I left off.....'
| With epigenetics, neo-Darwism is beginning to crack at the seams, the book maybe caused this guy needless depression?  |