Another book I recently read for review was Synergy: Science Reasons With Atheists. By the title I had thought this would be a book dealing with natural theology in arguing against the atheist position, but it is something different and worthwhile.

The author takes 50 common questions about science and faith and answers them from the Catholic point of view. It simply presents accurately what the Church teaches in regards to theology. It is not combatant in any way when dealing with these questions and thus is a book that might even to appeal to an atheist of good will. I know that when I was an atheist I would have been intrigued by this book that shatters so many of the myths of reason being an antonym for faith.

The book is peppered throughout with quotes from scientists about God with the majority of them being from Catholic scientists. While I have done a good deal of reading on this topic I came across a lot of intriguing quotes I had not seen before. The subject of the Catholic scientist is one I so enjoy in part to my previous ignorance of the subject since famous scientists are usually stripped of their faith when presented in textbooks. I especially liked the section regarding the Galileo controversy and other myths of persecution by the Church against scientists. His discussion of Copernicus, Galileo and others shows the truth that the persecution of so many scientists and in fact scientists who were Catholic was for the most part done by the University System. I already knew that Copernicus was afraid to publish his book because of the reception by the universities and that it was a Cardinal who encouraged him to publish anyway. What I didn’t know is that this was not a unique occurrence and something that repeated itself.

We constantly hear about the Galileo incident, yet Antoine Lavoisier who has been called the Father of Modern Chemistry and was killed during the so-called Enlightenment as a traitor for speaking up for the rights of foreign-born scientists. The judge in the case said “The Republic needs neither scientists nor chemists; the course of justice can not be delayed.” Ignaz Semmelweis the Catholic and Hungarian Physician who introduced hand-washing to limit the spread of disease before germ theory was totally ostracized by the medical profession and reduced to poverty. The fact that he reduced the deaths at a maternity ward by half did not matter to them. There are other examples in the book of similar happenings.

The book though is not just about phony faith vs. science, but attempts to answer many other questions in what I thought to be sound both theologically and from a scientific point of view. There was much that I liked in this book and certainly a book I would recommend to those dealing with atheists.

There are some slight quibbles I had with the book. He repeats several times that our DNA and monkeys are 99% identical. Well I am not quibbling that the oft-used figure is 98.4%. The problem is that humans and mice also share a similar percentage and the fact that complete genomes of both species is showing a deepening chasm because of the greater differences in what was once called junk DNA. The oft quoted figure is becoming less and less meaningful. [resource] Though I really liked that authors explanation on evolution and the fact that a soul can not evolve and is given directly by God.

I found the section on “Why do religious people believe in prophecy” to confuse prediction based observation with actual prophecy as part of God’s supernatural providence. Describing scientific prediction based on observations as a close cousin to prophecy is not a very good comparison in my opinion. Scientific induction is not prophecy and I would have liked to see an actual Catholic view on prophecy spelled out here.

My last quibble is with the section which asked “Why did Thomas Jefferson think a wall of separation between church and state was needed?” This section seemed to me contrary to what Jefferson actually wrote in his letter to the Danbury Baptists the only time he used this phrase. They were afraid the state would interfere with the church and Jefferson assured them that this was not the case. The phony court view that the state must be separated from religious influence was made out of whole cloth. Maybe I misconstrued what the author was writing here, but to me it did seem to project the modern view onto Jefferson.

It is much easier for me to call out quibbles than to remark intelligently on the contents of this book and the fact I read the majority of the book with no such quibbles.

I received for review Holy Ghosts: Or How a (Not-So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night and I am not quite sure what to make of it.

For the most part I really enjoyed the narrative of the book as the author relates a haunting of the house he lived in with his family that was also his childhood home. The author a Catholic describes the events that happened that convinced him that something was going on that was not material, but kept a mainly skeptical view throughout. If this was a novel and not a true account it would be an enjoyable read with some interesting chills, but not any real horror in the modern sense. Gary Jansen as an author is very engaging and you really come to accept all that he writes as he relates the haunting the strange coincidences piled on top of each other.

The sub title of the book describes the author as a (not so) good Catholic boy, which I found rather annoying. The author certainly seemed to be a serious Catholic in that for example when he was doing research on the subject who turned to the writings of the late Fr. Hardon of whom he trusted as an authentic source for Catholic teaching. At another point he turns to Peter Kreeft. There are interesting discussions between him and his wife on whether an action was something appropriate to the Catholic faith. He is also an author who has written a book of meditations on the Rosary. So while Catholics serious about the faith shouldn’t think that they are ready to be canonized and should know that they are indeed sinners saved only by the grace of God; at the same time humility is knowing the truth about yourself and being self-depricating as in the sub title is not really accurate. I probably dwell too much on this point and I love books like the Bad Catholics Guides to …. . It is just that I though this was a book written by a fallen away Catholic.

This is not to say that all decisions made by the author in getting rid of his haunting I though were prudential or even within Catholic doctrine. It was interesting to see the amount of research Gary Jansen did in learning about the spirit world and the realities of Angels and Demons and orthodox books on the subject going back of course to the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas. With this type of grounding he still turns to a well-known ghost whisperer and follows her advice. This was the part of the book I have heavy qualms about. The idea that some hauntings are people who have died that need to find their way to the light after something has been resolved is common folder in stories. The concept that people in Purgatory might be doing this I find little credence for. Though as far as I know it is not something totally ruled out by doctrine and of course our knowledge on Purgatory is extremely limited.

While the author in the acknowledgements mentions a priest he had become friends with, what is missing is his actually going to the Church for advice about these hauntings. There is no mention of his discussing this with any priests, but this might have been left out. If so it is a curious omission. I just found strange the curios tension with him going to good and orthodox sources for research and then after some thought going with a ghost whisperer recommended by a friend.

Like Julie at Happy Catholic who reviewed this book I found rather disconcerting the authors use of occasional swearing which while not being particularly offensive, just seemed incongruous with the way he wrote. Despite some of my qualms and quibbles I did enjoy this book and it was a serious page turner in wanting to find out what would happen next. The writing makes you really want to accept what the author writes as a true experience and I certainly never had the feeling the story was less than truthful. I would certainly recommend this book with the caveats mentioned as it gives you much to think about.

For a book where the author wants to be seen as credible it seemed rather odd for me that one of the review quotes on the back of the book was from writer Whitley Strieber, author of Communion and other books. I have read Communion which is suppose to be a true account of Streiber’s encounters with aliens and is also written with a skeptical view of what was happening.

Happy Catholic’s much better written review is here. She also quotes some good passages from the book.

As a reviewer for the Catholic Writers Guild I was given the opportunity to read a new book by author Michelle Buckman called Death Panels: A Novel of Life, Liberty and Faith.. The title certainly sounded intriguing. Before reading it I had wondered if it would be high on polemics concerning medical boards and low on a worthwhile story line. I soon found this was not a concern at all as I quickly got pulled into the story and raced through the book following the characters and plot.

In some ways it reminded me of Monsignor’s Robert Hugh Benson Lord of the World which is a dystopian novel of the end times. This novel starts in a future of 2042 that in some ways has some of same facets of Lord of the World, but without the eschatological aspects. The future is the bottom of that slippery slope where bureaucracies take over healthcare decisions and more and more power is taken from the individual and transferred to the government. The Culture of Death is in full force and both the start and end of life is under attack. Modern tolerance reaches its ultimate conclusion where nothing is actually tolerated and Christians are living on reservations called a Dominian. The main character comes from such a Dominian and is illegally in the city where circumstances put him on the run trying to save a life.

So while the story correctly critiques socialized medicine and people giving up more and more rights to the government, the novel primarily succeeds as a story. I liked the characters who I found believable and the thread of hope throughout despite the dire overtones. Simply a very good novel which also contains solid commentary on where we are heading if we don’t stand up for the Culture of Life. We already have Christian arrested for preaching the Gospel to Muslims. The continuing horror of abortion and threat of euthanasia. Judges trying to force same-sex marriage on us.  So the future this novel shows is unfortunately not that far off, but also not inevitable.

When I first wrote this review the novel was not yet released, but it was released last week.