Currently reading
The 5th Wave
14
The Light Between Oceans: A Novel
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It
Clockwork Princess
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
Love Medicine
Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't
This book is a must read for everyone. Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University, presents a compelling argument on how the US is one of the most religious countries and at the same time one of the most ignorant nations when it comes to knowing anything about religion. He is a big proponent of mandatory religion education in the US. I was all prepared to disagree with this book. Living in liberal Northern California, I could not believe that the US is at all religious. But the author brought up so many examples of how we do not separate church and state (why do people swear on the Bible when taking an oath? And the least likely minority to get elected to the presidency are atheists!) that he convinced me that knowing and understanding religions is not the same as believing. And in our current environment, having a background knowledge of relgion is an essential part of understanding ourselves and other world cultures. He even offers a quiz about major religions with common answers. My favorite question - 'Who was Joan of Arc? - Noah's wife was a common answer...' My only disagreement is that he has a tendency to be Christian centric. Rather than requiring a literary course on the Bible, a general course on all religions should be mandatory. But, the tough question is what course should be thrown out. Personally, my vote is Physics...
