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Is God an Illusion?
Is God an Illusion?
Nov 7, 2024 11:04 PM

Author:Deepak Chopra,Leonard Mlodinow

Is God an Illusion?

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Hawking have had a major impact on the loud and popular debate between 'aggressive atheists' and religion. The huge sales of their bestselling books show just how much interest people have in their ideas.

Now Deepak Chopra is entering this debate, sparring with leading physicist, Professor Leonard Mlodinow (the co-author, with Stephen Hawking, of The Grand Design).

In Is God an Illusion?, Chopra argues that there is design in our universe and a deep intelligence behind life. Without defending organised religion, he debunks randomness as an explanation for how Nature evolves and shows how consciousness comes first and matter second.

On the other side, Mlodinow argues the viewpoint of science, specifically what modern quantum physics can tell us about our world. In his view, physics, genetics and cosmology will shed far more light on the big questions than rethinking ancient spiritual concepts can ever do.

A major work of our time, Is God an Illusion? will not only offer more food for thought for those fascinated by the two sides of this modern conundrum - it will also place Deepak Chopra firmly in the ring of some of the most remarkable, and bestselling, thinkers of our era.

Reviews

Leonard Mlodinow is a lucid thinker and engaging writer

—— Stephen Hawking

Deepak Chopra did an excellent job ... this is an interesting and provocative book which will be read and talked about for a long time

—— Hans Peter Duerr, Max-Planck Institute

Not only provocative, this report is illuminating and fully accessible to members of the faith and doubters alike

—— Kirkus Reviews

Frank and…more gripping than any spy story…the prose makes for powerful reading... He is a great writer who has been brave.

—— Margaret Drabble , Observer

An intimate tale of fathers and sons, of the beginnings and ends of marriages, of friendships and betrayals. At the same time, Joseph Anton is a large-scale spectacle of political and cultural conflicts.

—— New York Times Book Review

This is tense thriller even if we know the outcome

—— Fiona Wilson , The Times

Absorbing… Rushdie is compelling here

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times (Culture)

Describes the painful process by which a human being becomes a symbol

—— Sunday Telegraph (Seven)

Sprawling, intimate, surreal, it exerts a mesmeric hold

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

Poignant and honest

—— Big Issue in the North

Joseph Anton conveys a clear and shaming picture of his ordeal… The reader is fully on Rushdie’s side.

—— Pankaj Mishra , Guardian

A frank and zestful memoir...a precious historical document and an immersive page-turning read...pacey, intimate, surreal, whipped along by love and scorn and overflowing with tall tales...it exerts a mesmeric hold with high-octane storytelling.

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

The book speaks to the heart, and to conscience.

—— John Lloyd , Financial Times

An indispensable text that needs no description.

—— Margaret Drabble , New Statesman

The most gripping, moving and entertaining literary memoir I have ever read.

—— Amanda Craig , Independent on Sunday

The story Rushdie tells is never less than gripping.

—— Colin McCabe , New Statesman

A magnificent new memoir.

—— Matthew d’Ancona , Evening Standard

This moving, sometimes irritating, often beautiful and blissfully funny memoir is also a resounding manifesto, reminding us that novelists have a right and duty to tackle the most controversial subjects.

—— Jake Kerridge , Sunday Express

His big, bold, controversial memoir…matches Rushdie’s confident personality.

—— Ian Finlayson , The Times

[A book that] rattles with the terror of the moment.

—— Graeme Wood , Barnes & Noble Review

The big book of the week was Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton

—— Guardian

It’s an extraordinary document.

—— Anthony Cummins , Metro

Rushdie says art outlasts persecution, but artists may not. A look at how this dichotomy has played out in his life.

—— Salil Tripathi , Live Mint

Joseph Anton is as riveting for the small vignettes as the big, historical sweep.

—— Ginny Dougary , Financial Times

Reads like a thriller...painfully true.

—— Robert McCrum , Observer

He is compelling here...grippingly reconstructing his long years in hiding.

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

[N]ot many Americans had heard of Rushdie until Valentines Day, 1989, when the dying Ayatollah Khomeni of Iran issued the infamous fatwa calling for Rushdie’s head... Rushdie spent most of the next decade in hiding, accompanied by armed British agents. He’s now published his account of that stranger-than-fiction time: Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

—— Kurt Andersen , Studio 360

Aside from the vivid, splendidly told account of his childhood and family background, Rushdie's book charts in, fascinating, grimly humourous detail, the shadowy half-life he lived until that fatwah was lifted on March 27, 2002.

—— Paddy Kehoe , RTE Ten
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