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The Lost Symbol
- Thread starter ret
- Start date
nightprowler10
Global Moderator
Plan on reading it soon as I have nothing on my list and Darwin's Black Box is pretty boring. Might pick it up this weekend.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
LOL. Why are you reading that crap?
From a guy who admitted - under oath in court - that under his expanded definition, astrology would be considered a science.
nightprowler10
Global Moderator
Lost a bet. Think I mentioned it here. The guy makes some decent points but his reasoning is at times childish. That and his writing is painstakingly redundant which makes it very hard to get through. I'm more than halfway through it but doubt I'll finish it.
nightprowler10
Global Moderator
Has Robert Langdon fallen in love with the dead guy's daughter yet?
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
I've read the book, someone needs to tell me what these good points are...
nightprowler10
Global Moderator
That many systems of the body seem irreducibly complex and its mind boggling to think they could've evolved in a step by step evolution. So he raises a fair question but he's basically saying since there's no proof such things could've evolved to their current state so it must be God. While I obviously don't have much of a problem believing that there is a higher power involved, his reasoning is just lazy. There's no proof for those specific systems so it must be God? That's like saying there's no proof that God exists so---oh.
Matt79
Global Moderator
Key words in that argument - and I know your paraphrasing - are "seem" and "mind-boggling". One basically flags that he doesn't understand the issue he's talking about but will make a judgment on it anyway, and the second highlights that its an entirely subjective judgement based on his gut reaction - "****, that would be astounding if true, so it can't be". As opposed to an omniscient, omnipotent Diety who created this world in such astounding detail, and can understand and judge the souls of all mankind, and yet dislikes homosexuality, pre-marital sex, or working on the Sabbath.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
The two most widely used examples are the eye and the bacterial flagellum. In both cases, and especially the eye, his arguments are bunk - there are good explanations. But yes, theoretically, there will always be things we don't understand, and he's just dressing up 'God of the gaps' argument in pseudo-scientific language.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
Jamee999
Well-known member
BoyBrumby
Englishman
God remains curiously quiet on the ticklish "little kiddies getting cancer" issue too. Although his advocates quite happy to take the credit on his behalf when that nice oncologist cures little Johnny or Janey.
To paraphrase Peter Cook, if I was creating the universe I'd probably have left cancer out. Still at least we aren't tormented by being eternally young and virile and being able to **** everyone.
To paraphrase Peter Cook, if I was creating the universe I'd probably have left cancer out. Still at least we aren't tormented by being eternally young and virile and being able to **** everyone.
age_master
Well-known member
Thought this thread was about ~. Know a lot of poeple that dont like Dan Brown books as well as those that do. There are certainly a lot of books higher up on my reading list.
Burgey
Well-known member
His bank balance is no laughing matter.
Pothas
Well-known member
Gets a lot of bad press but for what his books are they are not bad, I enjoyed reading the other two but doubt I will bother with this one, My mum works for Transworld who publish his book here and apparently he is a really nice guy, probably doesn't quite understand how he he has got so famous. Whether you like it or not is now the the fastest selling book of all time after a certain Harry Potter.
nightprowler10
Global Moderator
Finished it just now and must say it is the worst Dan Brown book after Deception Point. With his other Robert Langdon books, at least the subject matter is usually good enough where its enjoyable. The whole 'symbols aren't what they seem' and 'religious symbology borrowing from pagans' thing is always interesting but Brown finds a way to make it very dull in this book by writing about Washington DC, a city that seems to borrow everything from Europe. To top it off he treats his readers as idiots more so than usual. He accompanies many revelations about the storyline with Italics to remind the reader what he's talking about and it is very frustrating. The only really interesting parts of the book were some of the masonic rituals and their significance, and the villain, which is probably the best one he's come up with yet. That's about it really, the storyline is mildly interesting until about the halfway point and then it gets ridiculously predictable. Could've probably cut the book down a couple of hundred pages as well. Utter dross.
I think Brown would be better off dumping Robert Langdon and writing about something entirely different. He's milked this cow more than he should have. I'm struggling to give this book 2.5/5.0, will leave it there for now though.
I think Brown would be better off dumping Robert Langdon and writing about something entirely different. He's milked this cow more than he should have. I'm struggling to give this book 2.5/5.0, will leave it there for now though.
When I got to the part where Langdon supposedly drowns I was really hoping Brown would finish off the character right there. Also what was up with that waste of time chasing the IP address? It had NOTHING to do with the story AT ALL.