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Life After Death: The Evidence |  | Author: Dinesh D'Souza
Publisher: Regnery Press
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $15.95
as of 11/23/2009 19:01 CST details
You Save: $12.00 (43%)
New (20) Used (4) Collectible (1) from $15.94
Seller: MyMags
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 203
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 1596980990
Dewey Decimal Number: 236.2
EAN: 9781596980990
ASIN: 1596980990
Publication Date: November 2, 2009 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Unlike many books about the afterlife, Life after Death makes no appeal to religious faith, divine revelation, or sacred texts. Drawing on some of the most powerful theories and trends in physics, evolutionary biology, science, philosophy, and psychology, D Souza shows why the atheist critique of immortality is irrational and draws the striking conclusion that it is reasonable to believe in life after death. He concludes by showing how life after death can give depth and significance to this life, a path to happiness, and reason for hope.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 Dang. Maybe there is life after death. November 22, 2009
Kevin P. Condon (Boulder, CO)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was skeptical about this book when it started with a Near Death Experience (NDE). I shouldn't have been. The NDE of Dinesh's wife, Dixie, was just a jumping off point to draw in the reader. With wit and conversational style, Dinesh lays out a number of contemporary arguments from biology, physics, philosophy and ethics. He presents easy-to-access arguments and only reaches into theology near the end, which, in my opinion, was intellectual thoroughness. Then he uses a summary of all the arguments presented in the book to review the most notorious instance of life after death, the life of Jesus Christ through historical analysis, not dogmatic claims. To preview the book intelligently, read the last chapter and decide whether you want to hear the arguments he summarizes. Each is fairly presented, in a detailed, clear and intellectually honest way. Together they can't prove the question of life after death, but they will certainly open your mind to the legitimacy of contemporary intellectual arguments and the light they bring to this important question. Christopher Hitchens, who has debated D'Souza often on the existence of God, writes a complimentary jacket blurb. I will read this book twice. If you are able to read intelligently outside Dawkins-blindered materialism, I bet you will, too.
An excellent overview of a provocative topic. Well-written, incisive, and extremely compelling. November 20, 2009
JF (IN.,USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Dinesh D'Souza is a gifted intellectual; he was the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has a very solid reputation as a scholar and lecturer. His approach to this highly controversial topic is measured and intelligent. To enrich the discussion, he refers to a number of excellent studies on the perception of death in Western culture, such as Aries' foundational study "The Hour of our Death."
This book is an extremely well-written and clear-headed overview of a provocative topic that has been with us for centuries but is lately appearing in the news and attracting the attention of neuroscientists and other scholars on the cutting edges of their fields. The stories told by survivors are strikingly similar across cultural boundaries and through the span of time. Such accounts, as Dinesh eloquently demonstrates through a series of philosophically rich discussions of the evidence, deserve the serious attention they are being given by the gifted intellectuals who are carefully discussing this material.
Please ignore the one-star reviews written by a few disgruntled Dawkins lapdogs who have NOT read this book. They have nothing creative or compelling to add to the discussion; they merely repeat the tired and philosophically shallow canards Dawkins (who has no grasp of the philosophy he stumbles blindly through) offers up as "arguments." These reviewers do not understand the argument Dinesh has set forth nor do they understand the fact that claims of "proof" and "evidence" are highly problematic when these terms are mistakenly invoked in disparate discourses. Read "At the Origins of Modern Atheism" for starters; then take some serious philosophy courses before you start claiming that you have "proven" anything at all whatsoever.
You will not be disappointed by this excellent study. It is a highly readable book as well as a scholarly one -- a rare combination indeed these days.
Another home run by Dinish November 19, 2009
Redmonds (Pompano Beach, FL)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the third book I have read by Dinish D'Souza. I found this book, like his others, to be very intellectually informative and challenging. It was also very deep spiritually. I found this book gave great explanations as to why the athiests, even though they sound very intelligent, all double-talk in complete circles, avoiding all of the real questions. They all appear to have "answers" but they are not to the crucial questions. I came away stronger in my faith and with a better "secular" understanding of what a belief in eternity really is and why it makes perfect sense. Thank you, Dinish D'Sousa, for another great book.
Engaging and well researched November 13, 2009
S. Wolgemuth (Orange County, CA USA)
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
Like an extended conversation with a generous and likable friend, this is a book to treasure, and read more than once. I applaud D'Sousa's strategy of not using the often irrational, emotional and highly personal accounts of people who testify to NDEs. Nor does he engage in the circular arguments of the devout who use scripture to prove their points. There are many fine books that do both of these.
Life After Death stands apart from them by marching smartly into the teeth of the strongest arguments atheists can muster for a materialistic worldview. The author kindly takes them on, point by point, to show their arguments as superficial and inadequate to answer the larger questions posed by astrophysics, philosophy, sociology and psychology. He does not play the triumphalist who loudly proclaims victory over his foes, rather with humor and kindness gently leads the reader into the deeper waters of his arguments and makes his points one-by-one, piling up strong, if not overwhelming, evidence to support his thesis.
This is an ideal read for a layperson who is smart and curious but not expert in the various disciplines D'Souza explores. I recommend it highly.
 Pathetic November 12, 2009
Robert A. Saunders
9 out of 37 found this review helpful
D'Souza proposes to prove the existence of life after death. He does not even come close: he presents no valid evidence, let alone any sort of real proof. The book is replete with errors; it would take a book of some size to examine them all, so I must limit myself to noting just a few:
- He does not understand how evolution can result in cooperative behavior, as we know that it does. See Dawkins' The Selfish Gene for an examination of this.
- He purports to show that there is more to brain function than just electrochemical action. His "proof" of this is simply wrong -- and this blows his entire thesis: if there is no brain action beyond the obvious electrochemistry, then there can be no life after death.
- He makes much of Pascal's Wager. It has been known for centuries that this is logical nonsense.
- He claims that the moon has the effect of maintaining earth's axial tilt. This is of course nonsense; although it does not directly affect his argument, it is an example of sloppy research.
Bottom line: This book demonstrates, once again, that a putatively intelligent person may be deluded by the false promises of religion. It is regrettable that living trees were sacrificed to print this book. Save your money,
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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