Ted: Since, being an Objectivist, I don’t rely on other people’s comments but on my own judgement, I never pay any attention to other reader’s opinions on a given book, whether they’re positive or negative. This is also the reason why I only suggest reading a given book. Whoever reads it should then form his/her own opinion.

Your telling me that I didn’t review the book myself is, thus, out of place. As a matter of fact, my recommendations on the “Rebirth of Reason” page for “What about gods?” were far more than sufficient to move any interested party to read this small booklet. I only mentioned “Amazon” to make it easier to find out its price and give an idea of availability. I don’t promote “Amazon” nor did I care to read any of the comments on Amazon’s page. However, I did so now, moved by your having added a reader’s comment to your own commentary. And this disclosed a rather peculiar way of proceeding against my suggestion since, while 66% of the commentaries are very positive indeed (6 out of 9), you come out selecting one of the worst. Apparently you are following the way of only finding fault if an Objectivist presents a recommendation. This reminds me of what Will and Ariel Durant wrote in their book “The Lessons of History”. It would be wise if you were to read the following carefully: “Our capacity for fretting is endless, and no matter how many difficulties we surmount, how many ideals we realize, we shall always find an excuse for being magnificently miserable; there is a stealthy pleasure in rejecting mankind or the universe as unworthy of our approval.”

In relation to what Swanson, the author of the only commentary on “What about Gods” which seemed to have found your approval, mentions, it is evident that he himself didn’t pay much attention to what Brockman wrote, for the author entered very specifically into the question of “why really smart people believe in God”: “Sometimes, though, even very intelligent people believe in gods because it seems to them as if most of their friends do, and they don’t want to be different.”

Ted, how’s about if you go, buy the book, read it and comment it after having done so????