Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} 36 Arguments for the A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Goldstein 36 Arguments for the Existence of God by Rebecca Goldstein. W ith fashionable and religious on the rise, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God gently mocks the delusions of both the godly and the godless. Cass Seltzer is an academic psychologist at a middle-ranking university whose book, The Varieties of Religious Illusion , becomes an unexpected bestseller because of an appendix that provides a series of refutations to proofs of God's existence. Cass's position is admirably moderate – that belief in God has little to do with the nature or value of religious experience – but he becomes an atheist poster-boy. He may have just received, at the novel's start, an offer of a post at Harvard, but Cass – neurotic and fairly drippy – can't help mooning over his absent girlfriend and worrying about an upcoming theological disputation. Most of the book is dedicated to Cass's time as a graduate student, when he fell under the tutelage of Jonas Elijah Klapper who, with his rotund physique, orotund periods and obsession with genius and mysticism, is a dead ringer for Harold Bloom. As Klapper's mind pirouettes across the literary and philosophical canon, Goldstein pitilessly exposes how erudition and verbosity can mask an intellectual vacuum: "As must anyone who regards with seriousness the eschatological idea that scaffolds the strata of the greater metaphysics", yadda, yadda yadda. Unfortunately, Goldstein as much as Klapper is a purveyor of superficial scholarship. Novels of ideas are crippled when their authors use the story to peacock their cleverness and patronise their audience. Here we are subjected to game theory for dummies, Kabbalah for dummies, Matthew Arnold for dummies – none of them integrated in the texture of the novel. Much of her comedy is abysmal, relying on flaccid wordplay, and even her good jokes are destroyed by the accompanying exegesis, as if she is concerned tha t her readers who don't get them should at least realise how well-read she is. More damagingly, the thesis that 36 Arguments attempts to dramatise – that religious attitudes are to be found in all sorts of areas of life – is essentially trivial. If being religious simply means "having strong feelings", then it is meaningless (and somewhat offensive to believers) to term this universal propensity to unreason as "religious" just because, in our more sober moods, we are suspicious of it. Rebecca Goldstein is a philosopher who has written on Gödel and Spinoza, but 36 Arguments proves that with fiction, a lot of learning can be a deadly thing. ISBN 13: 9781848871557. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. Goldstein, Rebecca. This specific ISBN edition is currently not available. Psychologist Cass Seltzer's book, The Variety of Religious Illusion, has become a surprise runaway bestseller. Dubbed 'the atheist with a soul', Cass's sudden celebrity has upended his life and brought back the ghosts of his past. Over the course of one week, Cass's theories about our need to keep faith are borne out in ways he could never have imagined. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God is a stunningly original novel, which explores the varieties of the human religious experience in a story of obsession, consuming love, and divine genius. By turns hilarious, moving and devilishly clever, Goldstein's novel is an exhilarating romance of heart and mind. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Amazon Exclusive: Rebecca Goldstein on 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. Dinner party hostesses used to be warned to steer the conversation away from politics and religion. I used to wonder why, but I don’t anymore. There are some differences that reveal rifts so deep that dialogue breaks down. Among these are the current debates that have been raging between God-believers and the so-called new atheists. It often seems that people on one side can’t begin to grasp what the world is like, what it feels like, for those on the other side. When the person with whom one is conversing appears utterly opaque, then mistrust and contempt are easily aroused: How can he be saying that when the opposite seems so obvious to me? Is he stupid, dishonest, maybe just a touch evil? These are not the sort of suspicions that the gracious hostess wants intruding at her candle-lit dinner table. But for me, as a novelist, it’s differences like these, indicating entirely different orientations toward the world, which are the most tantalizing to explore. Arguments alone can’t capture all that is at stake for people when they argue about issues of reason and faith. In the end, I place my faith in fiction, in its power to make vividly present how different the world feels to each of us and how these differences are sometimes what is really being expressed in the great debates of our day on the existence of God. The title of the book is 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction . I meant the subtitle to be understood as a sort of joke, but as a serious one, too. --Rebecca Goldstein. (Photo © Stephen Pinker) About the Author : Rebecca Goldstein's novels include The Mind-Body Problem and Mazel, winner of the 1995 National Jewish Book Award. Her most recent book, Betraying Spinoza won the 2006 Koret International Jewish Book Award. She is the recipient of MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships and in 2005 was elected to the American of Arts and Letters. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The books plot meanders. It jumps back without warning, switches perspectives jarringly, and in some spots (when the Yiddish and the Jewish mysticism get thrown at you) the tale gets downright confusing and the names nearly impossible to keep track of. However, the humor is pervasive and her ideas are big. One of the most interesting aspects is how Goldstein's characters are in no way trying to paint religion in a negative light - in fact, Cass goes to great pains to avoid doing so. Goldstein's argument is logical, not emotional. The latter part of the book, an essay describing the 36 Arguments for God and the refutations are written concisely in stark contrast the novel before it. Every argument Goldstein presents is easily understood. An atheist would be hard pressed to find a better reference material if they're dragged into the age-old arguments: "Does God exist?" and "Can we be moral without God?" ( ) 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Goldstein. by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. A Work of Fiction. - Return to top of the page - See our review for fuller assessment. Review Summaries Source Rating Date Reviewer Christian Science Monitor . 22/1/2010 Yvonne Zipp Commentary . 1/2010 Peter Lopatin Forward . 8/1/2010 Gordon Haber The Guardian . 10/4/2010 Steven Poole London Rev. of Books . 25/3/2010 Galen Strawson The LA Times . 17/1/2010 Jane Smiley New Statesman . 12/3/2010 Julian Baggini The NY Times . 21/1/2010 Janet Maslin The NY Times Book Rev. . 31/1/2010 Liesl Schillinger The Observer D 21/3/2010 Jonathan Beckman The Telegraph . 23/3/2010 Lewis Jones The Times . 27/2/2010 Melissa Katsoulis TLS . 2/4/2010 Edward McGown . 27/1/2010 Ron Charles. "Thoughtful, witty, and -- I cannot stress enough -- really entertaining, 36 Arguments is part campus comedy, part romantic farce, part philosophical treatise. It is also, without question, the smartest kid in class. (. ) While the religiously inclined among us may beg to disagree that the truly intelligent don�t believe in God, the novel, and Cass�s character himself, are utterly disarming. But it must be said that the defenders of the faith in 36 Arguments for the Existence of God are an unappealing lot. They range from the humorless to the barking mad." - Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor. - Return to top of the page - The main character in 36 Arguments for the Existence of God is forty-two-year old Cass Seltzer, who has managed to jump on the 'new atheist'- tide (along with authors like Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens) and is now enjoying quite a ride. He's a professor, and his field is the 'psychology of religion', a field that, for almost two decades, had been all his -- "but only because nobody else wanted it." But all of a sudden religion is a hot topic again: it might have seemed that the whole god-idea had been widely written off, but now there are defenders of the faith(s) all over the place again -- and, as a consequence, there's a whole corps of 'new atheists' trying to reason them (or at least their misguided notion) out of existence. Cass hit the big times with his book on The Varieties of Religious Illusion . But the success he achieves is built, in part, on a misunderstanding: 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein does it all. She has written a hilarious novel about people’s existential agonies, a page-turner about the intellectual mysteries that obsess them. The characters in 36 Arguments For the Existence of God explore the great moral issues of our day in a novel that is deeply moving and a joy to read." —Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated. “A remarkable novel—as entertaining as it is illuminating—savagely funny in its characterizations, brilliant in its contemplation of the self and the sublime. This is a timely and timeless book, and definitive proof of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s protean intellect and engaging talent.” —Jess Walter, author of The Zero. "Goldstein.. ramps up her gifts for radiant humor and the transmutation of metaphysics, mathematics, and Jewish mysticism into narrative gold. . Goldstein is entrancing and unfailingly affectionate toward her brilliant yet bumbling seekers in this elegant yet uproarious novel about the darkness of isolation and the light of learning, the beauty of numbers and the chaos of emotions, the 'longing for spiritual purity' and love in all its wildness." -- Donna Seamon, Booklist (starred review) “A freewheeling satirical tale that is compelling, heady …, and laced with a deliciously dark wit. Goldstein is a brilliant exponent of her subject, and she has crafted a story that is caustically irreverent, yet provocative and informative without being completely didactic. And . by the end, “36 Arguments’’ is also deeply touching.” --Karen Campbell, Boston Globe. "[A] greatly entertaining novel." —Ross Gilfillan, Daily Mail , Mar 5, 2010. "[Goldstein] has taken on some of the deepest philosophical questions of human existence and shaped them into a page-turner at once funny and heartbreaking and challenging…A terrifically engaging novel.” --Dani Shapiro, Moment , Jan/Feb 2010. “Comic and supremely witty, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God is both a satire of the academic world and a feast of philosophical and religious ideas.” —, author of Einstein’s Dreams. “You do not have to perpetrate an act of faith to confront the question of why there is something rather than nothing. It is faith itself that consists of nothing. Rebecca Goldstein, on the other hand, is quite something." —Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great. “Rollicking….Irreverent and witty, Goldstein seamlessly weaves into this lively and colorful chronicle of intellectual and emotional struggles.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review), 11/2/09. "A high-energy caper in which religion, relativism, passion, and primitivism meet in the brainy collisions and collusions of a best-selling scholar, ex- lovers, rabbis, cosmologists, and one tiny math prodigy." —Elle , "Trust Us: This Month's Quick Picks," January 2010. "A hilarious novel that will add fuel to the debate that Richard Dawkins has made a million-pound industry. Rebecca Goldstein has penned a great story that will steal some of Dawkins’ action…An intellectual delight…" —The Bookseller (UK), picks for March 2010. "An ambitious novel about big ideas — love, sex, religion — that nevertheless faces these issues with irony and humor….A big-hearted novel, filled with energy and an encouraging zest for life." --Gordon Haber, Forward , Jan. 8, 2010. "An immensely rewarding read." -- Jewish Book World, Spring 5770/2010. "This novel brims with ideas about the nature of religion and how humans interact with it. It's refreshing to read a novel so bursting with intellectual rigor." — The Big Issue , March 23, 2010. Jacket copy: Equally adept at fiction (a winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and philosophy (a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” prize), Rebecca Newberger Goldstein now gives us a novel that transforms the great debate between faith and reason into an exhilarating romance of both heart and mind. At the center: Cass Seltzer, a professor of psychology whose book, The Varieties of Religious Illusion, has become a surprise best seller. He’s been dubbed “the atheist with a soul,” and his sudden celebrity has upended his life. He wins over the stunning Lucinda Mandelbaum–“the goddess of game theory”–and loses himself in a spiritually expansive infatuation. A former girlfriend appears: an anthropologist who invites him to join in her quest for immortality through biochemistry. But he is haunted by reminders of the two people who ignited his passion to understand religion: his teacher Jonas Elijah Klapper, a renowned literary scholar with a suspicious obsession with messianism, and an angelic six-year-old mathematical genius, heir to the leadership of an exotic Hasidic sect. The rush of events in a single dramatic week plays out Cass’s conviction that the religious impulse spills out into life at large. In 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein explores the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety. Hilarious, heartbreaking, and intellectually captivating, it is a luminous and intoxicating novel.