Category Archives: Books

Book Review: The Qur’an – A Historical-Critical Introduction by Nicolai Sinai

Posted on April 15, 2018 by

I first read the Qur’an in English translation at the age of 18 during the summer break following my ‘A’ level exams and the start of university. Up until then I had largely only read the Qur’an in Arabic – … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Posted on February 5, 2018 by

  The year 2006 saw the publication of two very different books about the God hypothesis: the evolutionary zoologist and prominent atheist, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and the physician-geneticist Francis Collins’ The Language of God. Collins is best known … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff

Posted on January 8, 2018 by

It still shocks. Bringing to mind Donald Trump’s victory over all the other Republican candidates and his triumph over Hillary Clinton in the Nov 2016 United States presidential election still causes otherwise normal happy beings to sink their heads into their hands and begin to … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark

Posted on November 26, 2017 by

Published in 1996 – the year of his all-too-early death due to cancer – The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark, will inevitably be seen as Carl Sagan’s departing words urging the world to challenge superstition and … Continue reading →

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The Catholic Church’s Persecution of Galileo and the Modern Muslim Inquisition

Posted on August 25, 2017 by

One of my most treasured books is Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man – based on his magnificent and authoritative BBC series from 1973. The book is about the development of humankind and particularly our scientific culture. I do my best … Continue reading →

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Book Review: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Posted on July 30, 2017 by

“History does not repeat, but it does instruct,” says Timothy Snyder, at the very beginning of his latest book “On Tyranny”. Snyder, a Professor of History at Yale University, wrote a Facebook post back in November 2016 following the election … Continue reading →

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Consigning “Blasphemy” to History

Posted on March 18, 2017 by

This week, the Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, signalled that he intended to crackdown on allegedly blasphemous content on the internet, calling it an “unpardonable offence.” We have been here several times before, of course, most notably during the Satanic Verses affair … Continue reading →

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