Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by Bart D Ehrman

This is a superb examination of how the (Christian) belief in heaven and hell was developed. Starting from the epic of Gilgamesh, the Odyssey and Iliad by Homer and the Aeneid by Virgil, Ehrman thoroughly examines the views on the afterlife embedded in those works. This involves ideas on death itself. Is it the end or do we go somewhere? Ideas on the body and the soul (Greek: breath of life), the material body and the immaterial or glorified body. The end of life, the end of time. God, gods and their role in life and death. God’s role on suffering. Evil as a cosmic force against God. Is the Kingdom of God on Earth or on Heaven? Resurrection: will it happen at the end of time or right after we die? Who will God save, is it the righteous? is it the believers? Is it only the baptised? 

I enjoyed an examination of Socrates and Plato’s thoughts on the afterlife. I particularly liked a reference by Socrates, who encourage us not to fear death. If dead is annihilation, it will be like a dreamless sleep. We shouldn’t fear it. 

If death is a migration of the soul to the realm of the dead where one can meet the greats of Socrate’s civilisation, there is no reason to fear it. Plato said the goal of life is to escape the body so the soul can live on. Souls are immortal. Pleasure is not good because it ties a person to a body. Philosophers practice death when they dedicate their lives to the immortal soul. 

In addition to Socrates and Plato, Ehrman discusses other great Greeks and Romans, like Aristophanes, Lucian of Samostata, Epicurus and Lucretius with similar or slightly different views. 

All these ideas and more are examined in chronological order, following Greek, Roman, Jewish and Christian writings. Ehrman examines writings from the Jewish bible/Old Testament, the New Testament Gospels, but the parts which I enjoyed the most were the discussions of the Apocrypha like the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of Paul and the Gospel of Thomas. I could tell why the Church Fathers rejected those as the views are so much different from what we are left in the New Testament. But, even in the New Testament so many contradictions are left. Ehrman states that earlier Gospel of Mathew proposed apocalyptic views of the afterlife (views which Jesus shared: the kingdom of God will come soon to judge everyone). As years passed the writings were gradually de-apocalypticised. In the later Gospel of John the narrative changed to the Heaven and Hell dualism. After reading this book it became clear to me how ideas from Greek mythology influence (earlier) Christian thought. Ehrman states that this was a consequence of the Hellenisation of the Mediterranean. Many Christian thinkers from that time were not Jews but former Greek pagans who brought their beliefs on the afterlife with them. Also, texts were involuntarily or voluntarily altered, and in some cases, Ehrman states that some ideas were invented or made up. Words were put in Jesus’ mouth, which sometimes opposed what we assume he thought.

The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt

This is a Message from Space story, Carl Sagan’s Contact or Stanislaw Lem’s His Master’s Voice. In terms of ideas, I think Hercules is more similar to His Master’s than to Contact, but I also think that Sagan took some inspiration from McDevitt’s novel. 

The writing is not bad. The plot is original. It is entertaining, engaging and thrilling at moments. It delivers some surprises here and there. The characters, geniuses, scientists are not fully fleshed out but are not one-dimensional either. I empathised with two or three of them. The discovery of the message, the process of decoding (the geek side of me appreciated this bit) and dissemination (or not) of the findings encapsulate some ethical questions which I liked discovering. What I enjoyed most were the philosophical, political, and religious debates between the main characters as they grappled with the knowledge they uncover and explore how it might be used for good or ill. I particularly loved the perspective of a psychologist who was more tuned towards the human side rather than the technical one. 

One small drawback was the main character’s early interactions. As a bureaucrat overseeing the Hercules text project, he often needed everything spelled out for him, struggling to grasp the scope and technical details of the discovery. 

The next 2 small drawbacks involve spoilers… 

 I would have expected a message sent from such a vast distance to be broadcast repeatedly—looped for years or even centuries—in the hope that someone might eventually receive it. In contrast, the Hercules message was transmitted for a surprisingly brief period, at least by human standards. The characters were incredibly lucky to be in exactly the right place at the right time to detect and record it. 

Apparently, the Hercules project were the only ones able to detect the message. No one else in the planet, not even the Russians, had the capabilities. A bit hard to believe for a 21st century story. 

A good read despite the above. Recommend if you liked Contact and/or His Master’s Voice.

The History of Magic: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present by Chris Gosden

Gosden defines Magic as emphasising “human connections with the universe, so that people are open to the workings of the universe and the universe is responsive to us. Magic is related to, but different from, the other two great strands of history, religion and science: the former focuses on god or gods, the latter a distanced understanding of physical reality.” This book is about all kinds of human-cosmos connections throughout human history. 

When I started reading this book, I had a narrow idea of magic: a hat and a rabbit, a magic wand, curses and haunted houses. The history of magic has opened my eyes to a much bigger spectrum of what can constitute magic. From ideas about the sky and stars, unexplained natural phenomena and unseen phenomena to myths and shamans, human emotions and perceptions, death and the dead. 

One thing I really liked about the history of magic is the concept of the triple helix: magic, religion, and science. Three apparently separate worldviews, which are actually connected and which Gosden uses as a framework of enquiry. Throughout the book religious and scientific knowledge is explored looking for their magical origins and or aspects. 

Drawing on archaeological, geological and historical records, Gosden relates the history of magic starting from thousands of years ago in the palaeolithic noting the meaning of everyday objects, cave paintings and burials. Then one of my favourite chapters, Mesopotamia and Egypt, including civilisations like Sumer and Babylon. The we get chapters for China, the Eurasian Steppe, Europe, the Jewish, the Greek and the Romans, and so much more, until the present day, where we find characters like Aleister Crowly, Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle. At the end of the book there is a short section about the sentience of matter, which I found very interesting.

Much has been discovered about these people's fascination with the stars, calendars, astrology—including the zodiac and horoscopes—and their beliefs about the dead. For so many cultures the dead are actually part of our societies. So for example, carrying with you the skull of a loved dead one would make a lot of sense. Myths and gods have a very tangible influence on our daily lives too. They do not belong to the supernatural but to our world. For ancient people and some modern too, there is no separation between the material world and the other world, whatever that is. We are all connected, we are all part of the same cosmos. 

I do not think I grasped everything this book had to give. I guess there is too much detail given about some sub-topics or historical periods I do not find interesting. I had to turn my brain on and off every now and then. Regardless this is a very good book. Recommend.

Decoding the Heavens: Solving the mystery of the world’s first computer by Jo Marchant

A brilliant book for a fascinating topic: The Antikythera Mechanism. This is an ancient device (2K years old approx.) thought to model the heavens (sun, moon, planets), predict eclipses, act as a calendar, and many other possible uses. It uses an intricate gear system which is delicate and precise at the same time. 

In Decoding the Heavens Marchant narrates the story of the Mechanism’s extraction from a shipwreck and subsequent storage at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens where it captured the interest of Valerios Stais, curator and director. It then goes on to describe the main attempts to decipher its function. This takes maybe a little under two thirds of the book. In chronological order, we follow the studies of Derek de Solla Price, who believed the device was a calendar computer, Michael T. Wright, who described it as a planetarium and Tony Freeth, who believed it was an eclipse predictor. The narrations are very interesting and at moments thrilling. The stories dive into history, astronomy, mathematics and astrology, going back as far as the Babylonians who were experts in arithmetic. Freeth’s story was particularly interesting as he used advanced X-Ray and CT imaging technologies to take high resolution images of the object and of the tiny/microscopic inscriptions embedded which are now believed to be instructions. 

There is no definitive conclusion as to the function of the mechanism. The Antikythera mechanism remains are extremely decayed and with pieces, or parts, which have never been found. However, from the investigations of the 3 experts (and more), we can be confident that it is a combination of systems for astronomical positions, eclipse prediction and calendar display, as well as other uses like the timing of Greek athletic games! 

The final chapter of the book tries to identify the designer/builder of the mechanism. Marchant enumerates a few possibilities: Hipparchus, Posidonius and Hero. She goes through what is known about their work and expertise and explains how or why they “could” be the ones. 

With all this information, it is evident that so much knowledge has been lost across human history. We should question assumptions, such as clocks and complex gear systems were invented in Europe in the 13th century. Likely they were not. All that knowledge must have been hidden somewhere waiting to be rediscovered. If the Greeks were capable of building such a mechanism, with amazing and precise craftmanship, and advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge 2K years ago, it suggests that others before them had been building similar devices for centuries, beginning with simpler mechanisms and progressing, step by step, towards advanced mechanisms like the Antikythera. If we could only find more evidence. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me wish someone invented a time machine! 

Excellent read. Recommend. 

Generation Ship by Michael Mammay

😀😀😀😀😀 What a great read. It's not high literature. Not sure it will become an SF classic, but it is a well written, engaging story with an excellent plot, which I couldn't stop reading. Main themes are politics, ethics of colonisation, and alien life. The story is told from multiple perspectives. We follow the events from the point of view of five main characters. Each in separate chapters. I liked the way Mammay constructed each character and revealed their (political) intentions both in their own and other chapters. There's one politician devising his strategies using people like pieces in a chessboard. A scientist following science strictly, with little consideration of its social implications. This one is my favourite character. My second favourite character is a computer hacker concerned about the ship's integrity because, obviously, the ship is their home and has been for many generations. None of the characters is good or bad. They all have layers. They are all imperfect and very human. In terms of the story, I wished it was longer. I wanted to know more about what happens at the end, or perhaps I wish there was a sequel. 🤞