Selected here are the best books reviewed during the year 2004. It was difficult to pick just a few, there were so many good books from the past year, but I had to narrow the list down to fit this page. Qualities which helped books stand out include providing an interesting/unusual perspective on long-running debates, offering a real enduring value to readers (i.e., worth reading more than once), and being an invaluable resource on its topic.
Religion, particularly forms of religion that are fundamentalist or fervent in nature, have experienced explosive growth in recent decades. Many have found this to be strange, considering that great scientific, social, and political progress made made in secular circles. What could be going on? What are people looking for that they don't find in secularism?
Secularism and freethought have played important roles in the development of American society, culture, and politics, yet they are roles which have been largely forgotten and ignored. Americans tend to hear about and be familiar with the role of religion in their nation's history while freethinkers and skeptics are unjustly marginalized. This is both a tragedy and a travesty which desperately needs to be corrected.
Does God exist? There's a great deal of debate on this question and theologians have spent hundreds of years developing many sophisticated (and some not so sophisticated) arguments purporting to prove that their god definitely exists. Nonbelievers have been at work on the matter for far less time, but they have a great deal to show for their efforts.
If there is any scientific field where pseudoscience is not only common, but has actually become widely accepted by the establishment, it would have to be psychology. Unlike fields such as physics or biology, some of the most ridiculous quackery has taken hold in clinical psychology and has even reached the point where for many lay people, they see more of the quackery than of real science.
When you think of nuns, what comes to mind? Stern, older women characterized by lethal rulers and the watchful eyes of hawks? Comical, even clownish women as depicted in movies like "Sister Act"? There are many different prejudices and assumptions made about nuns and there always have been — and most of them are probably wrong.
Have you ever watched a movie where the military played some role, even if marginal? It doesn't have to be a movie about war or about the military specifically for the military to play a part. Chances are, the military actually helped in the movie's production by providing facilities, equipment, and even people free of charge - but only under the condition that the movie serve to make the military look good and encourage young people to join up. Did you know that?
The Vatican in Rome can be described as the world's oldest and most mysterious institution. What really goes on behind its walls? How are decisions which affect over a billion Catholics arrived at? What motivates the people who work there - power? Greed? Duty? Few people are qualified to answer such questions because few really know enough to even try.
During the Cold War most international conflicts were framed in the context of the United States vs. the Soviet Union. Today most conflicts seem to involve religion - specifically, religious fundamentalism. Although conflicts also involve economic or territorial issues, there is little doubt that without the driving force of fundamentalism, the problems wouldn't be as heated or violent. What, though, drives fundamentalism itself? What is fundamentalism and how has it affected world politics?
In Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Northern India, rumors about a woman having an affair, marrying a man of her choice, or just spending time with the wrong man can cause irredeemable disgrace to her family. The only recourse for male relatives is violence: beatings, disfigurement, and murder. Why does this happen and what is the connection between the efforts to seclude women from the eyes of strangers and the emphasis on the honor of men?
Is there any connection between harsh desert environments and harsh patriarchal family forms? We can certainly see a correlation among the ancient Hebrews and in modern Saudi Arabia, but a similar convergence is located more accessibly in the Mexican desert region of Chihuahua. Here, Mennonite and polygamous Mormon families eke out a tenuous existence in part through rigid, patriarchal systems.
