Fingerprints of God Barbara Hagerty Review
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Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality (Hardcover)
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Author)
Textbook Details
*Hardcover: 336 pages
* Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (May 14, 2009)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1594488770
* ISBN-13: 978-1594488771
* Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
* Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Textbook Description
Is spiritual experience real or a delusion? Are there realities that we can experience but not easily measure? Does your consciousness depend entirely on your brain, or does it extend beyond?
In Fingerprints of God, award-winning journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty delves into the discoveries science is making about how faith and spirituality affect us physically and emotionally as it attempts to understand whether the ineffable place beyond this world can be rationally —even scientifically—explained.
Hagerty interviews some of the world’s top scientists to describe what their groundbreaking research reveals about our human spiritual experience. From analyses of the brain functions of Buddhist monks and Carmelite nuns, to the possibilities of healing the sick through directed prayer, to what near-death experiences illuminate about the afterlife, Hagerty reaches beyond what we think we know to understand what happens to us when we believe in a higher power.
Paralleling the discoveries of science is Hagerty’s own account of her spiritual evolution. Raised a Christian Scientist, she was a scrupulous adherent until a small moment as an adult triggered a revaluation of her beliefs, which in turn led her to a new way of thinking about God and faith.
An insightful examination of what science is learning about how and why we believe, Fingerprints of God is also a moving story of one person’s search for a communion with a higher power and what she discovered on that journey.
Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality (Hardcover) Review
After reading this book nine or fourteen times, I think one’s spiritual experience is real unless it is considered a delusion by mental experts who are experienced in this type of angiosymmetric behaviorism. The main thing to realize is that the author is dreaming, and we are part of that dream. This means that our lives are not measurable unless God has also made a ruler to measure it. Another amazing thing I learned from the book is that God also has fingerprints, although I don’t understand why an omnipotent creator would need them.
Fascinating book about a subject few have braved. Hagerty’s journalistic approach to the science is perfectly woven with her personal story of faith. While discussion of science often looses its appeal after page 2, her great storytelling is at its best and you find yourself staying up late reading more and more – you can almost imagine sitting in a room with her as she tells this riveting story – with her dog at her feet!
This book will give you lots to think about- whether you are religious, spiritual, agnostic or atheist. The author does conclude that “brokenness is the best predictor of spiritual experience”, meaning that a large portion of those who have a spiritually enlightening experience, or are ‘touched by God’, arrive there via a process. One is broken down and then at some low point is ‘touched’ and the author states that people of all belief systems perceive ‘otherness’ in a similar way(having to do with darkness, distance and then a light and ensuing peace). She uses former addicts and alcoholics or those ill with serious and sometimes fatal diseases as examples. What I liked about this book, aside from the fact it is very welll written and organized(I imagine quite tricky given the breadth of the subject matter and the anecdotal nature of many of the references), is that the author was very open minded in looking at the question. She considers the scientific evidence both for and against the existence of some greater force at work in the universe, as well as anecdotal evidence, opinions of doctors, scientists, philosophers- even such famous atheists as Dawkins, and religious clergy of all sorts. She crosses all lines of faith and religion.
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