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John David Krygelski

Autor(a) de The Harvest

4 Works 69 Membros 7 Críticas

About the Author

Image credit: John David Krygelski

Obras por John David Krygelski

The Harvest (2010) 31 exemplares
Time Cursor (2010) 21 exemplares
The Aegis Solution (2011) 10 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male

Membros

Críticas

In The Harvest the FBI has Anthropology /psychology/philosophy professor meet a man that boldly announces to be our Creator. Certainly a most delicious proposition, and it starts out fine by having the main character give a university lecture (you have to discount God as a character, of course). Within the lecture the author has the protagonist , said professor, point out some intriguing shortfalls of contemporary academic institutions. This intro also serves well as a character description and personal history of the protagonist. However, in the second part, when he finally meets God that is, things go a bit downhill - at least in my humble opinion. First and foremost, it becomes pretty much immediately clear that the man in the flowing white hair and beard is the real McCoy. (Created in my image has been taken a bit far here.) Hello, Michelangelo. Then, the Creator tries to sell us an absolutist version of a free will world. Of course, that point of view is quite imperative in order to be able to buy into the whole judgement and rapture catechism - no matter how unlikely to be true. But seriously, I mean considering what we have learned from the determinism vs free will debate, it seems a bit preposterous to subscribe to such an absolute notion. So, frankly speaking this just doesn’t fly, in my book.
From then on it becomes a long dialogue in which “God” explains human history and the kind of morality he expects from
mankind, all within the context of his creative principle. This is not only a bit tedious but also - coming to the part when the author produces certain analogies to explain the physics and chemistry of creation - controversial to say the least.
There are logical errors. Example: He makes an inference from a Narcissistic individual to a group of individuals which when having similar traits would not be narcissistic since it would be a kind of “group special”. To me that would be simply tribal and not any better than that.
Another point of offense is the explanation that the soul made it possible for humans to band into groups, societies. Well, don’t animals band together too? I believe Wolfpack’s have a fairly complex societal order, and I don’t think the Creator as described in the book has given souls to animals.
Also, the author just regurgitates long disproven cliched analogies to have God make his point -
He tries to sell us the Million monkeys on million typewriters typing analogy never being able to write a play worthy of Shakespeare. This analogy is incorrect for its oversimplification when making a case for the necessity of intelligent creation for forming proteins. We know that certain amino acids can only connect with others. It is, therefore, much closer to the probabilistic truth to propose a washing machine in which you have parts (amino acids) that have Velcro connectors which are then mixed up and have to fall together to form a protein. The connectors, and this is crucial, can often only connect in a certain way. This increases the probabilities for the formation of a protein quite a bit, so much so that it becomes an entirely different ball game in terms of probability. So, please can we just drop the monkey business - it’s as old as it is just wrong.
Another fallacy proscribed to is when God says that time is an illusion, yet later on claims he doesn’t know the future , merely the past and present. Hmmm. If the vector of time does not progress in only one direction and if time is then just a fourth dimension, it is then of a block character (proposed by Einstein) if so then it has to be quite predictable, especially for God. Of course, this inconsistency is again necessary as he claims this world to be an absolutist free will world. Be that as it may, this just won’t fly either.
Moreover, the author’s Creator claims scientist invent subatomic particles in their mind, as to believe them into existence. Well, the author seems not to know that such subatomic particles follow mathematical rotation geometry that calculates to perfection within the symmetry principle and so are not invented but proposed according to strict mathematically principles. Many, then, have subsequently been proven through black box interaction.
Finally, the Creator claims that numbers such as pi or the alpha value can be expressed in exact finite values in other number systems other than the decimal system. This has absolutely no basis.
In sum, this book is a great effort. However, the author has chosen an all encompassing topic, and quite literally so. I believe it is quite impossible for an author to manifest a God figure and attendant knowledge base to the satisfaction of an educated reader on the pages on a novel, for the author can only project what he (humankind) knows, and that must always fall infinitely short of any hypothetical god. Read this book and you will do some serious thinking.
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Assinalado
nitrolpost | 4 outras críticas | Mar 19, 2024 |
When I was given the book to review by Krygelski at his Tucson reading, I mentioned I was glad he finally had a suspense novel for me to review and he told me, “if you are a Christian, it’s a suspense novel, if you are an atheist, it is science fiction.” What it turned out to be is a blockbuster that takes you by the scruff of the neck and thrusts you forward at breakneck speed until it drops you off exhausted on the last page.
Judtson Kent, a Tucson based writer and skeptic, made a living exposing and ridiculing popular myths: space aliens at Roswell, alien abductions, Illuminati conspiracies. When he has a couple of blackouts, physician Saylor Costello arranges to have some tests run. What they discover leads them on a journey, both metaphysically and in real life, globetrotting in the name of vengeance against unknown forces. When the black SUVs and bogus Homeland Security agents dressed like the Blues Brothers show up, a sinister plot involving mind control of Kent and others they want hushed up, is revealed and they take matters into their own hands.
With the help of a local fan, Kelsey and her private bodyguard, they secure the two men and a host of others who were under the insidious mind-control program, in a disused Cold-war rocket silo. They rescue a former astronaut, a geologist, an immunologist, a TV Producer, a chemist, and an archaeologist, and all who have been mind-controlled, and release them from the mental prisons they were held in. Once free, they’re able to discover and expose a plot to overthrow our government.
In an incredulous story, Krygelski blows away the myths of the little green men, the moon landings, and space ships in Roswell that we have been fed for generations. Whether you are a believer in all things alien or a skeptic, you too, will be highly entertained and swept along with this magnificent tale of David and Goliath proportions.
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Assinalado
MarkPSadler | Jan 17, 2016 |
An Arizonan psychologist/archaeologist gets summoned by the FBI to meet and study an old looking man who gives his name as Elohim.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It had a nice hook on the level of JDK's second book or "The Man From Earth", but just didn't deliver. It was like a Dan Brown book (a lecture, suspense!, a lecture, RUN!, a lecture, HIDE!, a lecture... and so on) but without the action. The main character, Dr Reese Johnson, seems an okay guy. We read of one of his classes and how he interacts with his students, but when he talks with the Creator, Elohim, Reese's language... his syntax, starts getting more formal, dropping contractions for the most part until it reads more and more like a staged infomercial. ("I see. I am sorry to interrupt. Please continue.")

Further dragging the book down is the character of Sheffield, a raging unpleasant nay-sayer liberal who is probably meant to be Reese's intellectual opponent and convenient plot device, but comes across as cartoonish and inept, making a jarring transition between the solemn, deep discussions of the lead character and Elohim.

In conclusion, skip this book. Perhaps try his second one, or better still, a different author.
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Assinalado
hobreads | 4 outras críticas | Oct 2, 2012 |
One word: AMAZING!! The vast majority of the story is dialogue (or rather monologues from primarily Elohim and Dr. Reese Johnson), but the topics discussed were so fascinating that the lack of action scenes throughout the majority of the novel was actually what made this book so incredibly intriguing. The only downside I saw in this novel were actually the action scenes, which seemed to be a little too drawn out when they did take place. If you don't have a conservative bent, I would warn against reading this one as it points out very strongly the harm that atheism has done to the world at large; something I strongly agree with (I was cheering on pretty much everything stated by Dr. Johnson), but that others may not. Elohim (God as a guest in the FBI building - I know, crazy right? Trust me, it REALLY works!) describes the real functioning of physics, evolution, our souls, and more, to a point that the reader really has to be careful not to take these creative and believable explanations to heart! Read THIS BOOK, you will not regret it ;-)

-Check out the full review at http://www.knittylove.blogspot.com/2012/03/amazing-speculative-fiction-curricula...
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1 vote
Assinalado
ThriftyMorgana | 4 outras críticas | Apr 28, 2012 |

Estatísticas

Obras
4
Membros
69
Popularidade
#250,752
Avaliação
½ 3.4
Críticas
7
ISBN
9

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