It’s an easy read that draws a narrative through the whole of human history. It’s okay, and some ideas were interesting, but it’s full of opinion written as fact, bending things out of shape to fit in with an idea and I think quite a lot of inaccuracies.
It seems odd that he says we know nothing of hunter gatherer society cultures, then goes on to say how much worse life was after the agricultural revolution. I think he’s underestimating both how hard it would be to survive winter through foraging and the joy that people get from cultivating and farming land.
I really feel that human happiness being nothing more than the hormone levels in the brain is a massive simplification in danger of just being wrong.
I’m so bored of the futurism stuff in the last chapter too.
Humanism is a belief that Homo sapiens has a unique and sacred nature, which is fundamentally different from the nature of all other animals and of all other phenomena. Humanists believe that the unique nature of Homo sapiens is the most important thing in the world, and it determines the meaning of everything that happens in the universe. The supreme good is the good of Homo sapiens.
This is wild. That’s very different from any definition of Humanism I’ve ever heard. I think he’s just making stuff up to connect things he wants connected.
“The fundamental insight of polytheism, which distinguishes it from monotheism, is that the supreme power governing the world is devoid of interests and biases, and therefore it is unconcerned with the mundane desires, cares and worries of humans. It’s pointless to ask this power for victory in war, for health or for rain, because from its all-encompassing vantage point, it makes no difference whether a particular kingdom wins or loses, whether a particular city prospers or withers, whether a particular person recuperates or dies. The Greeks did not waste any sacrifices on Fate, and Hindus built no temples to Atman.”
This is nonsense? The Iliad is full of sacrifices to the gods. The gods were directly involved in what was happening to the heroes. Also, it’s The Fates, there are three of them.