|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Wow! Apr 07, 2008
This book is great! A marvelous example of how a little information can tell a lot. I recommend this to all my homeschool friends as a history of the world baseline. Very well written with just enough information to get at the real meat, and capture the essence of each period.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Super Pocketbook Reference Jan 26, 2007
I recommend Terry Sissons' The Big Bang To Now: A Time Line as both an interesting read and a handy reference guide. When I first received a copy, I opened it randomly and learned that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago; homo sapiens' migration from Africa took only 10,000 years to reach China and Australia; and Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. I settled down for an easy, informative read that gave a straightforward perspective on the basic cosmic and historic events of the last 13 billion years.
Though that first read would have been plenty to rationalize the cost of The Big Bang to Now, I continue to find it a valuable reference. My college bound daughter has absconded with my first copy because she wants it at school to answer a multitude of questions that come up from friendly discussions to writing papers. I have obtained copies for both home and the office because it is so easily helpful in answering "When was that?" whether the query is about astronomy, anthropology, science, or western civilization. I have a friend who carries a pocket atlas in her handbag. Now that I have a copy of The Big Bang to Now with me, an understanding of the world we live in and how we got here is always at our fingertips.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A Pair Made in Heaven Dec 29, 2006
The Big Bang to Now: A Time Line is a penetrating but easy-to-understand overview of the current scientific history of the universe. Reading it along with more detailed books like Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything or Dawkins' The Ancestors Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life makes both books more rewarding.
But there is one question I have heard asked more often than any other. It is whether it is possible to live a life committed to religious values and at the same time to accept most of what science says today about the world. For anyone asking this question, I cannot recommend a better book to read alongside The Big Bang to Now than Edward O. Wilson's The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. It demonstrates that it is possible to embrace a scientific world view and be at the same time a deeply religious and committed believer. In fact, science can deepen one's awe of the world God has created, and make our guardianship of it more effective and caring.
Sissons' The Big Bang to Now and Wilson's The Creation each deserve five stars for what they tell us about the world and our place in it. Put together, they deserve six.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
This No-Nonsense Presentation of the Universe is Fun Nov 12, 2006
This exciting version of the whole of time divides time into about 100 eras and gives a one page, wrily factual account of each.
The opposite page of each section, has a thought-provoking commentary on the era.
It is an inviting, easy read suitable for anyone from early teens to ancient.
But, no, it is not trivial. The brief summaries of each era are soundly based on the up-to-date knowledge of 2006- with a clear reminder that science is what we know now and will surely change as time goes by. That is a good lesson for anyone to learn, and this book is an easy way to learn it.
A compulsive book for the dipper-in, there are plenty of pointers to further reading on any age that grabs.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Meditations for an Agnostic Nov 09, 2006
I have now read this book twice - small paperback, easily tucked in to one's bag with print that is easy on old eyes. Reminds me somewhat of Karl Rahner's "Prayers for Meditation" `62 and might be a rich jumping off point for self-centering. I read it first from the perspective of a person who believes in God and the second time as someone who believes that there is no God... I found the latter approach more terrifying. If God is not our parachute... She states that "whether you think our past can help us make better decisions for our future, or want to decide if the discoveries of science reflect a creative design that deepens or contradicts religious belief, it's a book that reveals a sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal, always amazing universe."
The book often brings one up short "Earth may be unique in the Universe. If there are other planets where we could survive, they are thousands of light years away, we haven't found them yet, and if they exist, we won't have the means of reaching them for a considerable time. IF we do manage the trip and somebody is there before us, we might not be welcome. So if we want to survive, we had better take care of our Earth. Living somewhere else that doesn't depend on support from Earth isn't going to be possible any time soon." (page 29). She ends by saying that "In about 4 billion years, our sun will run out of energy. Earth, our solar system, and some day our galaxy will burn out. Ultimately, even the entire Universe may end. Bleak as this may sound, neither science nor religion assume this is the end of the story. We live in mystery." (pg 211)
This treatise on time, on life, on relationships, on personal responsibility is thought-provoking, inspiring, and humbling. I found myself oscillating between determination and despair, and between anxiety and inspiration as to my role (infinitely small and seemingly inconsequential) for the survival of our universe. But it is profoundly important for my own life, my own development, my own sense of peace.
|
| | |
|
|
