Future Reading

I decided to establish a tentative book selection order for the next few months so that we can all know in advance when our turn to pick the book is coming up, I simply based the order on when I heard back from each of you regarding your interest in the group. Here's the order:

June - Aaron

July - Mike

August - Bobby

September - Jeremy

October - Sean

November - Tim

December- Aaron/Other?

As a tentative schedule, it's not set in stone, if someone's schedule doesn't work a particular month we can switch off pretty easily. With the recognition that December is a busy month for most of us with various holiday trips and other business, we may decide to forego reading a book that month, but we can make a decision on that later in the year.

Another item I thought would be interesting to discuss in the blog is what books people may be interested in tackling with this group, or books that you'd suggest others take a stab at even if we don't get to it as a group. This will give us all an idea what we're all interested in, and will also provide us with potential future reading materials. I'll provide my list in a comment as a reply to this original post, I encourage you all to do the same.

June 2008 Book - Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller

To get things started I decided to go with a book that logically follows from a number of personal conversations I've had recently (and over the years) regarding the topic of evolution and Christian Faith. The book is called 'Finding Darwin's God' written by Kenneth Miller. The book is available in paperback, and can be purchased new at Amazon.com for about $10 (I've provided a link to the amazon page for this book in the right column of this blog). It's been out for a few years now, and from time to time I see copies of it at local used book stores (such as half price books) for under $5. If you're looking for the book, in a bookstore, it's usually located in the science/evolution/natural history/biology section of the store (depending on how the section is labelled). The book has 2 different paperback covers (pictured to the right), the 'front' cover is the newest, the back cover is the one you'll likely find at used stores.

I think that this book is timely and relevant given the ongoing debate about the inclusion of alternatives to evolutionary theory as part of science curriculum around the country and particularly in Kansas. This issue is also a hot topic in recent movies such as 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed' with (visine spokesman) Ben Stein, Television specials such as NOVA's 'Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial', and a whole spate of books arguing from either a scientific or faith perspective that there is an inherent incompatibility between evolutionary theory and faith.

This is an area that's been of great interest to me throughout my adult life, and I believe that this book offers a great discussion of the issues surrounding scientific standards, as well as one scientist's take on the presumed incompatibility between evolution and faith in a loving and personal God.

I'm looking forward to digging into this book again, and I hope that all of you enjoy it too. As I read through the book, I'll be posting ideas/discussion points here on the blog, feel free to comment, or post your own thoughts as we proceed. Enjoy!

Starting off...

While I'm still ironing out the details regarding who is participating and which book to read first here are some thoughts:

1. To get things started I'm happy to choose the first book (unless someone else has a burning desire to pick first), then we'll set an order for who will pick the books for subsequent months.

2. I'll try to have the book selected by this weekend, so that people can get started with it, we'll call it the 'june book' and we'll try to meet sometime at the end of June, beginning of July.

3. Sometime middle of the month (of June), the next person should choose a book so that others have time to pick up a copy (new or used) or get it from the library (the Johnson County Library system is great).

That's all for now.

Invitation

Below is the original email sent out prompting the creation of this reading club:

Proposal: (mostly) Non-Fiction Reading Group

I've been thinking it might be fun to start a reading group in the JC area. The idea being that it ought to be fun to have a group of people reading the same book at the same time, and then discussing the book's content (more details below). And, seeing I'm pretty much a hermit with limited social interactions, I've included anyone I know that might be interested in doing something like this with me. I'm also hoping that some of you may also know a person or two who read books and might be interested in doing something like this. I think the ideal size of the group would be 6 to 8 people.

The reason I'd like to do this with non-fiction books is because I think that there's a lot of potential for interesting discussion if the group contains people with somewhat varying perspectives and we read books that may represent a diversity of perspectives and ideas. Topics might include things like religion, theology, current events, science, politics. My particular interest is in discussing various topics and ideas from the perspective of christian faith.

Here are my thoughts on some guidelines about how this group would operate:

Rule #1: You always talk about book club.

Rule #2: You aalllwaays talk about book club.

Rule #3: Each month a different member of the group selects a book that they think sounds interesting and might spark good conversation and discussion. The books should not be so specialized that they aren't intellectually accessible to others in the group (I.e., I would not select a book that's aimed at academic cognitive psychologists, or Mike wouldn't select a book that requires very specific understanding of molecular biology in the medical field).

Rule #4: Over the course of that month we all try to read the book (or as much as we can)

Rule #5: Throughout the month we discuss the book online in something like a listserve, or facebook, or a blogging site.

Rule #6: At the end of the month, we get together for a couple of hours over coffee or pancakes and discuss the book.

Rule #7: The person who chose the book for that month prepares a short list of discussion topics/questions about the book that can serve as a failsafe in case people are reluctant to discuss the book. I.e., it might serve to spark discussion.

Rule #8: Everyone gets a turn selecting a book before we start all over again.

Rule #9: While we may end up disagreeing on various topics, this would be a forum for discussing ideas openly while remaining respectful of one another with the hope that it will be an intellectually enriching experience for everyone involved.

Rule #10: Rules # 1 & 2 can be followed at the discretion of the member.

Assuming that I can find a few people who are interesting in this and have time to participate, I'll approach this group as a casual forum for discussing important ideas. Many of the details and logistics are a work in progress, and will depend somewhat on who actually participates. Feel free to forward this on to others who you think may be interested as well, so that we can get a good group of thinkers together. Let me know what your thoughts are and if you'll be interested. I'm thinking I'll try to begin sometime in June and our first discussion meeting would be sometime in July. As I hear back from each of you, and others, I'll work out the details of the group.