Tag Archives: religion

Reading list of December 2012

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A couple of weeks of travel and one week of vacation helped in making december a fairly rich month from the point of view of reading.

I’ve read the following books:

Nessuno genera se non e’ generato by Fraternita’ San Carlo
It’s a small booklet that collects a few thoughts around the role of the father with the support of excerpts from classical books:
Homer’s Iliad: Achilles meets Priam asking for Hector’s body
Homer’s Odyssey: Ulisses meets Telemachus
Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia: the relation of Dante and Virgilio
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The lord of the ring: the relation of Gandalf with the hobbits

Alone together by Sherry Turkle
I’ve made two posts about this book so far here and here.
Given the amount of content at least one more post is to come.
Reccomended reading.

The Necromancers by Robert H. Benson

Jesus of Nazareth (vol. 2) by Joseph Ratzinger
Way better commentary on Jesus’ life than I’ve heard in the preaches of many priests. Worth reading.

Favola di Natale by Giovanni Guareschi
As it’s often the case with Guareschi the booklet presents a sad subject (being prisoner in a German lager during the second WW) in a way that doesn’t hide the hard part but yet is with hope and lighthearted.
Recommended.

Why it’s right to send scientists to jail for L’Aquila earthquake. And why not.

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The recent sentence of an Italian court that condemned 7 people to jail after the earthquake in L’Aquila has had quite a bit of coverage on the international media.

The sentence is implicitly accepting an idea that is growing stronger with time and with the increase in the mankind technological prowess: that man can dominate nature.
To say it in an old-fashioned way the idea that we are finally becoming god-like.

If it’s true that science and technology make us omnipotent then it’s right to condemn the scientists that did not evacuated the city.

I believe that this is not the case: each one may like it or not, but no one can decide and ensure that will wakeup in the morning one week from now.
We’re not omnipotent.

We have to do everything carefully based on the current knowledge and it’s right to condemn someone who saved on the iron when building going below the regulatory levels causing the death of a person during the earthquake.
Condemning someone cause he’s not God is not right.