Review of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty by Neil Hanson

 

Review of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty

Wow, this book is different. It is a serious consideration of mysticism in modern religion or more correctly the modern world. The story is written in the form of a letter to the author’s father who had died fifteen years before. Partly it is in the form of a confession or rather an admission of human frailties that a young rebellious son can feel towards his parents. Plus he tells the truth when when he states the difficulty people have in uttering the words ‘I forgive you,’ and actually meaning them.

I’m getting ahead of myself. At the very start of the book Neil states clearly that this book is non-denominational. It is meant for everyone who believes in their G-d be it Christian, Muslim, Judaism or whatever. Even though I am not a religious person I can subscribe to the belief that no one religion is right. After all how can millions of Muslims be any more right in their beliefs than millions of Christians or vice versa? I would consider a person’s beliefs are more an accident of birth than anything else. Neil himself writes G-d and refers to Him, Her or It, as a way of demonstrating how little we actually know about the entity. Let’s face it belief in any G-d is a matter of faith after all. He subscribes to the view that all that has been written no matter by what religion is man made and that modern orthodox religion has lost its way in teaching the true meaning of G-d and his word.

The letter to his dead father relates three mystical experiences; I won’t go into the details as I wouldn’t want to spoil the reader’s enjoyment of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty. All I’ll say is that Neil feels that these experiences brought him very close to his G-d and yet these same experiences are dismissed by the church leaders as nonsense. However at the end of the book in his section Suggested Other Reading Neil leads us to read books that show mysticism has its place in most religions and points out that some religions are based on nothing but mystic tradition.

Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty is a very good book, extremely thought provoking by asking you to question religious orthodoxy. Anybody who believes in G-d should read this book and consider what its subject matter could mean to them and for non believers I guarantee it will set you thinking.

Neil’s website:-  http://www.neilhanson.com/

Neil’s blog:- http://neilhanson.blogspot.com/

If you wish to contact Neil by email:- Neil@NeilHanson.com