You Can't Be Serious: Essays in Wonder

No despite the title this isnt a self-help book! But You Cant Be Serious does lay foundations of hope and help for a civilization that seems bent on losing its purpose. Ranging through disciplines as diverse as science economics philosophy poetry and religion in inimitably informal and conversational fashion You Cant Be Serious involves the reader in shaping a take on the future that offers fresh coherence meaning and delight.Lots of wisdom ... I will be sharing in my sermons and in worship. --Richard C. Choe Coordinating Minister Grace United Church & St. Pauls United Church Brampton Ontario[Patersons] life as a journalist and an academic outlier ensure lively readability and with just enough rigour to set the pace for careful response. And thats exactly what he asks of the reader. Careful considered response. He doesnt propose easy solutions but he does propose an excellent method for living. From the Introduction this: It comes down to a choice far more complicated and difficult than it might seem: a choice between raw fear and unqualified trust. Fear it seems to me has botched hope for far too much of human history: unqualified trust has rarely been given a fair go. Trust in what? Thats a good question. But Id also want to ask fear of what? My answer to both questions has to be: I dont know. I do know though that fear inhibits while trust liberates. And living in trust is not only more motivating and energizing than living in fear: its heaps more fun. Curiosity takes me further when I trust. The [later chapters in the book] reflect [the authors] personal life as a peripatetic story-teller an almost gyspy journalist whose vast range of travels as the editor of an international piping magazine (made in Scotland) pull together streams of influence about culture and story-telling. He is a very very well-travelled author and it is in this confluence of analysis of culture religion and story-telling that Mike Patersons book becomes readable to the extent I didnt want to put it down. --David Bell All Things Literary Book ReviewFROM THE AUTHORS INTRODUCTION: That the worlds not what it was should be no surprise. What is surprising is that human activities now enfold complexities that even if we dont understand them seem certain to decide the fate of every living organism. We need to know that the futures now our inescapable responsibility. Not one cubic centimeter of the biosphere atmosphere or ocean depths remains wholly untouched or unaffected by human interventions of one kind or another. Nuclear power mass extinctions the impacts of fertilizers forestry fossil fuels and new materials: the evidence is indelibly laid down even now in the geological record. And as each intervention has rippled through the whole its triggered unforeseen changes in places none of us have ever thought to look. Change begets more change changes interact with each other and permeate things we never meant to mess with. And the tides rising.The old crusade to wrest control from natures whim one thats long preoccupied Western cultures has reached its Jerusalem. And like all victories the outcomes intentional and coincidental arent quite what we hoped or expected.Its a bit embarrassing really. Our bluffs our boasts of unimpeachable intellect are all being called into question.So whats next?