BobHarris.com - God Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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God Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

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Wednesday, 23 November 2005

There may be hope for Kansas after all. Reader Stephanie, she of the mighty herds of roaming muntjac, alerts us to a new course being taught at KU, "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."

Two points: one, I'm not denying the existence of a creator. If there is one, however, I strongly suspect it's not a deity of infinite wisdom. More like a sophomore deity, doing a summer project to make up a failing grade on his last universe, which fell over and collapsed into a black hole while it was still on the lab table, and right in front of that cute female deity he was really hoping to score with, the one who still giggles every time she sees him.

Seriously. I mean, look around. Tell me that's not what we're stuck in.

I prefer this version anyway. It's easier to cut the guy some slack. Speaking of which, everybody's always going on about asking some god's forgiveness. What if he's the one who owes the apology? Look how many of us are born -- born, mind you, just randomly screwed -- sick, hungry, and in the middle of holy wars that kill lots of us off in the name of some misshapen perception of godliness, largely the result of being stuck with tiny little primate brains barely capable of reason, which, incidentally, we did not even ask for, much less create. And we're the ones begging forgiveness?

Frankly, I think whoever put us here is probably peering down with the same sinking pit in his stomach that you had when you were a kid and realized you'd overfed the goldfish. Oops. Sorry, little guys. And now he's just hoping the teacher shows up to grade him before we finally manage to destroy the entire planet, forcing him to retake the entire semester. Wait until that hot little female deity hears about that.

Secondly, I will be disappointed if the KU course doesn't include FSMism. Let's hope they are touched by the Noodly Appendage and act in Its wisdom.