Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors discussion

As a urban sci-fi writer(BODYSLICK) I have always been intrigued with the notion of life after death.D'Souza book was quite imformative.He tackled the subject from a multi-disciplinarium front.It was quite thought provoking.He makes the argument that since we don't live in a Newtonian universe-- a deterministic universe where 'free will' does not exist.That there is room for 'free will' in a quantum universe---a universe of uncertainty.
My novel BODYSLICK[pub VIBE/Kensington 2008:] grabbles with some of these same issues.The premise of the book is captured in this copy that was on the 'proof':If life was a thing that money could buy/the rich would live and the poor would die.
In D' Souza's book he challenges the notion whether there is a afterlife?And questions the biblical notion that it does exist.He uses philosophy, physics, law as a means of proving his thesis; that there is life afterdeath.
Some of his arguments are irrefutable;for example when he writes:"Atheists find the Big Bang troubling for a reason given by physicist Steven Weinberg:"The weight of scientific evidence has been in favor of an origin giving some comfort to those who believe in supernatural creation."Remarkably,however it is not only the atheists who are distressed;so are modern physicists.The science is working hard to come up with a explanation for the Big Bang that avoids having to posit a creator."
My novel takes place 21 years in a future Chicago where human organs are more valuable than gold.A world where electromagnetic radiation from cell phones has caused a proliferation of brain tumors;a world where unchecked obesity has created a need for hearts,kidneys, and corneas(because of an epidemic in diabetis);a world where global disasters--like the recent Haiti earthquake has caused a huge migration of refugees to the Western hemisphere; a world where global warming has unleashed a tidal wave of enviormental problems: a new more lethal mutant variant skin melanoma.
D'Souza book helped me understand why Anglo-American science neglects certain thinkers .Like Schopenhauer and Kant-- whom pose a mortal threat to a whole set of premises and assumptions that lie behind western science.Schopenhauer and Kant probe these 'self-evedent' premises to reveal,beneath them fundamental premises that cannot withstand the scrutiny of western science.
I have always wondered why the mind-in action velocity of jazzmen has never been investigated.What exactly was going on in the frontal cortex of Charlie'bird' Parker in the midst of his creation?
The uncalcuable velocity of the mind/body improvisation defy scientific exploration.
I think for the past 200 years the elites in Britain and America have embraced empirical realism to the point that it forgets that our senses,as in the cases of mirages and sticks that look bent in water, can can distort our vision of reality.
In closing D'Sousa writes:Belief gives us a reason to be moral and a way to transmit morality to our children.Finally,there is strong belief that life after death makes your life better.
FINIS

I'll have to buy it for my kiddos and myself. I -loved- his book on the ideological conformity of the modern university system, Illiberal Education. Having recently taught college history for two years, I now have even more respect for the truth of the book.

Thanks for the review! I'll be sure to check it out.