Book: Aging Beyond Belief by Don Ardell

If you plan to age, prepare yourself — it's later than you think. The challenge of aging well should be taken seriously, but not grimly! Whatever your age, it's never too soon, or too late, to learn and apply the fine art of aging well, really well. Discover what aspects of aging can't be changed and improve the rest that can. Mold your own realities with REAL wellness, Ardell-style.

The 69 tips — one for each year of the author's life — are thought-provoking, challenging, eye-opening, manageable and fun to read. And all provide practical guidance for intelligently designing your own life-style evolution.
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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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A Wellness Perspective on Paul Kurtz' Book Exuberant Skepticism (Prometheus Books)

Tuesday March 16, 2010

Exuberant Skepticism is synonymous with REAL (reason, exuberance and liberty) wellness. While Dr. Kurtz does not write about fitness and nutrition, he is a powerful advocate for a wellness lifestyle and a model practitioner of such disciplined choices. Exuberant Skepticism is a guidebook for mental health, a positive philosophy and an explicit call by Kurtz for a New Enlightenment, one that begins with an appreciation of the nature and heroes of the original enlightenment. We need such a movement today at least as much as it was needed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when it came to fruition. We need what Kurtz terms "emancipation from enslavement by prejudices, idols and avoidable errors," countless examples of which he describes in the 230 pages of this fine book.

In Exuberant Skepticism, editor John R Shook offers seventeen of Kurtz's writings on the Book: Exuberant Skepticism two interrelated themes, all tied to reason, science, doubt, common sense and respect for the natural world and opposition to claims based on revelation, holy books and other forms of fraud, quackery and superstition. Themes of moral responsibility, the nature of reliable knowledge, myths, widespread ignorance, paranormal claims, religious worldviews are assessed. These and other assessments are linked to contemporary politics, ethics and paths to meaning, purpose and the pursuit of the good life.

Kurtz is at his entertaining and educational best when describing and dissecting the preposterous but unyielding claims for dogmas and traditions of blind faith. The skeptical strategies provided for contending with such unreason through science and reason are invaluable elements of REAL wellness and deserve careful study and wise application. This book will most appeal to those who embrace REAL wellness and all elements of exuberant skepticism that Kurtz describes. However, the main beneficiaries of the work would be the believers in one or more of the following topics, addressed with reference to the evidence—or lack thereof, that undermines each:

"Life" after death.
Miracles.
Creationism.
Communications with the dead.
UFO visitations and the like.
Parapsychology.
Astrology.
Sacred" literature.
The "science" of religion.
All things transcendental.

Alas, these are the least likely readers. A pity.

This books offers much into the thinking of a wonderful man. It is well edited and in many ways a comprehensive call not to arms but to thoughtful reeducation of an entire population. I recommend Exuberant Skepticism as a primer on the intellectual component of a positive lifestyle oriented to the highest possible quality of life.

Be well. Look on the exuberant, skeptical and bright side of life.

Domain: mental
Subdomain: effective decisions

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