Atheistically Speaking Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the last part of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Chapter 9: Better Angels
Chapter 10: On Angels' Wings

Long book! What is the next book?

I got Sacred Cows because my brain is fried!

finished the book two weeks ago, before my two weeks camping in France. The psychology sections were very though for me. I admire the efforts made by psychologists and neurologist in understanding the brain. Nevertheless the way of research seems still so far from any kind of actual grip. It is something like trying to understand the inner workings of a computer by running a programme and seeing how it responds. And/or seeing which part of the computer gets hotter.

A remark by Pinker that stuck: comping from the OT standard eye-for-an=eye, the love-thy-enemy of the NT is a great improvement. Since you won't kill your enemies if you love them. Then Pinker suggests: perhaps it is even better just not to kill persons even if you don't like or love them.

In the news: another illustration of violent ancient times:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/201...

Finished the book on Friday (8/21/15). I didn't enjoy the last three chapters as much as the previous seven because it seemed like Chapter 8 was the beginning of a second book. I was reading a book about the decline of violence and all of a sudden I was reading a psychology textbook about the possible causes of violence.

Even though I had a problem with the last 190 pages or so I really enjoyed this book and I have already recommended it to several of my family members and friends.

I started reading Free Will: The Basics today.