Not conclusive but good
348167
I liked the feels and the art (acting/musical/author) speak.  If you are a person who likes neat conclusions at the end of the book, this will not please you.  I'd be intrigued to see how this author matures as I liked the book in general, just didn't feel entirely refined.  My favorite scene was at the McDonald's.  Nothing like airing some dirty laundry in a public place to put everyone on edge.
2139840
Fairly good read....but one has to wonder if it was actually true...to stay so long in a situation like that - moreso with a baby....but a good story
4316041
My opinion differs from many of the others here. I don't think that one needs to draw any conclusion from the book.  Indeed, I don't think you can.  Accept it for what it is, a well written story that pokes holes in the accepted wisdom.  Given the amount of time that has passed and the deaths of all the principles, it is unlikely that we'll ever "know" the whole truth.  But in showing us that we can never know, Toland has performed a valuable service.
4000389
Just finished chapter two.  The pictures came through to and displayed on a Kindle Fire (original) just fine.  That doesn't always happen on my Fire.

Some of the evidence for Bigfoot isn't all that convincing, but is no reason to doubt the species existence, and I'm looking forward to chapter three.

I did enjoy lots of the evidence that Chuck presented, and conclusions he reached, like his explanation for the absence of corpses or bones.  Makes perfect sense.

All in all, a good little read.
1953650
Good read but not exactly a nail-bitter. The setting is interesting and so well known it cannot be easily adaptable to a  conspiracy plot.
3790725
This is not for the faint of heart if religious basics are a bit loose.  Food for thought, but not to be taken as fact.  Good read.
99796
Rating is mainly because I did not buy all of the arguments on racial bias.  But in all, some good points were made in the book and although it might not go far enough in explaining bias, it does make some thought provoking arguments.
3951550
Before viewing this film, I was skeptical about the claims I suspected it would make. After all, names like Jesus, Mary, Joseph, etc were commonplace in first century Israel. But as the movie points out, it is the conjunction of the names and the unique spelling of some of the names as well as other factors that make the likelihood of this ossuary site being the burial site of someone other than the Jesus of Gospels remote. One statistician places the odds at 1 out of 30,000 that the site isn't the burial site of Jesus of the Gospels.

My only issue with the film is that it tries to make the case that if the burial site is the burial site of Jesus of the Gospels, then no major doctrine of Christianity is threatened. It just means that Jesus' resurrection was spiritual and not physical. That's unfortunate and rather cowardly because the bone fragments of Jesus mean that no resurrection occurred at all. But the good news is that evidence arguably lays to rest the skepticism, vogue in some circles, about the existence of the "Jesus" mentioned in the Gospels. Perhaps a man named Jesus, who was a locally revered spiritual teacher, existed after all.
2481608
Good but doesn't show a completely accurate view of Christianity and Christians, at least not as I've experienced them. Still, it made me laugh and think because a good part of the movie is spot-on.
23401
The reason I rated it as such is because it was a somewhat interesting read.  But it wasn't a "must read" book.  The story was good but there were times when I wasn't sure who was doing the talking in it.  I had to re-read a sentence or two to determine who was saying what.  Other than that, the plot was good and the characters were interesting.  Einar's pursuit of the truth about  Asdis' Skarpi's murders kept me going.  I was pleasantly surprised near the end to see how the conclusion was reached.  I also appreciated Einar's moral compass allowing Runar and his mom to move on.
620556
The author did not come across as an angry atheist, which I appreciate.
Some of the arguments were a bit confusing, but overall the book was a good read.
What I like most is that the author doesn't seem to ridicule religious believers and neither does he seem to want to convert believers to atheism. He presents his reasoning and leaves it up to the reader to digest the information and he or she chooses.
4862630
This book was very good, possibly excellent.  The pace was good & steady.  It was suspenseful but not a heart pounder or nail biter.  No unnecesary chase or sex scenes. The characters were beleivable and complex.  The ending wraps up but everything is not tied up in neat little bows. It is certainly not a "cookie cutter" popular mystery.  That could be the reason some people were dissapointed.  I enjoyed it.
2552478
I am glad to find a story where I am unable to predict what happens next.  The ending was quick and left just a couple of questions unanswered, but overall a good story.
1346367
After reading many of Bart Ehrman's books, this book opened my mind to uncertainty about some of my previous conclusions. My conclusion now is that there is little certainty about the life of Jesus. A good read for those open to a better secular understanding of Jesus. This book highlights the conflicting views among the "experts," those of faith and those secular, without disparaging any.
4363669
Good and interesting read. However, is open-ended by nature of the information as we don't yet know if this will mean anything or not.
3499823
If nothing else, this book proves that people like the Dalai Lama are open minded and realistic about what scientific discovery means in a world that has been historically dominated by religion. Instead of fighting scientific insight (like, say, explaining that dinosaur bones were planted by God to test our faith, which I've heard some people say), he simply shows how new discoveries in science actually coincide nicely with many Buddhist beliefs rather than contradicting them. While he is obviously not a scientist, he does have a reasonably good grasp (impressive, even) of some reasonably advanced scientific topics and has clearly done some real learning there. Science and Buddhism wind up fitting together rather nicely since, as he does mention in the book, Buddhism is in many ways something of an agnostic religion, not bothering so much with the big questions of where we came from or where we're going and instead focusing on the here and now.

Because of the Dalai Lama's non-scientific background, this book is not likely to be particularly insightful to readers who have a background in science or even who, like me, have done a decent amount of reading about physics, quantum mechanics, etc. Nevertheless, he is an engaging author and it's still nice to hear the parallels from a very respectable, knowledgeable and open-minded source such as himself and not from a new age enthusiast who is willing to bend the facts to fit their agenda.

If the synopsis of The Universe in a Single Atom intrigues you, this may be worth a bit of your time, but it doesn't need to shoot to the top of your reading list.
3701266
Although I don't agree with everything written in the book (and that can be said of nearly every book I've read), it contains some very good information. The discussion about the possibility of radioactive decay-rates not being uniform over time is intriguing. After all, what causes radioactive decay? It is said to be spontaneous. What does that mean? "Just happens," or as Curie suggested: from an unknown cause? I really like a statement on p. 143: "The questioning of radioisotope dating and the geologic time scale neither stifles inquiry nor hinders scientific progress. Instead, it serves the healthy purpose of uncovering assumptions and bias."