The Atheist and the Holy City: Encounters and Reflections [Hardcover]

George Klein (Author), Theodore Friedman (Translator), Lewis Thomas (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1990

This series of dialogues between the spiritual and the scientific is framed by Klein's deep knowledge of cell biology.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of essays by a noted cancer researcher belongs to the tradition of science writing followed by Lewis Thomas, who contributes an introduction. Klein, a Hungarian-born biologist who fled Nazi persecution and has lived in Sweden since 1947, depicts science as a vast communal enterprise shaped by individual genius. He offers an intimate portrait of a fellow Hungarian Jew, atomic scientist Leo Szilard, who helped organize the Manhattan Project, then became disenchanted and tried to dissuade Truman from using the bomb. In another piece Klein contrasts Epstein-Barr virus, a "wise old" germ, with HIV--causative agent of AIDS--"the aggressive youngster who doesn't know what he's doing." Travel sketches jump from Finnish Lapland to Jerusalem, site of the moving title essay in which Klein posits altruism as a counterforce to "selfish DNA's" blind game of aimless reproduction.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

These elegant and learned essays are developed from a foreword that Klein wrote for Peter Noll's In the Face of Death ( LJ 12/89). Klein himself, a world-renowned cancer researcher, has spent his adult years inquiring into the intricacies of life, both at the cellular level and as a participant in the human condition. As a youth he witnessed the Nazi invasion of Hungary, and later he discovered the shocking cooperation of scientists with the "final solution." This firsthand experience of evil has given him a compassionate and ethical outlook, a distrust of power and social planners, and an impatience with mediocrity. Since 1951 he has done research at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, probing the "co-existence between viruses and man" and the willfulness of "selfish DNA." Claiming to be an atheist, he yet approaches his work religiously, with devotion and a little humor. This book won the Letterstedt Prize, Sweden's equivalent of the Pulitzer.
- Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: Mit Pr; MIT Press ed edition (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262111551
• ISBN-13: 978-0262111553
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Personal Journey, December 13, 1999

By 

Suvrat Kher - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Atheist and the Holy City: Encounters and Reflections (Hardcover)

With this debut collection of essays, George Klein, Holocaustsurvivor and one of the world's foremost cancer researchers has joinedthe growing list of scientists willing to share their experiences in science with the general reading public. By all accounts, this is an impressive start. The essays range in content from personal anecdotes about science and scientists, travelogues, discussions on virology, genetics and cancer, misuses of science in Nazi extermination camps to reflections on death, religion and ethics. His writing is simple, unpretentious, original and a delight to read. If this gem of a collection is any indication of things to come, we are in for many such treats in the future. Read it, enjoy it, treasure it, this book is a memorable reading experience.

Not since I read Sir Peter Medawar's essays on science and scientists have I encountered such clarity in language and thought and a commitment to portray science as it is really practiced, subject to the same motivations and biases as any other human endeavor. The first section of the book, "The Wisdom and Folly of Scientists" deals with such issues. The tempo and style of Klein's writing is defined early in the book in the essay "The Emperor's New Clothes" (my favorite in this collection). In this story he explains the phenomenon of scientific "conformism", the tendency of scientists to accept or reject a new finding without critical thinking, and how this may hinder or even damage scientific research.

In the essay "Are Scientists Creative" Klein uses the biologist Sol Speigelmann's dilemma, Is my work worth anything? (Something that many scientists must have agonized over at some point) to explore the nature of scientific creativity and to contrast it with the artistic temperament.

In "Ultima Thule" he talks to the German geneticist Benno-Muller Hill about the ugly history of the eugenics movement and its culmination in the mass murder of Jews. How could this have happened? How could respectable scientists commit such unspeakable misuses of science? Were they all psychopaths? Klein discovers some surprising answers. One would have thought that after the excesses of the Second World War and our current understanding of genetics, the theory of genetic inequality would have been finally put to rest. Instead, this distasteful topic keeps surfacing every now and then. H.J Muller's 'genetic deterioration' hypothesis, our attitudes towards AIDS patients and Singapore's "race improvement" program through preferential matrimony are recent examples of such misguided thinking. Will we ever shake ourselves free of these prejudices? Klein offers no easy answers, just a warning to keep vigil.

In the section Viruses and Cancer, Klein displays his abilities to explain the difficult concepts of virology, genetics and cell biology in uncomplicated and understandable language. The essay "The Tale of the Great Cuckoo Egg" is particularly fascinating. It traces the history of cancer research, from the early days when all cancer was thought to be of viral origin to its present state of understanding. The story beautifully illustrates how 'pet theories', coincidences and pure dumb luck all played their part in some of the most important discoveries of 20th century biology, finally leading to the discovery of oncogenes, the growth regulatoy genes of the cell.

La Condition Humaine, the final section, is also the most philosophical, as Klein reflects on our will to live, our sexuality, attitudes towards death and dying and religion. 'Eternal Printemps' begins with some entertaining examples of our attitudes towards sex. Klein uses quite a few examples, from classical music to the sexual mores in Sweden, the Masai and the orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem to summarize his 'kaleidoscope of sexuality'. A section on sex as a genetic process and how it evolved as the dominant mode of reproduction in the eukaryotes, puts the preceding discussion on human sexuality in a more sobering perspective.

The last chapter 'The Atheist and the Holy City' set in Jerusalem, is his most personal writing. Here, George Klein, scientist, humanist, philosopher, attempts to reconcile his atheist beliefs in a city steeped in religion. No one can convince him of the existence of God. The scars of Auschwitz are too deep to heal. What has this century taught us? Where is mankind heading? Like Peter Medawar, Klein also believes that this century has been what it is because of science, and this conviction resonates throughout his writings.

In the end, this book is George Klein's personal journey, undertaken to make sense of some of humanities most basic constructs; religion, sexuality, ethics and morality, how they conflict with, and are sometimes better understood within the framework of modern biological thought. I suppose, anyone who has lived the life he has, will finally have something to say. As he admits in the preface," the words have welled up in me. I needed only step aside and watch them flow". Indeed they flow, in a calm, soothing, passionate and gently persuasive manner. We need to just immerse ourselves in them to experience the mind of an extraordinary scientist.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Atheist, September 1, 2003

By 

Alan Harrington (Kensington, Prince Edward Island Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tha Atheist and the Holy City: Encounters and Reflections (Paperback)

This is one of those books that I remember by where I read it as much as by what I read in it. A treacherous winter flight between Ottawa and Halifax complete with a skid upon landing and beside me an Anglican minister somewhat fixated upon the title. Now the contents, written by a `spiritual atheist' who has served the planet in his attempt at saving those imperilled by cancer, will be of interest to anyone who values life and humour. I have since read everything he has written for the layman and have wondered about the `Advances in Cancer Research Vol.#' works though I know he must contribute to those differently. _Pieta_ is, perhaps, its equal. Hopefully others may discover this writer, as I was lucky enough to have done.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Critique of REASON, October 18, 2001

By 

VIPIN G. KOHALE (Dallas , TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tha Atheist and the Holy City: Encounters and Reflections (Paperback)

This book takes you throug the depths of reasoning from different angles viz. science, philosophy, spirituality, humanity and more. And the ultimate aim: how ther are just different parts of the same string. Must read !!