syrinx

I purchased this one, my first e-book purchase, this from “LuLu”. If you haven’t done that before, it’s not all that straight-forward. It says “Download immediately”, but what you get is a file for which you need a special Adobe application (Adobe Digital Editions; it’s free], not Adobe PDF. I guess it’s designed for e-book readers, but it works fine on a regular computer. The type is larger and more widely spaced than in a typical text document, and EZ to read on a good computer screen. I like it and it opened my mind to digital readers. Beyond that, I am enjoying Robert’s writing; the Titanic metaphor is a good one... As another has written:

Are we condemned on our marbled globe
The warnings ring out crystal clear.
Ice-fields loom large in our dark night,
Yet we press on. Full Steam Ahead!
To meet our fate in that cold pink dawn

(Or Not. if we so choose by free will. not God’s!)

this is a bit more information about this very short book - long essay...
Brief but hopefully insightful, The Imaginary Lifeboat (ILB) applies the Lead, Follow and Get out of the way (LF&G) approach to usability to religion, religious belief, and the meaning of life. Religion is viewed as a tool constructed by humans for its practical use in day-to-day life. As a tool, it can be analyzed and understood in terms of its usability. (Although never directly stated, LF&G is unique in approaches to usability in that it can be applied to a field as remote from its typical application to industrial design or computer design as religion.)

In addition to the lifeboat metaphor, the maiden voyage of the Titanic is used to illustrate the crisis that humanity faces, and why the lifeboat of religious belief is so appealing in the face of the failure of technology in the hands of mortals.

“Crisis!” makes a fire and brimstone case for human destruction or survival in the balance and introduces the example of the Titanic.
“The Imaginary Lifeboat” introduces the metaphor of the lifeboat and one of the major functions of religion – to provide hope.
“Learning to Swim” discusses the unitary origins of science and religion and briefly touches on another water-related metaphor – swimming buddies in what Carl Sagan referred to as the Cosmic Ocean.

The next chapter introduces the Lead, Follow and Get out of the way approach to usability.
In “Usability” we compare Nielsen’s original 10 heuristics to the obvious Judeo-Christian archetype and the proliferation of new usability guidelines to the proliferation of rules in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc.

In contrast, we present a simple approach based on instructional principles. These are Lead (the user to success). Follow (the individual’s progress through tasks towards goals and provide support and information when and where needed). And Get out of the way (so the individual may perform tasks and achieve goals efficiently and effectively).

The following chapters go into further detail with the LF&G analysis of religion as a usable tool, discussing both the good and the bad aspects, without dwelling on some of the ugly facets of human nature.
First we address the fundamental questions of life – to be, or not to be, and what to do in the meantime – and how religion is easy to use or not so easy to use, according to the LF&G approach.

The common truth underlying all major religions – the Golden Rule – is a principle that can be agreed on and practiced by the faithful and non-religious alike.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are used to illustrate the Lead, Follow, and Get out of the way method as used by Jesus to teach this rule “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Written by the nephew of an Episcopalian Bishop, former acolyte who considered priesthood as a career during his adolescence (but is now a non-practicing non-theist), The Imaginary Lifeboat is easy to read, easy to understand, and one hopes, easy to use to illustrate what usability, religion, and atheism are all about.

You should buy one for yourself, one to give to someone you love, one to give to someone you hate, and one to give to someone who hates you.

The book ends with a message that is part tongue in cheek, part serious, part challenge, and part eternal truth. Hopefully it is one that both people of faith and people who are non-theist, empiricist, naturist, humanist, or agnostic can all agree on.