The Lucifer Principle

"The Lucifer Principle" (1995, ISBN 0871135329) is a book by Howard Bloom. It "explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture" and argues that "evil is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric". [cite web| last =Bloom| first =Howard
title =The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History
publisher =Google Books
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YctWRSbQessC&dq=the+lucifer+principle&pg=PP1&ots=6m1sq6OkZV&sig=i35iyCLXn9pMRnK9kXzrXnhMCcc&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=The+Lucifer+Principle&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail
accessdate =2007-12-30 ] It sees violence as central to the creation of the 'superorganism' [cite web
last =Bloom
first =Howard
title =Superorganism
url =http://www.howardbloom.net/lucifer/excerpt1.html
format =Web article on book excerpt
accessdate =2007-12-30 ] of society and the inevitable 'pecking orders' and hierarchies inherent in human social groups.

The book was criticized in a review in the Atlantic Monthly Press for ascribing moral notions such as 'good' and 'evil' to the essentially amoral world of nature. Other reviews [cite web
title =Booktalk.Org
url =http://www.booktalk.org/lucifer-principle.php
format =Book review-from Publishers Weekly
accessdate =2008-01-01 ] saw it as 'ambitious' and 'disturbing' in its conclusions that societies based on individual freedom might succumb to systems such as communism or islamic fundamentalism. [cite web
last =SCHULTZ
first =JAMES
title =Evil is it born or bred?
publisher =THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
url =http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp950212/02080525.htm
format =Book review
accessdate =2008-01-01 ] [cite web
last =Bloom
first =Howard
title =Islam's War Against the West
url =http://www.howardbloom.net/islam.htm
format =Book excerpt
accessdate =2008-01-01 ] The Washington Post said that "Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human condition... He draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly fields...and meticulously supports every bit of information...." while Chet Raymo in the Boston Globe termed it "a string of rhetorical firecrackers that challenge our many forms of self-righteousness."

Bloom later wrote [cite web
last =Bloom
first =Howard
title =ISLAMIC CENSORSHIP-HOW ALLAH HAS NIPPED YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW
publisher =The Birdman.org
url =http://www.thebirdman.org/Index/Others/Others-Doc-Race&Groups-General/+Doc-Race&Groups-General-PC&Suppression&Censorship/IslamicInfluence&CensorshipInTheWest.htm
format =Web article originated April 2003 edition of Abuse Your Illusions
accessdate =2008-01-01 ] that he and his publisher had been threatened by Islamic groups who objected to aspects of the book. He claimed that "Arab pressure groups asked ever so politely that "The Lucifer Principle" be withdrawn from print and that nothing that I write be published again. They offered to boycott my publisher's products — all of them — worldwide. And they backed their warning with a call for my punishment in seventeen Islamic countries." Bloom states that the Attorney for the Authors Guild wrote to his publishers, warning of an author boycott if the book was pulled from the shelves. The publishers asked Bloom to rewrite a chapter on Islamic violence, which led to the creation of 358 lines of footnotes attesting to the facts he presented within it.

References

External links

* [http://www.reviewcentre.com/review117465.html Expert review of Howard K. Bloom, The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History]
* [http://www.cafearabica.com/archive/issue1/sections/action/lucifer.html Muslim protests against 'The Lucifer Principle']
* [http://www.booktalk.org/transcripts/transcript1.php Interview with Howard Bloom] - 'The Lucifer Principle' on BookTalk.org