The Human Paradox (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781914195815)

The world is a beautiful place, no-one can deny it. Who has not been awed by an amazing sunset, the smile of a baby, a beautiful piece of music or simply the sound of lapping waves? Whether it is the natural world, or the man-made one, there are endless opportunities to be amazed by how special life is. It is also incredibly rare, and despite the immense size of the universe, according to our current knowledge at least, it only seems to have flourished on planet Earth. Yet in the midst of this incredible beauty, there is also and has been for a long time, unending suffering. Whether because of disease, pain both physical and psychological, loss, pollution and natural or man-made disasters, humankind seems condemned to suffer in the very midst of paradise. The author has never stopped asking himself how this can be the case and in his search for answers has gradually come to realise that this is a particularly human problem. Yes of course animals get wounded, suffer from natural disasters and kill and maim each other, yet there appears to be little evidence that wild beings suffer psychologically as we do. This book is an exploration of what is different about humans and how this inevitably leads to this paradoxical situation.