You are, of course, familiar with Le Penseur as depicted above but you may not know
what he contemplates. Originally he sat on the lintel above the Gates
of Hell which Monsieur Rodin labored on for many decades but never
finished. After all, who wants to work on hell all day long?
As mentioned, like my namesake, I too have spent a
great deal of time and effort to provide a realistic picture of our world
and to understand why we inflict so much suffering on ourselves as well as
on others. Although trained in medicine, and more specifically in Neurology,
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurophysiology,
recent efforts have been devoted, in addition to neurophysiologic research,
to showing how history affects our lives and why politicians do what they do.
These resulted in some books for the general public.
The first one War and Mayhem. Reflections of a
Viennese Physician provides a Viennese perspective
on how World War II impacted upon the lives of ordinary
citizens. The book also explores why Hitler, Churchill,
Stalin and Roosevelt acted the way they
did as well as the reasons for anti-Semitism and the
Holocaust.
The second book Whither
Zionism? discusses political Zionism, its
origins, and the reasons for the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian
relationships. A third book The Moses Legacy.
Roots of Jewish Suffering, places our current War on Terrorism in its historical
perspective and explains the forces which shape America’s
domestic and foreign policy. These two books are also available in .pdf format,
free of charge, on this site. The most recent book The
Jesus Conundrum. Searching for Truth beyond Dogma demonstrates
the essential differences between the Old and the New Testament and explores
what human beings regard as the truth with its implications for society. These books can be downloaded free of charge and so can some scientific articles which are of general interest.
The site contains, furthermore, a Hot Issues
segment where the main political problems of our society are discussed on a
monthly basis. They are what is called in the German language Zeitgeschichte
and provide an insight into why contemporary history evolves as it does. Although
some of the opinions expressed in the books, as
well as on Hot Issues, deviate from currently popular views they
are presented in a factual, non-polemic manner and are intended to invite rational, rather than emotional, discussions
of the problems. It has been said "forewarned is
forearmed" and accurate information about the mistakes of the
past can do that. This is the goal of thinktruth.
Ernst Rodin M.D.
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