Howard K. Bloom, The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History Review

Overall Rating

First few chapters contain some reasonable historical examples of his thoughts.

The underlying premise of the book, that Satan is a fantasy, and therefore evil must arise elsewhere, is so summarily and baldly handled, that it conditions a serious reader to ask, "How does he know?" "What is his basis for saying such?" Moreover, he does this in less than one-half a page. Such a dismissal without an attempted demonstration to show that such a position is fairly well-supported, makes his book nothing more than fantasy.

By trying to discredit "by fiat" the one theological argument which, once discarded, allows him to write his book (i.e. that Satan is a fantasy) Mr. Bloom loses all credibility. In other words, he is therefore unobjective, obviously caring little for the process of building his argument through theoretical or factual support.