Official Review: Real Education! by A.Sood

NanoWasabi · Post by **NanoWasabi** » 30 Apr 2015, 23:33

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Real Education!" by A.Sood.]

2 out of 4 stars

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Real Education with Scientific and Spiritual Understanding was written by Auren Sood. It aims to inform the reader about the flaws of our educational system, and to show the reader why it is corrupt and what we should do to fix it. The book also addresses problems with Darwinian evolution, and presents Vedic evolution as a more believable alternative. The Vedas (A Hindu religious set of books) is portrayed as the least flawed religious document when compared to books such as the Bible and Koran, and the reader is encouraged to accept the teachings as fact.

After the introductory chapter, the book asks “what is education?” and tells you to ponder the question. It then goes through what is wrong with the school system we use today, and talks about issues with standardized testing, school punishment, and the tradition of sorting students based on their age. The next section of the book goes into detail about why Darwinian evolution is flawed, and asks why even Darwin himself was so doubtful about the theory. Finally, the book presents Vedic teachings, and shows the factual evidence that the Hindu scripts are the least flawed of the religious books.

The author of the book is certainly passionate about the subjects that he covers. In the chapter about education, he talks about experiences he had in school, and gives valid points as to why the school system is flawed. Along with other arguments, he says that making students get a hall pass if they are late is counterproductive to the school’s interests because it wastes time that the student could be spending in class, which is a fair point. In the evolution chapter, he also has plenty of reasons that you should not agree with Darwinian evolution, however, this argument is much less convincing than the section on education.

Some of the points that Mr. Sood presents about evolution make sense, but there are too many that do not make sense for this section to build a compelling argument. For example, in one part, he says that evolution is impossible because if one life form makes some genetic changes, it has to have a mate that has those same changes. This point is invalid because Darwinists do not think this way, they understand that a life form can pass on genetic mutations regardless of whether its mate has those changes. There are valid points that Mr. Sood makes however. One very believable argument is that, while natural selection clearly does happen, humans have never observed one species evolving into a different species. While this does not completely discount Darwinism, it does cast a degree of doubt onto it.

Overall, Real Education was a mediocre book. There were obvious scientific mistakes and overlooks that should not exist in a book concerning science. The book also felt a bit disjointed, with the first half being about education and the second half about science and religion. It would have made more sense to write a different book for each of the two subjects. In addition, the religion sections could have used more background. There were times when I felt lost while trying to understand the viewpoint set before me, and some basic knowledge of the Vedas could have helped a lot. As a professional book, I give Real Education two out of four stars, however, if you simply want to see a new viewpoint and can discern which parts of the book should be believed, you may enjoy the read.

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Real Education!
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Playitalready · Post by **Playitalready** » 01 May 2015, 21:42

This review seems fair enough. I think I need to accept that I can't change basic, key beliefs that have been imprinted into a mind, such as Darwin's version of evolution. Oh and even though Darwinists may not think 1 way, it doesn't mean their thinking can change reality, like if I said something about mates that I maybe mistaken on (or maybe I didn't explain that well enough due to having many other points that I made).

What's also interesting is that no matter how much I provide examples of things like Christianity being an extension of the Vedas, or math and advanced warfare coming from the Vedas countless millenia ago, or especially how I never use the word "Hindu" or "Hindu religion" when talking of the Vedas (except when I mentioned that those terms are faulty to use) etc. that these teachings mostly don't seem to get through to most people.

I thought in chapter 4, if anything, I talked too much about the Vedas with the hopes of making it more clear for even a "beginner" as well as so-called experts of it. I'm confused what more things I should've taught. Also in that chapter, I thought after pointing out that nearly all significant science and spiritual teachings originated from the Vedas for countless millenia, while providing many details, examples, with sources, that it'd help support the other arguments that helped prove why the Vedic model of evolution is more trustworthy and accurate, as well as how the Vedas can help fix modern education, and thus the book does connect well too. I tried to end/start one chapter in a way that it'd lead into the next one with somewhat obvious reasons.

I'm curious on what scientific mistakes and overlooks you think I made. Maybe you can answer this comment and add to your review by talking more about chapter 4, and confirm if you read chapter 5 and maybe touch upon it. Thanks.

zeldas_lullaby · Post by **zeldas_lullaby** » 01 May 2015, 22:01

Great review! And good point to Playitalready about hall passes. When I was in high school, if we were late to first period, we had to spend the whole first hour in the Tardy Room. Talk about a waste. As a punishment, it flopped, because students would think, "I'm running five minutes late. I don't want to wind up in the Tardy Room, so I'll just go to McDonald's and show up right before second period." I think they did away with that policy after I left there.

I never spent any time in the tardy room. (I was still in bed asleep until halfway through third period.)

NanoWasabi · Post by **NanoWasabi** » 03 May 2015, 14:06

Playitalready wrote:This review seems fair enough. I think I need to accept that I can't change basic, key beliefs that have been imprinted into a mind, such as Darwin's version of evolution. Oh and even though Darwinists may not think 1 way, it doesn't mean their thinking can change reality, like if I said something about mates that I maybe mistaken on (or maybe I didn't explain that well enough due to having many other points that I made).

What's also interesting is that no matter how much I provide examples of things like Christianity being an extension of the Vedas, or math and advanced warfare coming from the Vedas countless millenia ago, or especially how I never use the word "Hindu" or "Hindu religion" when talking of the Vedas (except when I mentioned that those terms are faulty to use) etc. that these teachings mostly don't seem to get through to most people.

I thought in chapter 4, if anything, I talked too much about the Vedas with the hopes of making it more clear for even a "beginner" as well as so-called experts of it. I'm confused what more things I should've taught. Also in that chapter, I thought after pointing out that nearly all significant science and spiritual teachings originated from the Vedas for countless millenia, while providing many details, examples, with sources, that it'd help support the other arguments that helped prove why the Vedic model of evolution is more trustworthy and accurate, as well as how the Vedas can help fix modern education, and thus the book does connect well too. I tried to end/start one chapter in a way that it'd lead into the next one with somewhat obvious reasons.

I'm curious on what scientific mistakes and overlooks you think I made. Maybe you can answer this comment and add to your review by talking more about chapter 4, and confirm if you read chapter 5 and maybe touch upon it. Thanks.

I should clarify that I am not personally a believer in Darwinian evolution, I am a Christian creationist. However, I have studied Darwinism to an extent, and can say that some of your arguments seem to have been made without a full understanding of Darwinist beliefs, even if this was not the case. For example, you said that Darwinists do not intentionally get radiation poisoning because they know that mutations are nothing more than damage. In my experience, most Darwinists believe that mutations can be either beneficial or detrimental, they only avoid radiation because their bodies could not handle mutation on such a large scale. On the other hand, small mutations over a number of generations can be handled by the body, and can potentially be beneficial, according to Darwinists.

I apologize for my association of the Vedas with Hinduism, I did not notice the passage where you explained the faults with that assumption. In regard to the background of the Vedas, after rereading the 4th chapter and doing some research, I understand much more about the Vedas than I did after the first reading. One specific thing that I thought would have been helpful was a succinct comparison between Vedic teachings and other religions, maybe in a table format. I also would have liked a direct comparison between Vedic and Darwinian evolution in a single paragraph.

I felt that the connection between the two halves of the book was only loosely made, with the 4th chapter mentioning the teaching of religion in schools, but not how to fix the faults with the school system in general. If the 4th chapter had a section directly pertaining to the 2nd, and had mentions of some of the issues that were brought up in that chapter, then the book would have felt more together.

Most of the mistakes that I said you made were concerning the beliefs of Darwinists, as I mentioned earlier. I believe I have covered the mistakes that were most prominent, and they can all be fixed by researching Darwinian points of view and confirming that your arguments do a good job refuting that viewpoint. The 4th chapter seemed to have a good amount of accuracy, and the 5th chapter was one of the stronger parts of the book, so I felt it did not need critiquing, as it was mainly to restate your previous points and to close out the book.

Please let me know if you still have any questions.

Rachaelamb1 · Post by **Rachaelamb1** » 04 May 2015, 02:49

Good review. I think I would be interested in reading the first half but it seems strange to me that the second half would focus on religion and science. Maybe it would work if all the other educational subjects were covered as well or (like you said) if it was a completely different book.

Playitalready · Post by **Playitalready** » 13 Jan 2016, 02:15

Rachaelamb1 wrote:Good review. I think I would be interested in reading the first half but it seems strange to me that the second half would focus on religion and science. Maybe it would work if all the other educational subjects were covered as well or (like you said) if it was a completely different book.

Sorry for only seeing your reply right now lol.
Perhaps I could've done a better job explaining how it all comes together and is all related. I kinda think i did that better in the amazon synopsis. but it was necessary to include all these topics in 1 book. would you like the amazon link? they won't sell the hard copy free though. if you dont wana their hard copy, and if there's a way to you the book free, let me know.

rssllue · Post by **rssllue** » 13 Jan 2016, 08:42

Very nice review. You did a great job of being fair and balanced in your critique.

LivreAmour217 · Post by **LivreAmour217** » 13 Jan 2016, 08:51

A very nice and fairly written review! It sounds like the author does make a few good points (I agree about the hall pass thing).

Playitalready · Post by **Playitalready** » 18 Jan 2016, 02:26

rssllue wrote:Very nice review. You did a great job of being fair and balanced in your critique.

I was wondering:
Do you know how it is that out of the blue I see TWO new comments (including yours) on this review on like, the same day?

If you wish to read this book yourself and be the judge let me know and check this link...
http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelve ... hp?u=41146

-- 18 Jan 2016, 03:32 --

LivreAmour217 wrote:A very nice and fairly written review! It sounds like the author does make a few good points (I agree about the hall pass thing).

Do you know how it is that out of the blue I see TWO new comments (including yours) on this review on like, the same day?

I never thought the hall pass thing would be what this book is remembered for lol. Do you know I quote Einstein in the book? And In the longer version of the book, I use astrophysics Einstein taught and ancient Eastern teachings to form an insight on the universe and its illusion-like nature.

If you wish to read this book yourself and be the judge let me know and check this link...
shelves/pub-contest.php?u=41146