Many appreciate Richard P. Feynman's contributions to twentieth-century physics, but few realize how engaged he was with the world around him?how deeply and thoughtfully he considered the religious, political, and social issues of his day. Now, a wonderful book?based on a previously unpublished, three-part public lecture he gave at the University of Washington in 1963?shows us this other side of Feynman, as he expounds on the inherent conflict between science and religion, people's distrust of politicians, and our universal fascination with flying saucers, faith healing, and mental telepathy. Here we see Feynman in top form: nearly bursting into a Navajo war chant, then pressing for an overhaul of the English language (if you want to know why Johnny can't read, just look at the spelling of ?friend?); and, finally, ruminating on the death of his first wife from tuberculosis. This is quintessential Feynman?reflective, amusing, and ever enlightening. Bookswagon.com Review In this series of lectures originally given in 1963, which remained unpublished during Richard Feynman's lifetime, the Nobel-winning physicist thinks aloud on several "meta"--questions of science. What is the nature of the tension between science and religious faith? Why does uncertainty play such a crucial role in the scientific imagination? Is thisreally a scientific age? Marked by Feynman's characteristic combination of rationality and humor, these lectures provide an intimate glimpse at the man behind the legend. "In case you are beginning to believe," he says at the start of his final lecture, "that some of the things I said before are true because I am a scientist and according to the brochure that you get I won some awards and so forth, instead of your looking at the ideas themselves and judging them directly...I will get rid of that tonight. I dedicate this lecture to showing what ridiculous conclusions and rare statements such a man as myself can make." Rare, perhaps. Irreverent, sure. But ridiculous? Not even close. From Booklist The endearing Feynman, an unusual scientist in that he never regarded ordinary people as too dumb to understand science, nor his Nobel Prize self as too exalted to waste time on them, in 1963 delivered the three popular lectures reprinted in this volume. The first two impart the essence of the scientific approach to the natural world, and the extent to which that approach is applicable to ethics, values, and religion. The third talk is a potpourri of things about popular attitudes about science that Feynman seems to have thought up on his feet, in the presence of the audience, which has the virtue of indicating what listening to the living, animated Feynman must have been like. Chuckle-producing, no doubt, as he spears beliefs in UFOs, advertising, astrology, and faith-healing. But belief in religion--that Feynman respected as a realm unreachable by hardheaded science, whose core value of uncertainty Feynman eloquently explains. A popular follow-up toFeynman's Lost Lecture: Motion of the Planets around the Sun, edited by David Goodstein (1996).Gilbert Taylor Review ...Feynman was a stranger to pomposity, and there's some splendid stuff here. Perhaps the most striking thing is his rare appreciation of the deep connections linking science and democracy... --The New York Times Book Review, Timothy FerrisFeynman's voice and personality come through clearly. He talks about real people and their problems, not about philosophical abstractions. He is interested in religion as a way for people to make sense of their lives, but he is not interested in theology. --The New York Review of Books, Freeman J. Dyson From the Publisher How I Found The Meaning of It All One day in June of 1997, I was combing through the Feynman archives in the basement of CalTech. My goal was to see what unpublished gems might lie in the midst of the paper relics stored there since,