3 Books on Religion/Atheism (epub)

The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture - Darrel W. Ray
What makes religion so powerful? How does it weave its way into our political system? Why do people believe and follow obvious religious charlatans? What makes people profess deep faith even as they act in ways that betray that faith? What makes people blind to the irrationalities of their religion yet clearly see those of others? If these questions interest you, this book will give you the tools to understand religion and its power in you, your family and your culture. For thousands of years, religion has woven its way through societies and people as if it were part and parcel to that society or person. In large measure it was left unexplained and unchallenged, it simply existed. Those who attempted to challenge and expose religion were often persecuted, excommunicated, shunned, or even executed. It could be fatal to explain that which the church, priest or imam said was unexplainable. Before the germ, viral and parasite theory of disease, physicians had no tools to understand disease and its propagation. Priests told people disease was a result of sin, Satan, evil spirits, etc. With the discovery of microbial actors, scientists gained new tools to study how it spreads. They could study infection strategies, immunity, epidemiology and much more. Suddenly the terrible diseases of the past were understandable. The plagues of Europe, yellow fever, small pox, pneumonia, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. were now removed from the divine and placed squarely in the natural world. This book owes a great deal to Richard Dawkins concept of viruses of the mind, but it seeks to go a step further to personalize the concept of religion as a virus and show how these revolutionary ideas work in everyday life. The paradigm can explain the fundamentalism of your Uncle Ned, the sexual behavior of a fallen mega church minister, the child rearing practices of a Pentecostal neighbor, why 19 men flew planes into the World Trade Center or what motivates a woman to blow herself up in the crowded markets of Baghdad. Learn how religion influences sexuality for its own purposes, how and why it protects pedophile priests and wayward ministers and how it uses survivor guilt to propagate and influence and how it might influence a person's IQ.


Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years - John Philip Jenkins
The fifth-century Christian church faced a doctrinal issue, now largely forgotten, that precipitated intramural Christian savagery unparalleled until the 11-centuries-later Thirty YearsΓΓé¼Γäó War. The bone of contention was the nature of Jesus Christ. That he wasnΓΓé¼Γäót a mere man was indisputable. But was he a human-divine cross-breed, so to speak, or was he purely divine and his human body an illusion? Neither was accepted, but the conclusion of the council of Chalcedon in 451 that he was fully divine and fully humanΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥that is, said dissidents, of two naturesΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥incensed those who held he was of one nature, entirely divine. The fight broke out well before Chalcedon, entailing the death-from-assault of the patriarch of Constantinople during the 449 council of Ephesus, thereafter disowned as the ΓΓé¼┼ôGangster Synod.ΓΓé¼┬¥ Chalcedon eventually triumphed, but not until well after 250 years of intermittent violence in which monks behaved like the Waffen SS. Jenkins condenses centuries of church and imperial strife with admirable clarity despite the continuous blizzard of historical names and ecclesiastical terms the narrative entails. He suggests that this era, not the later Dark and Middle Ages, is the most violent (un-Christian?) in Christian history and that it may have lessons for the present and future conflict between Christians and Muslims over the nature of God.


Your Religion Is False - Joel Grus
The most important book ever written! Whether youΓΓé¼Γäóre a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, a Rasta or a Jain, an Environmentalist or a Cheondoist, a Scientologist or a Giant Stone Head Worshipper, your religion is false. In this long-awaited book, Joel Grus reveals the details of not only how your religion is false but also how every other religion is false. When you want to know what not to believe, this is the only book you need. In addition, youΓΓé¼Γäóll learn * Why ΓΓé¼┼ôgodΓΓé¼┬¥ doesnΓΓé¼Γäót exist * Why thereΓΓé¼Γäós no such thing as a ΓΓé¼┼ôsoulΓΓé¼┬¥ * How to find ΓΓé¼┼ômeaningΓΓé¼┬¥ in a religion-less world * Which of your religious heroes are pedophiles * Why ΓΓé¼┼ôreligious toleranceΓΓé¼┬¥ is a terrible idea And, as a bonus, the greatest religious joke ever told. You canΓΓé¼Γäót afford not to read this book!



Enjoy and Seed!!