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Rating: 
Summary: A Very Interesting Read
Review: Christians are going to go through the roof when they read of people like Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Adams and other founding fathers (and mothers) that had no use for organized religion. The chapter on James Madison is especially interesting in its depiction of Madison and Jefferson's battle to pass Jefferson's Religious Freedom Act. This action was necessary since a tax bill was on hand (1784) to give sums of American tax dollars to Christian churches, thus establishing a federally funded religion. Had this occurred, the religious freedom so many people had died for would have evaporated. Jews, atheists or otherwise would have been out of luck. Fortunately, that bill was defeated and the tenets of Jefferson's Religious Freedom Act were sewn into our Bill of Rights in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. I find it important to illustrate the fact that one does not have to be an atheist to find value in this book. For those of us that are interested in human history, this text lends great insight into the minds of many people that have impacted our world's past, present and future. Its claims are exhaustively researched and documented on the pages. If the inclination to dispute or research is felt, all one has to do is have a pen and paper handy.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Interesting Read
Review: Christians are going to go through the roof when they read of people like Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Adams and other founding fathers (and mothers) that had no use for organized religion. The chapter on James Madison is especially interesting in its depiction of Madison and Jefferson's battle to pass Jefferson's Religious Freedom Act. This action was necessary since a tax bill was on hand (1784) to give sums of American tax dollars to Christian churches, thus establishing a federally funded religion. Had this occurred, the religious freedom so many people had died for would have evaporated. Jews, atheists or otherwise would have been out of luck. Fortunately, that bill was defeated and the tenets of Jefferson's Religious Freedom Act were sewn into our Bill of Rights in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. I find it important to illustrate the fact that one does not have to be an atheist to find value in this book. For those of us that are interested in human history, this text lends great insight into the minds of many people that have impacted our world's past, present and future. Its claims are exhaustively researched and documented on the pages. If the inclination to dispute or research is felt, all one has to do is have a pen and paper handy.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, on great people, but so what?
Review: I love this book! This is a book to be read slowly, like a delicious ice cream. I have great admiration for those men who riskied their lives to confront the power of the ignorance, stupidity and wrath of religion. The human beings who like to think, those who have their own opinions, who think for themselves, instead of repeating old ridiculous stories as if they were true, should like this book. I admire immensely all those men described here. The quotes are witty, scornful, intelligent. The humanity should never forget those heroes of the past, who tried to free the minds and bodies of men from the claws of religion and supertition. Go running and get your copy. If you are free to think, you will enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: Thank God, Not Everybody Is A Lemming!
Review: I was already quite an informed religious disbelievers before I read the quotes from this book so I knew that many famous people from history were disbelievers like myself. Nevertheless, some of the names and quotes I found in this book were startling. Practically every major intellectual figure over the past 2 milleniums represented themselves as a skeptic or disbeliever in this book. I think Robert Ingersoll summed the entire book very well when he said, "The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels." It's such a shame that the majority of children are taught the sugarcoated history which leads them to believe that there heroes like Twain, Jefferson, Edison, and Lincoln were 'good Christians.' This book is a powerful source of quotes from most of the greatest minds to ever cast their genius upon this earth.
Rating:
Summary: Haught Hits the Spot
Review: I was already quite an informed religious disbelievers before I read the quotes from this book so I knew that many famous people from history were disbelievers like myself. Nevertheless, some of the names and quotes I found in this book were startling. Practically every major intellectual figure over the past 2 milleniums represented themselves as a skeptic or disbeliever in this book. I think Robert Ingersoll summed the entire book very well when he said, "The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels." It's such a shame that the majority of children are taught the sugarcoated history which leads them to believe that there heroes like Twain, Jefferson, Edison, and Lincoln were 'good Christians.' This book is a powerful source of quotes from most of the greatest minds to ever cast their genius upon this earth.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: It was a pleasure reading this book, I found out that the greatest thinkers of the past and recent past were not religious people, contrary to modern religious propaganda and brainwashing. There are a number of citations for each of these individuals as well as short biographical sketches. The book however rarely uses such terms as "atheist" or "agnostic" and tends to lump together these two categories as well as people whose views were with condradictory. Also, there is no mention of today's famous skeptics. Nevertheless, great reading.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: The Booklist Editor review completely misses the point of this book. It's not intended as a debate book on the peasant poetry of the Christian/Jewish holy book; or on the arguments believers make on behalf of their religion. It's intended as a biographical summary of unbelievers throughout history since Christ. And, in that function, the book does a fine job.
Rating: 
Summary: Good general overview
Review: This book is good all around for people of every religious bent and of all levels of knowledge about this subject. All the information in this book can be found outside of the book, but its nice because it collects it all in one place. The book is very basic and not in depth, but its a good starting point for people to get familiar with the history of religious criticism. The book however, falls short when it comes to fully explaining the role of religious criticism in western civilization. The book is good for highlighting many people who were not religious, or were critical of religion, but it certainly does not provide a full understanding of the social movements related to religious criticism and their importance in western civilization. Most obviously the author only mentions two quotes from Karl Marx hidden among other random quotes from the 19th century. In fact Karl Marx is arguably the single most important religious critic of all time. Likewise the author mentions nothing of other Communist and Socialist atheists, nor of many of the atheistic German philosophers of the Enlightenment, such as Bruno Baur, etc. I'm sure that this is for obvious reasons of trying to distance religious criticism from Marxism, however this is really something impossible to do if you really want to understand history. Its very obvious that the modern American attitude towards religious criticism and atheism is a product of the Cold War and of the association between Marxism and atheism. Not acknowledging this or understanding it leaves both atheists and religious minded people without the primary basis for understanding the history of modern society and the position of religious criticism in modern society. Why do you think that the "religious right" and the big corporations have joined forces the way they have? Marxism opposed both religion and capitalism, thus religious groups and big captial formed an alliance against the common threat. Prior to the rise of Marxism Christian groups were the biggest critics of modern capitalism and were on opposite sides of the politcal fence.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Easy to digest, and packs a punch!
Review: This book is very good. It is chronologically ordered, so that one can read what various freethinkers throughout history thought of religion, often at the threat of social disdain (at the very least) or death. Although a great many ancient minds thought the Earth was flat and posessed by various gods of a Draconian religion, there were those precious few that were surprisingly ahead of their time. This book chronicles this nicely. Even theists that have the slightest bit of doubt will enjoy this book, perhaps unwittingly. There are some great minds listed throughout such as: Voltaire, Copernicus, Magellan, Einstein, Freud, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, John Adams, Ben Franklin, Darwin, Ayn Rand, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison, and lots more. Also littered throughout the book are various snippets of historic events, such as atheists who were murdered for their beliefs. Makes one realize how serious people were and are about their pet mythologies. This book is a must have for the atheist seeking some fun arguments by authority or for the theist who is impressed by such. In any event, it is VERY insightful! Dan The Burke
Rating:
Summary: An excellent start...
Review: While it is quite true that Haught's book does not present a formal refutation of the main tenets of organized religion, it does provide an excellent sampling of the theistic, though more often anti-theistic, thoughts of extraordinary minds. On occasion the selections do leave one hanging, wishing that more had been cited. In some instances, one can justifiably object that perhaps someone's words are not being properly presented. However, this does not ultimately refute the underlying premise of the book: there are alternatives to theistic thought. As I read the acidic published review of Haught's work, I could not help but get the impression that the reviewer had missed the point. The work ought to be considered a stepping stone in the process of challenging the powerful icon of religion in society. Since the majority of the population has some form of religious belief, be it mono-, poly-, or pantheistic, those who question the posited existence of a higher power can feel intellectually alone. By providing selections from some of the most notable people from the annals of time, Haught lets the budding freethinker, rationalist, or atheist into the presence of greatness. Hence, when a detractor faults the book for lacking structure or formal arguments, they have missed the point. The book simply shows that one does not need to have any particular form of religious belief to have an impact upon society. When one faults the book for making admittedly brief citations, the objector rarely admits that in most cases there is a wealth of information that supports the viewpoints and opinions suggested by the few lines from various sources. Had Haught sought to fully cite each section of each author, fully document each minute detail of each quotation, the book would quickly fill several volumes, and would thereby become a very intimidating tome to a neophyte. Thus, I freely concede that there are faults with the book, but ultimately it demonstrates that theism is not the only source of greatne! ss in history. It is an excellent starting point for a new rationalist or agnostic, and is definitely a worthy addition to both the theistic and atheistic library.
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