Living in the Light: Freeing Your Child from the Dark Ages

Rating:
Summary: good!
Review: A good easy-reading parenting book, with helpful ideas and thought provoking topics when raising children in a anti-atheist world.

Rating:
Summary: This book needs a wheelchair
Review: It's perfect for a coffee klatch of atheist women sitting around mulling over their personal experiences about their kids, but as a practical guide it's woefully lacking. It rambles and seems to fade in and out of anything academically or philosophically significant. It's more of a personal treatise about the author's own dealings with her child (a boy she refers to as making people think he was possessed with a demon) as well as bigoted and dysfunctional friends and families. Drawing from this as an example ruins any hope the reader has of extrapolating useful material which can be applied. A good writer goes from a broad range of examples to a philosophic conclusion or assertion. This book only provides help for answering the stressors of a particular situation: not a universal circumstance.

While reading this, I couldn't help laughing and thinking it's written from the perspective of a very limited experiential and educational background. The lack of any credentials for the author much less bibliographical information reinforces the contention that this is a book better left on the shelf. It reads more like an Atheists' People Magazine than a legitimate text.

Rating:
Summary: This book needs a wheelchair
Review: It's perfect for a coffee klatch of atheist women sitting around mulling over their personal experiences about their kids, but as a practical guide it's woefully lacking. It rambles and seems to fade in and out of anything academically or philosophically significant. It's more of a personal treatise about the author's own dealings with her child (a boy she refers to as making people think he was possessed with a demon) as well as bigoted and dysfunctional friends and families. Drawing from this as an example ruins any hope the reader has of extrapolating useful material which can be applied. A good writer goes from a broad range of examples to a philosophic conclusion or assertion. This book only provides help for answering the stressors of a particular situation: not a universal circumstance.

While reading this, I couldn't help laughing and thinking it's written from the perspective of a very limited experiential and educational background. The lack of any credentials for the author much less bibliographical information reinforces the contention that this is a book better left on the shelf. It reads more like an Atheists' People Magazine than a legitimate text.

Rating:
Summary: surprising
Review: Let's face it--in the past, most stuff from American Atheist press has been cranky, whiny and intellectually pretentious. Not this book. Anne R. Stone writes with a poetic flair concerning the challenges of rearing a child without resort to religious traditions and practices. From the beautiful cover art (drawn by the author) to the lyrical descriptions of the dance of life between mother and child, this book is on an entirely different plane from the usual atheist grind. In fact, if one did not know better, the title, style and presentation of the book would suggest that the author is a New Ager or a religionist herself. She is remarkably sympathetic to believers, finding their belief rooted in universal human needs (she even recommends listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" with your kids!) But when the rubber hits the road, she will not yield one inch to supersitition.

More women than ever before are taking their place in the bastions of freethought, resulting in a certain joy in life as it is expressed through writing and the visual arts rather than the dry intellectual asceticism of white male atheism. This book is a classic example. Readers who enjoy it might also try "The Sacred Depths of Nature" by Ursula Goodenough.

Rating:
Summary: A good buy
Review: Ms. Stone's opinions are better fit for fantasy/sci-fi literature--in the realm of Frank Herbert. Her psuedo-intellectual ramblings are only helpful for other psuedo-intellectuals who need an icon to base their own misguided attempts at RE-explaining everything in the universe. This type of purposeful avoidance of "common" sense, and uncomprehensible ignorance of wisdom, logic and rationale, makes for a great manifesto of pettiness. With the absence of letters following the surname of Stone (such as PhD, or MD), I find it difficult to take the information seriously. For those of you who believe that all genius does not have to be clarified by a university degree . . . I still don't see much mention of Ms. Stone in the popular culture. As an example of a free thinker, the book should be free as well. There is a huge difference between a skeptic and an unwavering cynic.

A word of advice . . . skip the book and TALK with your kids (without the advice of the book). It's cheaper, and will help them become much more psychologically stable and more socially tolerant than this book could ever (pretend to) provide. Otherwise, her critically acidic rants will provide hours of blank expressions. These are thinly veiled diatribes against any GROUP Ms. Stone doesn't agree with, usually religions. Besides, at Halloween, who couldn't LOVE a "costume burning" party to show the rest of the world that your kids are intelligent, well-rounded and enlightened beyond any dull-witted adults who still give their kids comic books to read.

If you think I am being meanspirited . . . try reading the book!

Rating:
Summary: Happy go lucky
Review: Ms. Stone's opinions are better fit for fantasy/sci-fi literature--in the realm of Frank Herbert. Her psuedo-intellectual ramblings are only helpful for other psuedo-intellectuals who need an icon to base their own misguided attempts at RE-explaining everything in the universe. This type of purposeful avoidance of "common" sense, and uncomprehensible ignorance of wisdom, logic and rationale, makes for a great manifesto of pettiness. With the absence of letters following the surname of Stone (such as PhD, or MD), I find it difficult to take the information seriously. For those of you who believe that all genius does not have to be clarified by a university degree . . . I still don't see much mention of Ms. Stone in the popular culture. As an example of a free thinker, the book should be free as well. There is a huge difference between a skeptic and an unwavering cynic.

A word of advice . . . skip the book and TALK with your kids (without the advice of the book). It's cheaper, and will help them become much more psychologically stable and more socially tolerant than this book could ever (pretend to) provide. Otherwise, her critically acidic rants will provide hours of blank expressions. These are thinly veiled diatribes against any GROUP Ms. Stone doesn't agree with, usually religions. Besides, at Halloween, who couldn't LOVE a "costume burning" party to show the rest of the world that your kids are intelligent, well-rounded and enlightened beyond any dull-witted adults who still give their kids comic books to read.

If you think I am being meanspirited . . . try reading the book!

Rating:
Summary: A commendable effort
Review: This book addresses a very important issue that every freethinking parent eventually faces -- how to raise your child so that he/she will not fall victim to religious indoctrination. As a freethinker and a parent of a young child, I am rather dismayed by the lack of information available; I wish for my child to think for himself, and never be lured into accepting irrational dogma on blind faith. How can I best ensure this healthy outcome?

Obviously, there is no 100% effective "inoculation" short of indoctrination, which is precisely what I wish to avoid. This book makes some concrete suggestions: some are dubious, most are basically rational, and a few (very few) I would even call gems. I particularly liked Ms. Stone's continual emphasis on nurturing curiosity, and helping children to become good "scientists" -- i.e. encouraging them to ask unending questions and to seek answers for themselves. Perhaps the most insightful and valuable comment in the entire book is that humor is the best defense against indoctrination. Through humor, one can often broach topics and play with ideas that
might otherwise appear to be off limits.

What I did not like about the book is the rather pointed anti religious tone, such as the use of "godmonger" rather than a neutral word such as "theist" or "religionist". While I too dislike those who would inculcate my child with theistic thinking, I would prefer not to pass this resentment on to my child. I'd much rather foster a curiosity of and a respect for other points of view. I feel it would have been much more positive and constructive had Ms. Stone set a good example of sternly but respectfully disagreeing with religionists. There is entirely too much name calling on both sides of the issue.

The book also suffers from many typos and grammatical errors. More importantly, it's unclear where some of the suggestions come from; are they from personal experience, or controlled studies, or are they merely hearsay? There is no way to independently evaluate the merits of her suggestions. References to relevant studies, or at least more disclosure on the source of the ideas would have greatly increased the value of the book. Finally, I was not at all persuaded by the author's penchant for classifying children into personality categories; it struck me as very dogmatic and unscientific, especially given the lack of references to studies or other literature that might corroborate Ms. Stone's classification scheme.

Unfortunately, I cannot give this book a strong endorsement, despite Ms. Stone's commendable effort, and the appalling lack of books on this topic.

Rating:
Summary: A commendable effort
Review: This book addresses a very important issue that every freethinking parent eventually faces -- how to raise your child so that he/she will not fall victim to religious indoctrination. As a freethinker and a parent of a young child, I am rather dismayed by the lack of information available; I wish for my child to think for himself, and never be lured into accepting irrational dogma on blind faith. How can I best ensure this healthy outcome?

Obviously, there is no 100% effective "inoculation" short of indoctrination, which is precisely what I wish to avoid. This book makes some concrete suggestions: some are dubious, most are basically rational, and a few (very few) I would even call gems. I particularly liked Ms. Stone's continual emphasis on nurturing curiosity, and helping children to become good "scientists" -- i.e. encouraging them to ask unending questions and to seek answers for themselves. Perhaps the most insightful and valuable comment in the entire book is that humor is the best defense against indoctrination. Through humor, one can often broach topics and play with ideas that
might otherwise appear to be off limits.

What I did not like about the book is the rather pointed anti religious tone, such as the use of "godmonger" rather than a neutral word such as "theist" or "religionist". While I too dislike those who would inculcate my child with theistic thinking, I would prefer not to pass this resentment on to my child. I'd much rather foster a curiosity of and a respect for other points of view. I feel it would have been much more positive and constructive had Ms. Stone set a good example of sternly but respectfully disagreeing with religionists. There is entirely too much name calling on both sides of the issue.

The book also suffers from many typos and grammatical errors. More importantly, it's unclear where some of the suggestions come from; are they from personal experience, or controlled studies, or are they merely hearsay? There is no way to independently evaluate the merits of her suggestions. References to relevant studies, or at least more disclosure on the source of the ideas would have greatly increased the value of the book. Finally, I was not at all persuaded by the author's penchant for classifying children into personality categories; it struck me as very dogmatic and unscientific, especially given the lack of references to studies or other literature that might corroborate Ms. Stone's classification scheme.

Unfortunately, I cannot give this book a strong endorsement, despite Ms. Stone's commendable effort, and the appalling lack of books on this topic.

Rating:
Summary: A good buy
Review: This is a very intelligent and well rounded book! A must for free thinking parents