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Summary: For those who really THINK about their faith.
Review: Required reading if you've ever wondered why you may believe in the religion you believe. Leedom includes articles from various authorities that seek to examine various aspects of religious tradition, dogma, etc. For example, did you know that there are examples of a Christ-like figure from many many different religious traditions. Christianity is no different than any other religion, including so called "dead religions" (i.e. Greek/Roman religion.) While there a few typos on the editor's part, I found his work to be well worth reading. I highly recommend christians read this book before claiming their faith the "one true faith."
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Summary: The World Has Woken Up To The Nonsense Of Christianity
Review: The incredible list this book contains of the world's greatest minds throughout the centuries, who rejected Christianity outright is worth the price of admission alone. Now that humanity has progressed through thousands and thousands of years of practical experience, intellectual progress, and scientific advancement, the only people who still seem to be clinging awkwardly to this ancient fairy-tale called Christianity (which, it is shown in this book is a stolen and assembled mishmash of earlier religions) are the hateful, backwards-thinking, supercilious power-mongers of the Christian church, and the uneducated rubes they seek to control through fear and hate. It is shown that the Christian power-seekers are out to foist their repulsive agenda on any and all of us who are not supremely alert and vigilant at every moment - as if we needed to be reminded! Among the salient points of the book: Don't ever forget to stand up for the United States Constitution! You not only have freedom "of" religion in this country, but freedom "from" religion. It is not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine and many many other great great men wanted nothing to do with the grotesque masquerade party called the Christian church. Read read read says the book. And never, never be afraid to stand up, speak out, and rally together against all Christian hypocrasy. The very survival of America as we know it and want it is at stake, along with our precious personal freedoms. According to the book, now that the number of people disgusted and offended by everything the Christian Church stands for has reached such huge proportions, the time is truly ripe for all of us to stand up and make sure we never lose the freedoms we still possess. Confront (non-violently of course) the robotic proslytizers in the streets, and all the holier-than-thou Christians around you with brave and sure common sense answers to their ridiculous propaganda. Despite so many years of their best e! fforts to the contrary, our personal freedoms survive for the most part today, barely. The book reminds us to never be apathetic, and to never forget that the Christian Church is directly responsible for more death, war, murder, destruction and misery through the ages, than any other single human institution (documented vividly throughout the pages.) From the Inquisition, to the burning alive of thousands of innocent women as "witches" the horror stories are never-ending, all in the name of Jesus Christ. Please, please read this book, and all others in the genre. I particularly recommend "Why I Am Not A Christian" by the great intellectual Bertrand Russell.
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Summary: just one example
Review: I could write a long review showing how biased this piece of crap is,starting from the title...but i'll point out just one example: the author claims that this god called "virishna" worshiped 1200 years before Christ, had very remarkables similitudes beetween his legend and Crist's one,that would be a interesting data IF wasn't the fact that this god never existed in fact, besides this author's book.I dare him or anyone to show the source where one can read about "Virishna" legend.Don't let this kind of people fool you, read serious scholars as Campbell or Eliade
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Summary: Think About It
Review: This is a book that must be read with an open mind. Those with hard-core beliefs will not like this book. They will not give it the proper thought. The book focuses on Christianity, probably because it is the most popular religion today, and only touches on most other religions. That is the reason I could not bring myself to award a five star review. But the author's points are worth considering for an open minded person. The book reviews letters and speeches by some of the founding fathers including Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. it touches on the native American with a review of the words of Chief Seattle. Talks on the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Essenes and Mithra releigons. It follows the history of the English Bible and the changes, reprints and revisions that have befell it. The history of many of the stories in the Bible, how they existed before Christianity, the parallels in beliefs of Christianity and other religions that existed prior to it. The customs around The Last Supper as well as the contradictions between the four gospels. A good read for those interested in the true origins of religion and what man believed before the religions of today. This book should be read as one of many on the subject but no thorough research on the subject should leave this book out. Read it with an open mind and think on it.
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Summary: SOME VALID POINTS; BUT ALL IN ALL, FOUND WANTING
Review: First off, you don't really need to buy this book, you can probably check it out at a local library (as I did) and then peruse it to see whether you consider it worth buying. Well now for the tough part. The book actually has a lot of VALID points. This may be surprising to some Christians (I am a Christian), but it is true. However, in general these valid points are written with poor arguments, which seem only to aim at "scandalizing" Christianity, to "grab your attention," instead of upholding any form of solid scholarship whatsoever. There is some very fine scholarship within the book, but it is pretty sparse and pops in and out as you read this book. And the few good, rational arguments made in the book are too often overshadowed by the book's overall poverty and weakness of argument. The book presents itself in such a "cheesy" fashion that I think hurts its major aim, which is to discredit Christianity in general, while upholding "free thought," rationalism, etc. (This is not to say that Christianity cannot be rational, but the main content of this book does argue otherwise). Thus it may be true that the "form" of Christianity attacked in this book is not intellectually defendable, but it is also true that this book likewise is found wanting. The good points this book brings up are about how Christianity is derived from pagan origins, borrowing from religions such as Mithraism and Zoroasterism; Christmas/December 25th is a pagan holiday; the fact that Jesus is not mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc. However the authors err in attacking "Christianity" as one solid movement, which it is definitely not. There are some such as the Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholics who would be very well have to answer to these good points presented by this book. Or some Protestants would do well to honor truth by reconsidering Christmas as it truly is a "pagan holiday." But for the most part, this book is a waste of time. As I said, it does make good points, but there are so many holes in all the arguments that you won't find any true scholarship here. For example, yes Christianity (at least the "form" of Christianity the authors attack) is of pagan origin. But true Christianity is of Hebraic origin, coming from within Judaism, and in fact, can be argued as being the true, Messianic Judaism. Jesus was not born on December 25th, but most likely around the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. And though Jesus' name is not mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, yet what does this have to do with anything at all? how does this discredit the validity of the Bible? The best thing you can do, if you are sincerely looking for the truth, is to check out a Bible from a local library (or buy one for a few bucks), read it, and see what you think yourself rather than relying on what others-- like myself or these authors-- say. As for this book, it might be worth reading for the bits and pieces it does have that are true. But actually, you can read other far better books to find out what Christianity is all about, its true origins, who Jesus claimed to be, etc. I would recommend other books such as The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan by Peter Michas, et al., Jesus the Jewish Theologian by Brad Young, and The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim.
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Summary: another weapon in a skeptic's arsenal
Review: Even more of what every church will treat as the utmost and the most blatant heresy imaginable can be found in "History: Fiction or Science?" by A. T. Fomenko (ISBN #2913921023, if my memory errs me not). An atom bomb to rival the Book the Church doesn't Want you to Read - science is on our side!
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Summary: A Mixture of Sugar and Sand
Review: I found "The Book" very informative on contemporary issues such as women, religion and politics, religious persecution, etc. However, the over-biased nature of the critiques in some of the articles lessens its creditability. Several of the historical essays abound with fallacies and misinformation. The strength of the book lies in its attack on Christian fundamentalism. The fact is that historically, Christianity has been the enemy of freethought and intellectualism. Most Christians are not encouraged to examine their scriptures critically but to accept what they don't undertand "on faith." It provides convincing arguments to show that the Bible is not the moral yardstick that Christians proclaim it to be. For example, it deals with savagery of Yahweh's Laws and commands, and looks critically at the New Testament's teachings. Many of writers of are very well-respected in their fields such as Robert Eisenman, known for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overall, this is a pretty good buy and it makes for interesting reading. I think that it belongs on the bookshelf of every Christian home. Though some of the material is a bit sketchy, it will make the serious Christian reexamine his faith in light of the many complex issues--from ancient to contemporary--that have to addressed.
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Summary: another weapon in a skeptic's arsenal
Review: Even more of what every church will treat as the utmost and the most blatant heresy imaginable can be found in "History: Fiction or Science?" by A. T. Fomenko (ISBN #2913921023, if my memory errs me not). An atom bomb to rival the Book the Church doesn't Want you to Read - science is on our side!
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Summary: Mostly non-historical gibberish
Review: This books many false and misleading claims regarding Christianity. For instance the book claims that there is no mention of Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Scrolls discovered at Qumran actually were written by the Essenes a Jewish sect that was mystical and midrashic in nature and wrote its texts in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The reason Jesus was not mentioned is because the Essenes were Jewish scholars interested only in documenting the Torah, rather then writing diaries about contemporary events. The first mention of Jesus in a non-Christian text can be found in Josephus's works on Jewish Antiquity which was written in AD 80, by Josephus who fought in the Jewish war of AD 70 and was born roughly around the time Jesus would have died. Josephus wrote that Jesus was 'a holy man, believed to be a prophet' and that 'followers, the Christians exist to this day' meaning that early Christians were living around the time of AD 80. This is a historical book documenting what was happening in Israel and Josephus saw no reason to elaborate on Jesus, but it is enlightening that Jesus, as a real person is mentioned by a non-Christian. The legacy of the real Jesus is also found in the Qur'an which extensively documents Jesus life including his death. Thus we find that not only Jews, but also Muslims agreed that a real person named Jesus existed and was seen by many as a prophet, one trying to reform Judaism. This book claims that the idea of Jesus being a virgin birth was based on Pagan beliefs. But this is also untrue. The idea of a special birth was Jewish idea first described in the Torah when Sarah gives birth to Isaac at the age of 80 even though she has been barren her whole life. Also Sampson was born under special circumstances. The idea of the 'myth' of the virgin birth although contrived was based on Jewish theology which gave special status to special births. The best evidence that Jesus was a real person comes from the gospel of Mathew when he described the genealogy of Jesus back to King David. Why create an in depth lineage for a 'pagan god'? The truth is that Mathew was Jewish and Jewish tradition held that in order for someone to be a Messiah their roots had to be established. Thus Mathew traced the true ancestry of a real man named Jesus. In the end this book is just a series of false claims, innuendo and defamation aimed at Christianity and Christian theology. Although parts of Christian theology like the trinity and the transfiguration seem odd, they are just as equally odd as the pagan tribes who used to drink blood, eat humans and sacrifice girls. So in the end one can be assured that Christian theology is based on reality, with some legends grafted onto it. Seth J. Frantzman
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Summary: This book made me a Christian.
Review: I had no interest in Christianity before reading this book. Now I have started going to church and I believe that god really does exist and after 35 years as an atheist, Im actually considering becoming a Christain. I think the thing that stood out most about the book, is how hard the author had to try to discredit and disprove a god that has no power and possibly no existence. Ive spend my life doing the same thing - fighting against a god that to me didnt even exist. Christians should read this book and see the debates and arguments of the opposition and not just continue to act blindly like it didnt matter.
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