Rating: 
Summary: . . . because it's a waste of time.
Review: This is a rather poorly executed mixture of vitriolic anti-Christian sketches and essays with very little intellectual merit. No one should accuse the editor of originality because all of these arguments have been advanced a number of times elsewhere in almost identical formats. The some of the essayists are unable to avoid the usual religion-is-the-root-of-all-evil theory. Glaring errors in facts, logic and typography are abundant. For example, they placed Solzhenitsyn on their list of "free-thinkers" even though he is, in fact, Russian Orthodox. Beleivers need not be concerned about this title because it isn't anything that hasn't been encountered elsewhere. If you're skeptic, there is little in this book that you haven't already heard or isn't available in a better format. All in all this is a wretched book competing in the already crowded field of atheist agitprop.
Rating: 
Summary: The Mythology of Christianity
Review: This anthology of writings by religious scholars documents the fact that Christianity has its roots in ancient astrological sun worship (son worship) religions. It is a documented historical fact, not disputed by any legitimate scholar of ancient history, that in the thousands of years that preceded the story of Christ, there have been numerous "saviors" who were born on December 25th to virgin mothers, were proclaimed to be the "Son of God", and were crucified, only to be raised from the dead on March 25th. For example, the Egyptian god Horus was the "Good Shepherd", the "way the truth and the light", the "krst" (the Christ), was baptised at age 30, was a child teacher in the temple, had his birth marked by a star, had 12 disciples, and was tempted on the mountain by a demonic figure. The eastern god Virishna's birth to a virgin mother fulfilled an ancient prophecy, and the ruler of that time killed all male children under the age of two in an attempt to kill him. At his birth, he was given gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. He was worshipped as the savior of man, led a humble life performing miracles such as raising the dead. He was put to death on the cross between two thieves, only to rise from the dead and ascend to heaven. Then there is Mithra, Tammuz, Quetzalcoatl, .....well, you get the picture. The astrological connections in Christianity are inescapable. The winter solstice, which occurs on December 21/22, is the low point of the sun in its yearly cycle, when the ancients believed it "died", only to be "born again" three days later (December 25th). At the spring equinox (March 21/22), life is "resurrected" (in plants and trees), and again takes three days for this process to be symbolically completed (March 25th, Easter). Since the sun was all powerful for the ancients, giving warmth and life, human and animal sacrifices were made to the their "God", just as in the Old Testament. Astrological tables and horoscopes were found next to the Dead Sea Scrolls in cave No. 4, and the Essenes, who authored the Scrolls were very much into astrology. Over 40 authors chronicled history at the place and time (including the century after) Jesus was reputed to have lived, and none of them (outside of the Bible) ever mentioned his name with the exception of one paragraph in Josephus'work of 20 volumes which has since been shown to be a forgery. Likewise, there has never been any shred of archeological evidence that Jesus ever existed. Perhaps most damaging of all, Christians are asked to "judge a tree by the fruit it bears", and Christianity has been responsible for more murder, torture, wars, inquisitions, hatred, intolerance, destruction of native cultures and priceless historical records (the burning of the library at Alexandria) than all other philosophies and religions in the history of the world combined. ...
Rating:
Summary: A Useless Work
Review: Putting typographical errors aside, I can find little merit in this work. The one good thing I can say about it, is that it presents some accurate historical facts that many believers in Christianity never knew or tend to ignore. However, the conclusions drawn from those facts and data nicely ignores the flow of logic and common sense, and seem to come from nowhere in certain sections of the book. From where I stand, there are three types of people who are going to be interested enough in this work to read it. 1. Those non-Christians who particularly hate Christianity. These people are going to absolutely love this piece of garbage simply because of its anti-Christian bias, and they have simply tithed twenty bucks to the god named Tim Leedom. 2. Those Christians who are so set in their ways that they are going to read the book just so they can hate it. These people have simply wasted twenty bucks to perpetuate their hatred of anything different than themselves. 3. Those Christians who keep an open mind where their faith and beliefs are concerned. This group of people, however, has probably already known about the information in this book, and has probably already drawn better and much more logical conclusions. But, hey. If you don't fit into any of these three groups, knock yourself out. Waste the twenty bucks and prove me wrong.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Always Hurts!
Review: The only people who will object to this book are those who still seem to be clinging to the ancient fairy-tale called Christianity. An indication that this book is packed with truths is the vehement outrage it has caused among those with blind faith. One of the points that this book makes is that we all need to stand up for the United States Constitution! You cannot have freedom "of" religion in this country, without freedom "from" religion. It is not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine and many other great men wanted nothing to do with the grotesque masquerade party called the Christian church. This is a book that Christians don't want bought or spread around. Most of the arguments in this book are accurate and hit their target right on. The fanatic reaction of some reviewers is proof of this. I strongly recommend that you buy this book, read it for yourself, and see why I most of the Christian reviewers here probably have not even bothered reading this book. They can't, if they do they'll see their faith for the sham this book documents it to be.
Rating:
Summary: The Dead Sea Scrolls is older than Christ.
Review: I do not understand how the author of this book thought he could put in to our minds that Christ is not a real figure because he was not mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were part of the Old Testament, before Christ was around. I thought that this book was totaly informative of the Christian religion. The reason that this book is called "The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read" is because they do not want you to become ignorant. I give this book 1 star due to misrepresentation.
Rating: 
Summary: Discussion of Organised Christianity
Review: This book is not an attack on Christianity. Instead it is a well thought out and full history of the Church itself, warts and all. Discussed within it is the validity of the Church's claim to be the only bearer of the Word of God, along with the interesting parallels between the other 16 crucified "saviours" in world myth. It questions, also, the Bible's status within the Church as the true story of Christ. If you want a real discussion on whether it is the earth bound Church or God that holds the key to your soul, read this book. There's a lot more too it than the faith bashing some Christians might have you believe!
Rating: 
Summary: skepticism gone astray
Review: In this book we find a collection of short chapters attempting to refute christianity as a true religion. One chapter claims that much of Christianity came from pagan myth. The author shows that the ancients had their cucified saviours, teachings of the trinity and so forth, then jumps to the unjustified conclusion that christianity took all of these myths and wove them into creating the christian churches. There are similarities between pagan religious teachings and christianity, but this does not justify the faulty conclusion that christianity borrowed from the pagans. To believe this conclusion we would have to believe that the pagans "invented" the trinity, the crucifixion, eucharistic teachings, saviours,confession,rosaries, and other similiarities from the earliest times and then transfered this knowledge to other cultures. What could be the reasoning behind all this make believe? In addition, we would have to believe that the bible is a fable. That the writers of the books of the bible knew it was a fable, that they lied about the crucifixion, that martyrs gave their lives to a myth, that the apostles were liars when they claimed to be eye witnesses to the crucifixion of christ and so forth. What the author doesnt tell you is what the truth actually is. The bible says specifically that God created Adam and Eve full of Wisdom. When they disobeyed God, they lost much of the original justice they had. However they did have knowledge of a redeemer as God told them after the fall. Since they were created full of wisdom, they must have had great knowledge of many things that was passed to their children. Over time these teachings became corrupted and this is how the numerous crucified saviours, trinities and all the rest appeared in pagan teachings. If this is not the case one would be hard pressed to explain why the pagans would develop these myths and why they have survived for thousands of years and also why foreign cultures would accept these myths for no good reason. The rest of the book has chapters condemning the catholic priesthood for being pedophiles. While some priests are pedophiles this does not invalidate the priesthood itself. The author comes to the unwarranted conclusion, that since the church is based on pagan myths this gives rise to a unhealthy celibacy. This supposedly causes pedophilia and other unnatural acts. How does the author explain those priests who do no such thing ever? Then their is the claim that someone interpolated the name of jesus christ in the works of the jewish historian Josephus. Apparently the entire works of Josephus are now suspect to these "skeptics." It has never been proven that the name of jesus is an interpolation, simply because it is not. The whole book is one biased claim, that because of its bias can be rejected as having claims to truth. I gave the book two stars only because it presents a case against christianity, although a very weak one, and because it advises one to be skeptical. For that reason it should be read to give an idea of the other side of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately, an anti-religion diatribe
Review: For a student of religion, there was not enough meat on the bones in Leedom's collection of anti-religion material. Hints of astrology and pre-Christian Essenes, brief comparisons of pre-Christ figures etc. But not enough of anything to satisfy one's curiosity.
Rating:
Summary: Very Informative as a Display of religious thinking
Review: An informative book. I thought it excellent in how it illustrated the christian and catholic mindset, and how we should not depend on those "rote memory questions", and should search for better explinations for faith, or we should change the faith.
Rating:
Summary: The Church is a house of cards
Review: The book was extremely entertaining and informative. And while one should definitely do research beyond the book, it gives a good starting point to begin. This book showcases the big difference between faith and denial. The thing to think about while reading is, are you taking the information and reaching a conclusion, or making the information conform to your conclusion? And of course Jesus isn't mentioned in the dead sea scrolls because he is a made up figure. Have a nice day.
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