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Summary: After reading this book, good bye Christianity
Review: When I was 12, I was the quintessential catholic: I saved my pocket money to donate to the mission, had serious thoughts about becoming a priests, etc. I started finding problems in religious teaching and bible scripts by myself.When I accidentally read Russells book, it opened my eyes. Christianity was finished. Why do other people not get convinced? Irrationality!! Or, as all official churches have been disproved, they cling to some private version of religion, a version which Russell had no chance to analyze and disprove
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Summary: more inspiring than the gospels
Review: Terrific. The book is clear, logical, and concise. Bertrand has peircing insights on the culture associated with the god squad. Rarely does someone with such a high level of discernment come into existence.
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Summary: The Yokel's Insight
Review: It sadly is but commonplace today that free-thinker as a general label has become an autantonym. Of course Religion is irrational, just like everything else that is important in our lives. Religion belongs to Feeling, and Feeling is orthogonal to Reason - the point where the two meet being the debate on the existence of a God-whatever-you-call-it. That someone needs to read Russell in order to find that out says enough about the reader's mind agility and, regretably, even more about that kind of author's well known intelectual merits when put to the service of self-praise. Three stars overall go to the book's undeniable worth as atheistic soap. A must read for the fan, forgettable for everyone else.
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Summary: New author, old arguments
Review: If your religion is one you inherited from your parents or your church then this book will probably disturb you and cause you to question your faith. If your religion is one that you have arrived at on your OWN, through careful thought and study, then it won't bother you. Russel writes as if someone had described Christianity to him but he had never seen it for himself. He just doesn't get it. He relies on the same concept that Rush Limbaugh does: sounding good. I like Rush and he's right more often than not, but the fact remains that even when he's wrong most of his followers agree with him anyway simply because he is a good speaker. The actual insult is that Russel attempts to keep you from thinking for yourself. By making Christianity appear stupid he attempts to make you FEEL stupid for doing anything but accepting his position. This is not the way a philosopher with a valid argument treats his readers. The bottom line is that Russel's arguments are A) nothing new and B) rather more poorly written than I have seen them in the past. I would still recommend this if you are interested in the subject simply because so many are familiar with his writings that you ought to be also. But don't worry about losing your faith over it unless you didn't really have any in the first place.
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Summary: A must-read for the skeptic!
Review: Bertrand Russell lays out a thorough, albeit sometimes extreme, analysis of how religion defies logical sense. His opinions are still quite accurate and relatable for today's society, often citing the impracticalities of orthodoxy in this day and age. It is an eye-opening read.
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Summary: Life-changing, yet naive
Review: Russell's ascerbic commentary had a very large initial impression on me as a teenager, and helped shape my present free-wheeling agnoticism and skepticism. In rereading it, it is wonderful for the sphere it inhabits, but you still have to take his word for it that skepticism is a "better" tool than other fideist dogma systems. I happen to agree, and see faith as extremely dangerous, but what about faith in skepticism? The point as outlined in another excellent book, The Retreat to Commitment by W. W. Bartley, III, is to retreat from the real danger, justificationalist appeals, which can be used by scientists and religionists alike. See this book as a destroyer of complacency; it is a joy to read.
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Summary: A Logical gem
Review: It is difficult finding a book that tackles religion and spirituality with pure logic and analytic insight. This book exceeded my expectations, even though I have read some of his essays as a kid. A must read for anyone who wants to tackle this issue in an objective and reasoned manner.
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Summary: Refuted long ago
Review: Russell's arguments have been refuted a long time ago by the likes of Greg Bahnsen, Gordon Clark, and Vincent Cheung. The only problem is that their refutations have not been adequately publicized. They have completely exposed Russell as an idiot. Search for their writings on the web.
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Summary: Simple Thought...
Review: I endeavored to buy this book AND C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity", simply to see what is talked about that is similar. My simple thought is this: as an atheist, I read Russell's book first, and mostly agreed on many of his points. I then read Mere Christianity, and after that, re-read "Why I am Not a Christian". It became clear to me that the things Lewis says emphasizes a much different point than most of Russell's book. Lewis's book delves deeply into why being Christian makes sense; Russell's book is relatively miniscule in discussing truly deep reasons why NOT being a Christian makes sense. My suggestion? Read "Why I am Not a Christian" online--if you like it and you want more essays to read, get this book. Otherwise, this book simply fails to concentrate on what the title implicates the book is going to be about.
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Summary: Always willing to listen ...
Review: As a Christian and a peace actionater, I understand the arguments and I understand the need for the conversation, but it seems that again, we are creating a conversation that devalues those of faith who don't follow dogmas or rules (which Jesus advocated against), but those who follow the heart of love and understanding which leads to compassion and grace. I cannot fathom not believing. It is in my DNA, yet I understand grappling with needing answers and not always finding them. Believing in God helps me deal with the frustrations, anger, conflicts that come about. It strengthens me as no other. When I read books that bring the argument of why or why not to believe, I wonder how many people would struggle with having all the answers to why they breathe, why they are drawn to a certain type of individual or a particular interest ... there is the unknown and then there is the person like me, like my mother, grandmother and other ancestors who hold onto something greater than us and no amount of defining, arguing, intellectualizing, takes that away from me.
The problem with religion, so to speak, is the same for other things we disagree about, but we are polarized about it because of those who have made (and over the centuries have made) religion a business! Sellings people's souls ... anyone remember Jesus and the moneychangers ... and finding the hook to keep 'em there is the same modality used for selling liquor and clothes.
I'm intelligent. I'm faithful. One does not negate the other.
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