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radbear76's review
4.0
A complete and rigorous history. A challenging read at times but very much worth the effort.
kmg365's review
3.0
This book is well-written, and couldn't possibly be more comprehensive. In fact, it was a little too comprehensive for me to handle right now. I have invested 15 hours in the audio book so far, and even though we're finally inching towards the era I'm really interested in, I'm just not capable of putting my head down and slogging through to the end at the moment.
Hecht obviously knows her stuff, and is fascinated by the information she's presenting. She just didn't manage to infect me with her enthusiasm. That's been a problem with nearly every one of my history teachers through the years. Most of them could not fathom why their students weren't as enraptured by the subject as they were. I'm evidently immune to the charms of history.
The quiz at the beginning of the book made me hope that the style would be more casual. I hope to finish this someday. But not right now.
flijn's review
5.0
'It was amazing' is indeed an adequate description for this wonderful book. This is an enormously important book, and I will let Hecht explain why:
It seems crucial that this history be known, if only so that its theorists, poets, comedians, and martyrs may be understood in their proper context. People should be able to speak about doubt without having to establish all the old arguments every time the conversation begins again. Doubters and believers alike should know that Epicurus and Lucretius, the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, and the teachings of the Buddha have been remarkably constant resources in the history of unbelief.
p. 484
As the title says, Hecht covers the history of religious doubt and she does so in a complete, thoughtful, and highly readable manner. The observation in the introduction states it beautifully:
"We live in a meaning-rupture because we are human and the universe is not"
From very early on, people realized this and sought to mend that rupture, either by humanizing the universe or by acquainting humanity with the world as it is. It is an original way of looking at religion and doubt, and it shows that over the different times, cultures and religions, people are struggling with the same issues. Doubters are of course influenced by the religious tradition that surrounds them. This is why we can speak of Christian or Islamic doubt. But Hecht shows how certain ideas recur all over the world,how the history of doubtful ideas has several threads running through it that make their appearance time and time again.
Of course there are the usual suspects: Socrates, Epicurus, Spinoza, Hobbes, Schopenhauer, Russell, Sartre... but many, many more inhabit these pages.
To name a few:
Indian movement Carvaka (There is no afterlife, no karma, no brahma, 7th century bce)
the Buddha (The question of God is meaningless, 5th century bce)
Koheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes (There is no meaning, 3rd century bce)
The Gnostics (God is evil, humanity is divine, first centuries ce)
Zen Buddhism (Doubt is all that matters, there is nothing to know, 5th century)
Ibn Al-Rawandi (Why should we believe Mohammed?, 8th century)
Averroës (Use philosophy and rationality to study your religion, 12th century)
Zen master and poet Ikkyu Sojun (We eat, excrete, sleep, and get up; / This is our world / All we have to do beyond that / Is to die. 15th century)
Abolitionist and women's rights-activist Harriet Martineau ("There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the Universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties", 19th century)
Hubert Harrison (agnostic, African-American voice from the Harlem Renaissance, 1920's)
Taslima Nasrin (Bangladeshi author and atheist, Religion is a source of oppression and injustice, current) .
Hecht has an easy and often humorous style and she manages to bring all these doubters to life. Her description of the various ideas conveys their message very clearly, and at the same time she subtly indicates their history, their philosophical 'family', and their inconsistencies. She lets many of them speak for themselves, for example when she wants to convey the existential crisis that Augustine experienced before he could finally give up the worldly pleasures for devotion to Christianity. She also has a ton of details to spice up the accounts, sometimes weird, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking.
Hecht makes it clear that doubt is not just part of an intellectual debate, it can be upsetting, emotional, irrational even. Many doubters in the book struggle immensely, either with their own contradicting thoughts or with an ignorant or hostile environment.
Others don't doubt at all. They are absolutely convinced there is nothing out there except the beauty and complexity of nature. They belong in this book because the are part of the tradition of doubt. The doubters as well as the convinced atheists/skeptics/materialists contribute to the questioning of faith, dogma, and certainty.
I cannot recommend this book enough, but it is especially compulsory for anyone invested in the current religion/secularism/unbelief/doubt-debates. For doubt to have any meaning, it must be informed about the religion it criticizes and about its own history. With this book, you are halfway there.
ladamic's review
4.0
This tour de force tracks and describes every last shred of doubt in god(s) throughout the ages. This takes a while.
laurie_griesinger's review
3.0
I think I would have liked this book a lot more if I hadn't taken a History of Skepticism course in college. After that course, this was just like a less-in-depth discussion of the same topics. I think she tried to take on too much with this book - it felt rushed. I really wanted to know a lot more about the time periods and people she discussed. That said, I did love that she made a concerted effort to include women doubters in her book. Her discussions of them were all rather new to me, as they are often glossed over.
I will never forgive Hecht, though, for saying Newton invented calculus and not even mentioning Leibniz.
I will never forgive Hecht, though, for saying Newton invented calculus and not even mentioning Leibniz.
socraticgadfly's review
3.0
Even though some of my grammatical concerns from my Amazon review of the original edition have been addressed, I still can't rate this book higher.
Now, on the one hand, this is a very interesting book, with great content, especially for those not more familiar with the history of doubt, above all in doubt in the East. I learned some new things about the East, such as the Carvaka of early Hinduism. I gained new insight on a few more familiar faces from the West as well.
That said, I had a few minor comments or more serious concerns of different sorts.
1. Introduction, page xv. Hecht somewhat waves aside the arts in their attempts to deal with matters of "ultimate concern" and how they might fit in a history of doubt. She says "religion is more completely centered on contemplating the rupture -- perhaps it is because no end product (canvas, performance or text) is expected or construed as the central point of the adventure."
I would respectfully disagree. While a painting is a one-time work, it can instill different and ongoing reactions from repeated viewings. And music, theater, dance and film are all repeated works. I think of something like Bernstein's secular Mass, for example. Even literature can be approached from reader-response criticism. The arts are about the act of canvassing, performing or texting.
2. More serious complaint No. 1 -- Bad copyediting and/or bad writing. Example 1 -- "its" and "it's" being misused and confused. Happens more than once. Likewise, misplaced apostrophes with nouns ending in "s." The possessive of "Thales" is NOT "Thale's"; the possessive of "Rick Fields" is NOT "Field's." That too happens more than once. It happens enough it has to come from Hecht herself; or else, she knowingly let it slide. (I've worked as a proofreader for a book publisher; she would have gotten galleys with the incorrect usage, and should have seen it at least once.)
3. Page 467. She calls Lyndon Baines Johnson Speaker of the House of Representatives! He was Senate Majority Leader during the 1950s, but not even inthe House. Unforgiveable and egregious for a professional historian to make a historical error of that magnitude. (Per an Amazon commenter on my review there, this has been addressed; still, it's a big error on Hecht's part, as well as yet another reason for me to complain about the crappy state of copy editing in modern nonfiction book publishing.)
4. She botches Herbert Spencer's "contempt before investigation" idea on page 408. Rather, as a good doubter, he said that was a cardinal sin; he did NOT advocate using "contempt before investigation" as a philosophical tool. (Reportedly, per the same commenter, this too has been cleaned up. That said, this can't be blamed in part on a copy editor. I'm glad Hecht cleaned it up; that speaks well. But, it's an error of interpretation that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Overall, a good to very good tour de force; it focuses more on breadth than depth. Were it not for the mistakes, it would get at least one star better rating.
====
A re-reading of this book about five and a half years later makes me a bit "iffy" more about the substance of this book, not just errors around the edges, than I was before. Even without those, "Doubt" wouldn't get more than a fourth star. I question some of Hecht's biblical interpretation, and, more than in my initial reading, thinks she tries to do some shoehorning as to where she finds doubt as a philosophical or religious tool. And, I would definitely have to agree with another reviewer on Amazon that she's too credulous, perhaps way too credulous, about the Buddha, including claims that his pure philosophy/psychology got corrupted into religion.
That's simply wrong. It's pretty clear that ideas about karma and reincarnation, monism and maya, have been part of Buddhism from the start, setting aside the question as to whether or not Siddhartha Gautama even was a historical personage, which Hecht never addresses. (Ditto on historicity of Jesus questions not getting a mention.)
Add in that too many skeptics and skeptically-minded, including people I recognize as Facebook friends, give it four or more stars, and my three-star review from Amazon stands.
Now, on the one hand, this is a very interesting book, with great content, especially for those not more familiar with the history of doubt, above all in doubt in the East. I learned some new things about the East, such as the Carvaka of early Hinduism. I gained new insight on a few more familiar faces from the West as well.
That said, I had a few minor comments or more serious concerns of different sorts.
1. Introduction, page xv. Hecht somewhat waves aside the arts in their attempts to deal with matters of "ultimate concern" and how they might fit in a history of doubt. She says "religion is more completely centered on contemplating the rupture -- perhaps it is because no end product (canvas, performance or text) is expected or construed as the central point of the adventure."
I would respectfully disagree. While a painting is a one-time work, it can instill different and ongoing reactions from repeated viewings. And music, theater, dance and film are all repeated works. I think of something like Bernstein's secular Mass, for example. Even literature can be approached from reader-response criticism. The arts are about the act of canvassing, performing or texting.
2. More serious complaint No. 1 -- Bad copyediting and/or bad writing. Example 1 -- "its" and "it's" being misused and confused. Happens more than once. Likewise, misplaced apostrophes with nouns ending in "s." The possessive of "Thales" is NOT "Thale's"; the possessive of "Rick Fields" is NOT "Field's." That too happens more than once. It happens enough it has to come from Hecht herself; or else, she knowingly let it slide. (I've worked as a proofreader for a book publisher; she would have gotten galleys with the incorrect usage, and should have seen it at least once.)
3. Page 467. She calls Lyndon Baines Johnson Speaker of the House of Representatives! He was Senate Majority Leader during the 1950s, but not even inthe House. Unforgiveable and egregious for a professional historian to make a historical error of that magnitude. (Per an Amazon commenter on my review there, this has been addressed; still, it's a big error on Hecht's part, as well as yet another reason for me to complain about the crappy state of copy editing in modern nonfiction book publishing.)
4. She botches Herbert Spencer's "contempt before investigation" idea on page 408. Rather, as a good doubter, he said that was a cardinal sin; he did NOT advocate using "contempt before investigation" as a philosophical tool. (Reportedly, per the same commenter, this too has been cleaned up. That said, this can't be blamed in part on a copy editor. I'm glad Hecht cleaned it up; that speaks well. But, it's an error of interpretation that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Overall, a good to very good tour de force; it focuses more on breadth than depth. Were it not for the mistakes, it would get at least one star better rating.
====
A re-reading of this book about five and a half years later makes me a bit "iffy" more about the substance of this book, not just errors around the edges, than I was before. Even without those, "Doubt" wouldn't get more than a fourth star. I question some of Hecht's biblical interpretation, and, more than in my initial reading, thinks she tries to do some shoehorning as to where she finds doubt as a philosophical or religious tool. And, I would definitely have to agree with another reviewer on Amazon that she's too credulous, perhaps way too credulous, about the Buddha, including claims that his pure philosophy/psychology got corrupted into religion.
That's simply wrong. It's pretty clear that ideas about karma and reincarnation, monism and maya, have been part of Buddhism from the start, setting aside the question as to whether or not Siddhartha Gautama even was a historical personage, which Hecht never addresses. (Ditto on historicity of Jesus questions not getting a mention.)
Add in that too many skeptics and skeptically-minded, including people I recognize as Facebook friends, give it four or more stars, and my three-star review from Amazon stands.
regferk's review
5.0
This was a very broad thesis and, though I know she missed some of the details, she managed to stay on point with the history of doubt from the beginnings of recorded history to present day. My favorite part came at the very end and it's a message that I would like to leave for my own children.
"From doubts beginnings, it has advised that if you create your own desires and model them after what you actually experience, you can be happy. Accept that we are animals, but ones with special problems, and that the world is natural, but natural is just and idea that we animals have in our heads. Devote yourself to wisdom, self-knowledge, friends, family, and give some attention to community, money, politics and pleasure. Know that none of it brings happiness all that consistently. It's best to stay agile, to keep an open mind, Anyway, if you live long enough, you will likely find yourself believing something that you'd never believe today. Or disbelieving. In a funny way, the only thing you can really count on is doubt. Expect change. Accept death. Enjoy life. As Marcus Aurelius explained, the brains that got you through the troubles you have had so far will get you through any troubles yet to come."
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
"From doubts beginnings, it has advised that if you create your own desires and model them after what you actually experience, you can be happy. Accept that we are animals, but ones with special problems, and that the world is natural, but natural is just and idea that we animals have in our heads. Devote yourself to wisdom, self-knowledge, friends, family, and give some attention to community, money, politics and pleasure. Know that none of it brings happiness all that consistently. It's best to stay agile, to keep an open mind, Anyway, if you live long enough, you will likely find yourself believing something that you'd never believe today. Or disbelieving. In a funny way, the only thing you can really count on is doubt. Expect change. Accept death. Enjoy life. As Marcus Aurelius explained, the brains that got you through the troubles you have had so far will get you through any troubles yet to come."
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
cornelioid's review
4.0
As an account of the history of doubt, Hecht describes at the outset one of the interesting novelties of this book — that, across most of the societal contexts it traverses, it emphasizes movements and intervals that are naturally de-emphasized in histories of "great" ideas or movements or cultures; doubt tends to be counter-cultural and thrives during the off-seasons. Nevertheless, like a knot through the complement of a compact solid, the written history of doubt is suffused with references and echoes to earlier writings, frequently disrupted by the loss of texts but held together throughout by a small set of central themes. Hecht recounts these toward the end, clinching another novelty — that the questioning of authority is bound up with its own traditions and inheritances, not unlike the comparatively more arbitrary narratives and ideologies it resurfaces to challenge.
Having been raised a secular atheist, there's much in this book to wish i had had access to as a lad. Certainly so rich a humanist (as it can now be described) history would have provided surer grounding during the period in which the communities i'd found and followed struggled to eject the ethnic nationalist factions that have since integrated into the alt-right. But the intellectual contributions especially of the most ancient writers Hecht surveys — in particular the (plausible) willingness of a cultural Jew to martyr himself for the cause of cosmopolitanism (Maccabees) and the insight that consciousness, rather than requiring some fantastic additional space, substrate, or substance, could simply be the way that familiar matter behaves in certain configurations (Carvaka) — even now assure me for the first time that these ideas are not as radical — or, admittedly, as profound — as i still get the impression from peers that they are.
Having been raised a secular atheist, there's much in this book to wish i had had access to as a lad. Certainly so rich a humanist (as it can now be described) history would have provided surer grounding during the period in which the communities i'd found and followed struggled to eject the ethnic nationalist factions that have since integrated into the alt-right. But the intellectual contributions especially of the most ancient writers Hecht surveys — in particular the (plausible) willingness of a cultural Jew to martyr himself for the cause of cosmopolitanism (Maccabees) and the insight that consciousness, rather than requiring some fantastic additional space, substrate, or substance, could simply be the way that familiar matter behaves in certain configurations (Carvaka) — even now assure me for the first time that these ideas are not as radical — or, admittedly, as profound — as i still get the impression from peers that they are.