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A review by dodaheem
Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World by Cara Santa Maria, David Silverman
2.0
First, the disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads Give Away.
I was very much looking forward to this book. What I found should not have been a surprise, but it was, and it was a disappointing one. My essential problem with this book is that it reads just like the evangelical dogmatic genre within religion - "here is Truth! Here is the Only Acceptable Answer and you MUST get on board, go door to door and spread the news, and anyone who hesitates (much less questions) is a fool."
I was hoping for something more rational and less dogmatic. I had a hard time reading the book because I couldn't separate the message from the medium (nod to Marshall McLuhan). I wanted ideas and information, not to be yelled at.
Perhaps this approach has value, but it missed the mark with me. While the author presents several effective examples and explanations, and dissects many religiosity arguments, the book fails to get me on board. I took a long time to get through this because it just felt intolerant, self aggrandizing, and harsh. We aren't going to win an Atheist utopia with this approach any more than we'd win a Baptist utopia with the same strategies. Let's not just have a bunch of people standing in a room yelling at each other and berating each other for their nonsense. No religious person is going to be persuaded by this any more than an atheist is going to be persuaded by threats of hell and promises of heaven. Silverman is, in the end, preaching to the choir.
I was very much looking forward to this book. What I found should not have been a surprise, but it was, and it was a disappointing one. My essential problem with this book is that it reads just like the evangelical dogmatic genre within religion - "here is Truth! Here is the Only Acceptable Answer and you MUST get on board, go door to door and spread the news, and anyone who hesitates (much less questions) is a fool."
I was hoping for something more rational and less dogmatic. I had a hard time reading the book because I couldn't separate the message from the medium (nod to Marshall McLuhan). I wanted ideas and information, not to be yelled at.
Perhaps this approach has value, but it missed the mark with me. While the author presents several effective examples and explanations, and dissects many religiosity arguments, the book fails to get me on board. I took a long time to get through this because it just felt intolerant, self aggrandizing, and harsh. We aren't going to win an Atheist utopia with this approach any more than we'd win a Baptist utopia with the same strategies. Let's not just have a bunch of people standing in a room yelling at each other and berating each other for their nonsense. No religious person is going to be persuaded by this any more than an atheist is going to be persuaded by threats of hell and promises of heaven. Silverman is, in the end, preaching to the choir.