religion

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
$14.99
I found this book to be very easy to read and understand. Most books I own still have book marks inserted a quarter to half way through them. Not this one! Unfortunately, this book preaches to the choir. I'm agnostic now; I don't believe I would have read this back when I was a "Christian" just because of the title. Hitchens' writing is very straightforward and very insightful. Those who cannot handle reality and have no desire to acknowledge just how harmful religion can be will have trouble confronting the truth presented on the pages of this book. Religions, especially monotheistic faiths, claim to seek truth; however, they only suppress truth and rational thought.

One of my favorite quotes is on page 23. "For some reason, many religions force themselves to think of the birth canal as a one-way street,..." That's hilarious and so true!

Kids Book of World Religions, The
$15.95
This book was purchased for my grand children, but I read it before giving it to them. It was full of easy to understand information and the illustrations were very helpful.

The Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions: Internet-Linked (World Cultures)
$14.99
I purchased this book because I wanted an overview of the main world religions. This book did not disappoint. Each of the religions is covered in a sensitive way and gives the main philosophies and beliefs behind the religion. My only complaint is now that my appetite is whetted, I feel I want more detail! The religions covered include Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism. Other religions are covered in less detail and native and ancient religions are briefly brushed upon. The version I had was an internet-tie-in, where links were given for more information (links are maintained and updated at the parent site). What this book did for me was to confirm my own belief that we all believe in the same things, but we just call them different names. Sad that we all just can't see that and live together peacefully.

Religion Explained
$18.00
Holy cow. I have read numerous books on religion, atheism, evolution, physics etc. by a variety of authors including scholars and scientists. "Religion Explained" is without a doubt the most tedious read in memory. While I don't doubt Boyer's expertise in his field, he desperately needs to take a couple of writing classes if he wants to reach an audience of more than fellow anthropologists. In this book he gives us what he clearly feels is necessary background on various arenas of the evolution of the human mind to make his conclusions understandable. But he winds up using 320 pages of prep work in order to summarize his conclusions in the last five pages of the book. The groundwork needs to be there, certainly, but I was overwhelmed by the second chapter with repetition and anthropological jargon that continued throughout the entire book. Aside from that, I gleaned a few gems about the brain's innate needs concerning social interaction and evolution that make religion essentially a byproduct of psychology. I suspected this for many years, but Boyer explains - in longwinded fashion - HOW and WHY the mind produces lasting religious concepts that seem too counterintuitive to take root. If you believe, as I do, that all religions are manmade, this book will interest you if you learn to do some scanning and speed reading to wrestle the important points from the clutter.