2 out of 4 stars
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With some many crises that are happening in this twenty-first century like people killing one another, terrorism, child abuse, wars, and family breakdowns, one is forced to oppose many things that are contrary to common reasoning; especially when most of these acts are due to religious crises. John Carlshausen talks about the foolishness of religion in his book titled Religious Delusion. This book does not only question the existence of God, Heaven, and Hell but why people think absurdly.
John begins the book by looking into the happenings in our present world. The killings, the bombings, abusing of children, women oppression, and so on. The author further explains the terrorist attacks as consequences of religious crises. With all this, John described religion as absurd, ludicrous, preposterous, ridiculous or idiotic. The first twelve chapters talk about religion (believing in something that does not exist) and religious beliefs (prayer, spiritualism, soul, resurrection, and so on). The existence of God is contrary to common sense. Where does God live? How does God simultaneously answer prayers from billions of people daily? These are some logical questions that kept one thinking as you read through the book. Also, John further described religion as an illusion to confuse people that something exists. He talked about the miracles of Jesus like the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the walking on the water, and the turning of water into wine. John equally considered Moses’ miracles, Noah’s Ark, and Adam and Eve in his discussion. The remaining chapters focus on the happening in the world because of the inability of human beings to use their common sense. The existence of a medium (a person who communicates with the dead in the afterlife) to answer spiritual things are ridiculous. Also, John talked about the dietary restrictions by the religious body (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism etc.), dressing code, overpopulation, oppression, and terrorism as the consequences of religious deception.
Furthermore, religious people believe we are here on earth to worship and serve our creator, God. However, John gave a logical answer to why we are here on earth. You must read the book to know why. There are many anecdotes, that highlight the points the author is making in each chapter.
I admire John’s subjective mood of writing. It is very clear that he does not support the happenings in the world. It is cruel for a person to bomb an entire city, all in the name of receiving 72 virgins in Heaven. Also, I agree with John regarding reincarnation. I don’t believe people die and come back as a new person. According to John, “Everything that lives will die.” Our common sense tells us there is nothing like reincarnation.
However, John did not explain some mysteries about the universe. His arguments are logical to some extents, but that does not prove that God does not exist. I would have taken some of his advice had it been John went deeper to explain the mystery behind the creation of the universe. I believe every living thing has a source; I don’t think everything emanates from nothing. How did we human beings come to existence? Who created plants and animals? I would have loved the book more if John explained those mysteries. John says that God, Heaven or Hell does not exist, but he did not logically explain how the whole Earth come to existence. Therefore, I rate Religious Delusion 2 out of 4 stars. Had it been he proved the Earth’s existence, I would have given the book all the four stars. I believe the book is not well-researched.
Although I found a few typographical errors, it did not distract my reading interest. John believes Atheism is the answer to religious crises. Therefore, I would recommend this book to atheists. Christians or other religion may not find this book appealing.
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Religion Delusion
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