Review by victorycoffee -- The Seduction of Religion
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victorycoffee
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Review by victorycoffee -- The Seduction of Religion
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Seduction of Religion" by Paul Singh.]
2 out of 4 stars
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The Seduction of Religion takes a bold step down the path paved by the New Atheists in the mid-to-late naughties. Unfortunately, I wouldn't put this in the same class as The God Delusion, The End of Faith, Breaking the Spell or God is Not Great, but I would gladly display this book alongside them on my shelf. For those of you who are new to this genre, you'll get a lot out of this book; at times a little disjointed, but all quite interesting, well-researched and well thought-out, with witty artwork to boot.
Singh spends the first two thirds of the book going through a wide range of religions in exhaustive detail. We spend the first third of the book covering all of the branching sects of Christianity, their similarities and differences, and points at which they diverged down their own paths. We then cover Judaism, Zoroastrianism (which Singh argues is the main source of inspiration for the Abrahamic religions), and then head into a Sam Harris style history and vilification of Islam.
The book then carries on to the Hindus, Buddhists (summarised as a heavily Hindu-influenced interpretation of the Buddha's original belief system), Jains, Sikhs and Scientologists. At this point we get a chapter dedicated to a swath of 20th century cults and conjecture on whether they too could have become mainstream and powerful religions.
The book could have stopped here, and it would have been quite complete and valuable; especially had a bit more effort been put into culling out some of the tangential and occasionally flippant comments that detract from what is otherwise quite a professional and matter-of-fact book. Alas, we find the final third of the book covers a laundry list of subjects that have already been covered better and in more detail elsewhere.
I feel that Singh lets himself down in places, and perhaps another pair of eyes could have helped edit out a few sentences that probably sounded funny at the time but really didn't make any sense. For example, the chapter on Islam ends with a few pages blaming US foreign policy for Islamic terrorism, and heads down a rabbit hole on how the American economy is slowly collapsing. Later on in the chapter on Scientology, Singh infers that John Travolta is a homosexual and that the church of Scientology would expose him if he ever turned his back on them. None of this is bad enough to completely detract from what is otherwise a well structured anthology of human religion, but it would be nice if he kept focused on the story he was trying to tell.
I really wanted to enjoy The Seduction of Religion, but it just falls short in a few too many places. My recommendation would be to read the first two thirds, close the book there, and pick up Sam Harris's The End of Faith as this covers the same points in better detail. For the above reasons, my rating is 2 out of 4 stars, but I do feel that as a crib sheet to the world's religions, it fills a niche in the New Atheist literature.
******
The Seduction of Religion
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2 out of 4 stars
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The Seduction of Religion takes a bold step down the path paved by the New Atheists in the mid-to-late naughties. Unfortunately, I wouldn't put this in the same class as The God Delusion, The End of Faith, Breaking the Spell or God is Not Great, but I would gladly display this book alongside them on my shelf. For those of you who are new to this genre, you'll get a lot out of this book; at times a little disjointed, but all quite interesting, well-researched and well thought-out, with witty artwork to boot.
Singh spends the first two thirds of the book going through a wide range of religions in exhaustive detail. We spend the first third of the book covering all of the branching sects of Christianity, their similarities and differences, and points at which they diverged down their own paths. We then cover Judaism, Zoroastrianism (which Singh argues is the main source of inspiration for the Abrahamic religions), and then head into a Sam Harris style history and vilification of Islam.
The book then carries on to the Hindus, Buddhists (summarised as a heavily Hindu-influenced interpretation of the Buddha's original belief system), Jains, Sikhs and Scientologists. At this point we get a chapter dedicated to a swath of 20th century cults and conjecture on whether they too could have become mainstream and powerful religions.
The book could have stopped here, and it would have been quite complete and valuable; especially had a bit more effort been put into culling out some of the tangential and occasionally flippant comments that detract from what is otherwise quite a professional and matter-of-fact book. Alas, we find the final third of the book covers a laundry list of subjects that have already been covered better and in more detail elsewhere.
I feel that Singh lets himself down in places, and perhaps another pair of eyes could have helped edit out a few sentences that probably sounded funny at the time but really didn't make any sense. For example, the chapter on Islam ends with a few pages blaming US foreign policy for Islamic terrorism, and heads down a rabbit hole on how the American economy is slowly collapsing. Later on in the chapter on Scientology, Singh infers that John Travolta is a homosexual and that the church of Scientology would expose him if he ever turned his back on them. None of this is bad enough to completely detract from what is otherwise a well structured anthology of human religion, but it would be nice if he kept focused on the story he was trying to tell.
I really wanted to enjoy The Seduction of Religion, but it just falls short in a few too many places. My recommendation would be to read the first two thirds, close the book there, and pick up Sam Harris's The End of Faith as this covers the same points in better detail. For the above reasons, my rating is 2 out of 4 stars, but I do feel that as a crib sheet to the world's religions, it fills a niche in the New Atheist literature.
******
The Seduction of Religion
View: on Bookshelves
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Latest Review: "From Drift to SHIFT" by Jody B. Miller
