Book Review: "The Atheist's Bible"

POSTED IN:  ~ Books ~ Religion ~ Atheism ~ Collection    Tweet

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The Atheist's Bible

an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts

by Joan Konner

Duckworth Overlook 2007

There's something irresistibly enjoyable about a collection of excellent things people have said on a subject close to your heart. Isn't there? This is such a volume and I'm sorely tempted to spend the rest of the review simply quoting quotes from it. What? Oh, all right then, I will.

"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."
   ~ Chapman Cohen

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth."

   ~ H.L.Mencken

"Epicurus' old questions are yet unanswered. Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then his is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?"
   ~ David Hume

Oh, I'm sorry, where was I? Oh yes, the book review. Well, The Atheist's Bible is a parody of the real thing. It's divided into chapters with names, some strangely familiar, like Genesis, The Gospel, Revelations, and some not so: Scientosophy, The Tao of Disbelief and The Brimstone Chronicles.

"There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is
known as the Dark Ages." ~ Ruth Hurmence Green

The second half of the book is in the style of 'Books', as in Book of Knowledge, Book of Inspiration and Book of Laughter, followed by particular writers own book, who had a lot to say about religion over the course of their life: Book of Mark (Twain), Book of Bertrand (Russell), Book of Voltaire and Book of Woody (Allen).

"Creator: a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh."
   ~ H.L.Mencken

The book itself is a pleasure to hold - it seems to be made to fit into your hand and its cute little hardback cover in a kind of subdued sheen seems to ask to be caressed and held close.

"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning."
   ~ Bill Watterson

There are so many shining gems in here it just makes me want to jump up and down and share them with all the poor lost souls who can never appreciate them.

"If we are going to teach 'creation science'... as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction."

   ~ Judith Hayes

"If triangles made a God, they would give him
three sides." ~ Montesquieu

Every page is full of superb, fantastic, hilarious and tragic observations by clear thinkers from all ages.

"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."

   ~ Arthur C. Clarke

I'm sooo tempted to start a mailing list to send out a daily 'Freethinking Thought of the Day'. Have I possibly got the time?

"From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm."

   ~ Edward Abbey

I think you're getting the idea. If you're the sort of person who likes this sort of book, both it's conception and its subject matter, you'll love it. Simple as that!

"Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong."

   ~ Christopher Hitchen

Oh, by the way, just in case you were wondering, even though the book is called a 'bible' I have every reason to believe it was written by the hand and mind of man. Mere, mortal man, although on reading it you may be tempted to differ. Yes, it's that good.

See you in the gene pool

FrabulousFrog

Frabulous Frog Bookshop: 'Open For Business'

POSTED IN:  ~ Books ~ Religion ~ Science    Tweet

Open For Business...

Good news people, and I don't mean that I won't even mention Jehovah's Witnesses once in this post: Ooops! There, done it!

 

No, I'm excited to tell you that I've put quite a few of my absolutely favourite freethinking books into the bookshop, along with quite a few which I'm planning on reading but just haven't done so yet.

 

Now don't get me wrong with this fancy 'Bookshop' idea. I'm not really intending to bug you to buy books through it every two days so that I can get some paltry 50c commission or whatever it is. I've done that in the past, never made any money out of it and to be frank it was a bit of a pain in the neck!

 

So why am I doing it? Simply because it's a really fun way to group all my favourite books on bashing religion, philosophical puzzles, evolution and the whole shebang with their pictures, reviews and everything you'd need in case you ever did want to buy some.

 

I actually do buy quite a few books through Amazon, but I generally go for the second-hand ones, which can often be ridiculously cheap, especially after the paperbacks have been out for a while. I'm waiting for Dawkins' Greatest Show On Earth for a few months, for example, because there will be so many sold I'm sure it'll be in the second hand market for a euro or a quid pretty soon (plus postage).

 

So use the bookshop to get some ideas for some excellent reading fodder on your favourite topics and if you ever did buy them having clicked through from here, well thanks!

 

I've created some sections in the bookshop to reflect the general feel of what I'll be presenting on this blog, as follows:

• Frabulous Favourites
• Religion Laid Bare
• Atheism, Humanism, Etc.
• Popular Science
• Philosophical Fun
• Freethinking Frivolity
• Life, the Universe, and...

In making up these categories I chopped and changed and added and deleted until I got to what you see above. Once again I'll say that this site has no pretentions whatsoever. I'm a nobody in the world of atheism, religion, science and plenty of other realms, many of them ending in 'ism', and many not.

 

But by that very fact, and the awareness of my own mortality (Christ, this got deep bloody quickly, didn't it..?) I know that I have as much right to set up my own little blog blethering on about anything I please, and so can you. Unless of course you live in... but we won't go down that route right now.

 

So here it is, for better or for worse, what will be an ever-growing list of what I consider cool books which I'd love it if you read too and why not leave a comment to say what you think? Cheers, and happy head-filling :-D

See you in the gene pool

FrabulousFrog

Book Review ~ 'Can A Robot Be Human?'

POSTED IN:  ~ Philosophy ~ Puzzles ~ Religion ~ Reviews    Tweet

Can A Robot Be Human?

Peter Cave

Oneworld Publications 2007

ISBN 9781851685318

Review

'If it doesn't make you think, you are probably dead already' is the first quote on the back cover, and there's no mistaking it: if you like philosophical puzzles then get a copy of this book forthwith. Or sooner.

I'm currently reading a couple in bed before I turn out the light, and I have to tell you that my bedtimes are getting later and later.

In fact, you'll see where I've been stealing, errr, borrowing some ideas from for my philosophical puzzles recently. So I'm repaying my moral debt here by saying immediately and unequivocally: buy 'Can a Robot be Human?' You'll love it.

The blurb on the back continues with the intriguing questions as follows:

• How unique are you?
• What does it really mean to be in love?
• Can you believe anyone who says 'I'm telling the truth'?
•  Can a murderer be innocent?
• What is the difference between a saint, a sinner, and a suicide bomber?

Now look folks, be gentle with me; this is my first stab at tackling this sort of publication, so excuse my wonder at these questions. Someone told me recently that they didn't have much time for philosophy because it just tended to be a bunch of people talking about stuff, much of it interesting, admittedly, but not actually getting much done.

Well I nodded and 'hmmm'ed in some sort of agreement, not really knowing what he was talking about. But be that as it may, you'll probably find yourself falling into this book and having problems pulling yourself out. These 'problems', if we can call them that, relate to our every day lives. Which is exactly what makes them so interesting. Sure, we're on a different level of thinking to that needed for every day activities. But nevertheless, there's great satisfaction in filling your head with this stuff, as opposed to watching videos of people killing each other or even the depressing daily ritual of reading or watching the news and... learning about how many people had killed each other that day.

The puzzles themselves cover all sorts of things. I've just dipped into the book at random and found a discussion on where our morals come from. Religious people, it is said, derive their ideas of right and wrong from their faith and its teachings. The puzzle suggests two twins who were somehow separated at birth, one growing up in a devoutly Catholic family and the other in a Muslim family. It also wonders what the two women's morals would be if they had been 'swapped' at birth and brought up in the opposite religion. Holds aren't barred and mentions of suicide bombers and horrific Catholic witch burning are invoked to bring the conundrum home.

Less scary, on a viceral level at least, is the puzzle of when a sandcastle in a breeze stops being a sandcastle. If we can tell no difference between  a fully fledged sandcastle, and the same sandcastle minus one grain of sand, then logically if we carried on doing that we would still be claiming it was a sandcastle when it was only a slight mound of sand.

And what about the incredible thought experiment when we try to work out why we cry or get angry or scared during films and plays, and even when listening to music. Are those emotions real or not? I real, we should be running up to the stage to help the woman in the play being attacked, shouldn't we? But if we know it's just a bunch of actors surrounded by directors and lighting technicians and so on, why do we emote at all. Brilliant.

Well, that's just a taster, and I'll show you the pictures, which are from the book, by a great artist called Jolyon Troscianko, who also researches into avian cognition, to whet your appetite for the rest. And as I said: buy 'Can a Robot be Human?'. You won't regret it. Having said that, would it really, logically, not be the biggest waste of time ever to regret something you haven't done... oh dear :-( I think I'm hooked on philosophical puzzles. I don't think this is the last time I'll be mentioning Mr.Cave and his philosophy puzzles.

See you in the gene pool

FrabulousFrog