Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

THE END OF FAITH:  RELIGION, TERROR, AND THE FUTURE OF REASON      By      Sam Harris Reviewed by      Geoffrey W. Sutton The 9/11 Islamic terrorists emblazoned the psychological truism of the path from belief to behavior on the minds of millions. The world saw the lethiferous power of religious belief. We witnessed the purpose driven death. Sam Harris pummels readers with invidious images of destruction associated with religious belief. We may well dispute many of his conclusions but the ineluctable truth is that beliefs matter. At times acerbic, Harris has prepared a puissant polemic focused primarily upon the terror of Islam with ample scathing visited upon Christianity and Judaism.  His thesis is that the beliefs of religious people have become unhinged from reason to the point that meaningful conversations cannot take place.  He asserts that reason is in exile (chapter 1) and that survival requires a return from unproven beliefs to evidenced-based reason when makin

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon     By    Daniel C. Dennett Reviewed by   Geoffrey S. Sutton One Sunday I had the occasion to view both spells in action. A Christian scholar was presenting various theological perspectives on the apocalypse when an attorney interrupted with challenges to the speaker’s shifting from literal to metaphorical interpretations and to textual problems with the doctrine of the trinity. At one point, the theologian, notably frustrated with the challenger, raised his hands, and decried that he did not know the answers to all the questions, noting that humans are ‘‘peanut-brained’’ (repeated twice for emphasis), and that anyone who pretended to understand such mysteries was arrogant.  And that is the problem in discussing religion. It is notably hard to analyze using logic and any questioner is cursed (though I suspect the lawyer had been called worse than "peanut-brained").In this blog, I will summarize and

Church afire 2023 Geoffrey W Sutton & Bing AI When Religion Becomes Evil:      Five Warning Signs:  Revised and Updated By  Charles Kimball Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton   In the aftermath of 9/11 and during the onslaught of religion-damning missives from the ‘‘evangelical atheists’’ Dawkins (2006), Hitchens (2007), and Harris (2004), Kimball provides a ‘‘gentle introduction to the critical study of comparative religion’’ (p. vi). In seven chapters, he outlines five  critical ways that religion can lead to tragic, even violent outcomes, and offers suggestions that may promote better relationships between people of different religious traditions. In the end, he argues for respect for diverse faiths and traditions. Kimball is uniquely qualified to write this informative  work. He is an ordained Baptist minister and a professor of comparative religion at Wake Forest University. He obtained his doctorate from Harvard University in comparative religion where he specialized in

GOD IS NOT GREAT:  HOW RELIGION POISONS      EVERYTHING By    Christopher Hitchens Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton Hitchens begins his pungent polemic against religion by explaining how he came to question religious teaching as a child (chapter 1). Following a  deconversion experience  associated with a teacher's simplistic description  of reality covered with a simple religious gloss,  Hitchens reflects upon perceived oddities in scripture and child-abusing clergy. Next,  Hitchens adumbrates his thesis as:  four irreducible objections to religious faith: 1. that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original 2. error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, 3. that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and 4. that is ultimately grounded on with-thinking. (p. 4) Hitchens covers familiar grounds in his attack of religious faith with each chapter a blow

The Rise and Fall of the Bible:  the Unexpected History     of an Accidental Book By       Timothy Beal   Reviewed By  Geoffrey W. Sutton According to Guinness World Records , The Bible is the best selling book- billions have been sold. But that doesn't mean people read the Bible or understand the various texts.  Timothy Beal attempts to educate his readers about the Bible--what it is and how the collection of documents came into existence as one book. Timothy Beal, is a Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University, offers an informative review of the Bible as a cultural icon. The Bible has image recognition and star quality. It remains a best seller, but Bible reading is minimal even among those described as Bible-believing . As an icon, it is part of American civil life and multiple versions reside on American tables and bookshelves. In eight chapters, Beal reviews highlights of recent research and scholarship, which are pertinent to the origins of t

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION:  AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH (4th ed.)      By Ralph W. Hood,  Peter C. Hill, & Bernard Spilka. Reviewed by  Geoffrey W. Sutton This is the book I wish I had when taking my first course in the Psychology of Religion in the early 1970s.  I can certainly recommend this book to professors and to anyone who wants to learn more about the scientific study of religion. Perhaps my only advice would be to check out the latest edition. I read and taught from the fourth edition of this classic psychology of religion text, which provides an important survey of the state of empirical research in the psychology of religion and spirituality. When I wrote this review, I had just finished teaching a course titled the Psychology of Religion and was pleased I had chosen this text because of the comprehensive and balanced overview the authors offer.  All of the authors are psychological scientists. New to this edition is Peter Hill, Professor of Psycho

LOVE WINS: A BOOK ABOUT HEAVEN,       HELL, and the FUTURE of  EVERY PERSON WHO EVER LIVED    By       Rob Bell   Reviewed by       Geoffrey W. Sutton I have observed that a lot of the adult children of parents in my age group have left conservative churches or left the Christian faith altogether. Some tell me their children identify as spiritual. I get that. My wife and I left conservative churches years ago. Rob Bell is in touch with the bright young people of the 21st century. I understand that conservatives will not agree with his message. And scholars will find his writings too simplistic. Nevertheless, I think Bell is meeting a spiritual need. Following is my summary of his book, Love Wins (Bell, 2011).      Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids Michigan and a graduate of the conservative evangelical Wheaton College and Fuller Theological Seminary. Love Wins is an easy read. Bell is a gifted communicator. Following is a quot