Product Description

In the new mega-anthology from best-selling editor Russ Kick, more than fifty writers, reporters, and researchers invade the inner sanctum for an unrestrained look at the wild and wooly world of organized belief.

Richard Dawkins shows us the strange, scary properties of religion; Neil Gaiman turns a biblical atrocity story into a comic (that almost sent a publisher to prison); Erik Davis looks at what happens when religion and California collide; Mike Dash eyes stigmatics; Douglas Rushkoff exposes the trouble with Judaism; Paul Krassner reveals his "Confessions of an Atheist"; and best-selling lexicographer Jonathon Green interprets the language of religious prejudice.

Among the dozens of other articles and essays, you'll find: a sweeping look at classical composers and Great American Songbook writers who were unbelievers, such as Irving Berlin, creator of "God Bless America"; the definitive explanation of why America is not a Christian nation; the bizarre, Catholic-fundamentalist books by Mel Gibson's father; eye-popping photos of bizarre religious objects and ceremonies, including snake-handlers and pot-smoking children; the thinly veiled anti-Semitism in the Left Behind novels; an extract from the rare, suppressed book The Sex Life of Brigham Young; and rarely seen anti-religious writings from Mark Twain and H.G. Wells.

Further topics include exorcisms, religious curses, Wicca, the Church of John Coltrane, crimes by clergy, death without God, Christian sex manuals, the "ex-gay" movement, failed prophecies, bizarre theology, religious bowling, atheist rock and roll, "how to be a good Christian," an entertaining look at the best (and worst) books on religion, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17361 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

About the Author
Russ Kick is the all-star editor of five previous Disinformation Guides and three Disinformation books. He has been labeled as an "information archaeologist" by the New York Times in a major profile. He runs the popular blog TheMemoryHole.org and is well known for his intelligent and successful FOIA requests and unveilings.

Customer Reviews

Don't be fooled by the big names
This is a rather poor anthology of some (very good) author's lesser works. You know, ones they would be willing to let get published in a randomly thrown together anthology. Some of the works are amusing, but most are dull and uninteresting. Not recommended.

Aresome Atheist Anthology
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Perhaps one of the best collections of pro-freethought literature I have seen.

Essential Reading
This book is highly recommended for just one of it's many sections - I am referring to the article by Ruth Green entitled "The God From Galilee" which analyses the gospels in a way that reveals a very different side to Jesus Christ than that with which most people (believers and non-believers alike) identify. I used to say that, speaking as an atheist, I was mostly in agreement with what Jesus said, or is supposed to have said according to the anonymous writers of the synoptic gospels (and if you still believe in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John then you need to do a little bit of research or read the section in the book by Gary Greenberg "Who Wrote The Gospels?") I used to believe that the essence of Jesus was that of a liberal sensibility, an almost communist identification with the poor rather than the rich (oppressed vs. oppressor - something that supporters of G. W. Bush will never understand, nay, not in a million years!). I could equate with a Jesus as quasi-hippy advocate of love, peace, tolerance and understanding. Ruth Green points out, using the words of the Bible itself, that this is not the whole truth - that the quoted Jesus also has a very dark side - he is "impatient, heartless, imperious, vengeful, vain, rude, misinformed, quick-tempered, inconsistent, given to violence upon occasion, smug and scornful." (All of these assertions are backed up by quotations from the gospels.) All Christians who are broad-minded enough to challenge their faith should read and reflect upon this (I know that that is asking for the impossible!)
As for those 'atheist' reviewers who criticise the book for being an anthology... oh dear, has it really come to this? This book IS an anthology and this means that it is composed of different articles by different authors, none of whom knew what the others were writing - to expect 'continuity' under these circumstances bespeaks of an ignorance usually associated with the religious, not with the atheistic.

And before you right-wing 'Christians' begin your ad hominem attacks - I am just a guy who seeks the truth, just like you!