Customer Reviews

The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture

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In The God Virus, the author uses the metaphor of religion as a virus to explain how religious ideas pass from individual to individual and infiltrate society.

The idea of ideas or systems of ideas as "viruses" was first described by Richard Dawkins, who coined the term "meme" to mean a "postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, gets transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena". They are analogous to genes (hence the similarity in spelling and pronunciation), in that they are said to self-replicate and respond to selective pressures. In this book, the author explains religion through this viral/meme metaphor.

The author first explains exactly how religion can be appropriately viewed using the viral metaphor, and then uses this metaphor throughout the book, explaining how different religions survive and dominate others, and how some of the strategies religion uses to survive and propagate are very similar to actual, biological viruses. He explains that religious conversion can affect individuals on the personality level, taking over critical thinking and causing an individual to be "immune" to other religions by being able to point out the flaws in other religions while simultaneously being unable to see the flaws in their own religion. The author speaks of the importance of "vectors" (priests, ministers, etc) in propagating religious ideas and how religious people and organizations will protect those "vectors" even in the case of abuse or other crimes.

In the second chapter, the author explains the types of strategies the "god virus" uses to survive and spread, and how advanced religions are more effective than other religions, which is why they continue to survive and replicate. The author says that one of the tools to fight the "god virus" is science and critical thinking education, which is something that religion tends to rally against, especially if the science concerns ideas that seem counter to religious belief, I.E. Evolution.

The third chapter deals with how religion infects and persuades groups and political structures as well as individuals, and underlines religion's influence on public and civil culture. The fourth is about guilt and shame and how religion uses mixed messages to create a cycle of guilt in which the religion reduces feelings of guilt by promising an elimination of it, yet individuals continue to feel guilty and return to religion to have their guilt temporarily suppressed. The author gives a long list of some of the conflicting messages in religion, such as:


*God loves you, but he will send you to hell if you do not do exactly what he says.

*God loves you, but you were born unclean and can never be clean without god.

*Allah loves you and created women as beautiful creatures that you are forbidden to enjoy, except in marriage and behind closed doors.

Similarly, the fifth chapter deals with sex, and religion's attempt to control sex by creating a sex-negative environment. He mentions that even though religion uses positive terminology such as "focus on the family" really the message of "focus on the family" is a message of focusing on the rules and tenets of religion, which cause feelings of guilt and negativity towards sex. The function of this is not to create happy, dynamic family structures, but to propagate religion.

Chapter six is particularly interesting, as the subject is morality and how even though religionists insist that morality is objective and defined in concrete terms by their god, morality is an ever-changing product of culture in which the only way a given religion can survive is by adopting and changing its morality to fit in with the culture enough to continue to propagate. People who are religionists find it difficult to see this changing morality and believe they are more moral than others, and this blinds them to real-world data which shows that religionists are nor more or less moral than atheists. The author specifically shows how various studies such as studies on divorce and prison populations how that religion has little effect on morality and even that non-theists may be slightly more moral.

Chapter seven is about American Evangelism and how it has spread to the point where mega-churches are dotting the US landscape chapter 8 explains why some people are drawn into religion and others are not, and the role that intelligence and personality plays in religiosity. The second to last two chapters deal with unbinding oneself from religion and breaking free of "the virus", especially in deprogramming ourselves of the ideas that have been taught to us since an early age.

The last chapter concerns the difference between science and religion: in short, science has error-correction mechanisms and thus builds up a continuity of knowledge based on previous work, and this knowledge can be objectively tested. Religion, on the other hand, does not have these errors and instead has built-in mechanisms to change with the cultural climate. Because science is so powerful, many religions have adopted scientific language while simultaneously decrying scientific methods.

I found the structure of the book to be well-organized and accessible to individuals who are not well-voiced in formal argumentation. Rather than approach the god problem from a logical or hypothesis perspective A la Victor Stenger's God: the Failed Hypothesis, it approaches the problem of religion's impact on the individual and society. Thus, while it is aimed at non-theists, those who believe in god but are opposed to religion (and no, I don't mean evangelical Christians who insist they aren't religious because they really have a "relationship" with god - those people are just being deceptive) such as my friend Alien, who is a spiritualist or my friend Tim, who is "Christian" but perfectly comfortable at our local atheists meetup in St. Louis. It may not be so appealing to people who are intensely literal or who take the metaphor of the god virus as an argument rather than as a mechanism or metaphor for explanation. It is also important to note that other ideas act as "mind viruses" as well (like empiricism!), but that the religion virus acts in a particular way that is unlike other "mind viruses" - the particulars of which are outlined in the book. I think that individuals who do consider themselves religious might be offended at the negative connotations of the word "virus", and so I urge religionists who might come across this book to consider what I have said above about other ideas spreading like viruses as well. One could say that atheism is a type of mind virus, and my feathers would not be ruffled. I think that it is very accessible to people who are capable of stepping outside of religion and looking at it objectively. I think that the book could have also been titled "the religion virus" without much harm.

Book Review:
The God Virus, Darrel W. Ray, How Religion infects our Lives and Culture.

The WOW! Book!. Get ready for an epiphany!
This book impressed me so much that I would like to encourage people [and challenge others] to consider this metaphor concept that examines and explains how the God Virus functions in our minds and culture.
This book examines the similarities of religion to viruses closely.
Learn how to recognize and understand strategies used by both religion and viruses to infect, survive and dominate.
Learn the role of sex, guilt, morality, even a persons personality and intelligence.
This book lifts up the curtain of mystery and provides some tools for understanding the power and impact of religion on all our lives, It provides a framework to enable us to see and analyze religious behaviors, even our own.
Have you ever wondered about these questions?
1. How can otherwise intelligent people justify being selectively rational, that is - rational in parts of their lives but also hold belief in absurd, sometimes harmful and contradictory religious dogmas, and even fall for outright manipulations of their religion ?
2. How can people hold deep beliefs and at the same time, be so unclear of their own religious dogma? Mostly they are unable to explain their particular religious dogma in their own words - but regurgitate, parrot, meaningless phrases.
3. How can the religious instantly, without examination, dismiss all other religions as false. Or they see the faults of other religions, and remain blind to the irrationality, inconsistencies, contradictions, and, again, the manipulations of their own religion?
4. How are the religious able to ignore clear, demonstrable evidence even if it is contrary to their beliefs? And why do they spend so much time at church?
5. Why is their sometimes trance-like, defensive, angry behavior so quick and predictable?
6. Why is there [ among the religious] such wide spread and frequent hypocrisy of words and actions which betray, even contradict, their very own deeply held beliefs?
7. Why the intolerant, compassionless, uncompromising, mental thought processes that lead some religious people to disassociate from their children or parents, to cut away, to ostracize long time friends, and members of their family?
8. What place has science in this sea of religion?
9. How can the rational [ non-infected] cope, survive and promote tolerant relationships in a non-rational culture? See 4 principles of interaction, 182
10. Can the Infected be talked out if their infection? See 171, Defensive people....
Get the answers, explore social, political, psychological and personal aspects in this easily understandable 240 page book.

After reading Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, I still needed a question answered- How does religion work? None of the aforementioned books really make any in-depth attempt at answering this dangerous question.
-Dangerous only if one would try to tell the truth. The God Virus does exactly that.
There is a strangeness that overcomes people infected with religion when asked tough (but logical) questions about there religion. They all seem to go into the same thought mode and instantly begin to babble incoherently about 'faith'. Then suddenly they snap back to reality. It's as if they suspend time from the moment they realize that they've been asked a question that needs a answer based on logic but there is no logical answer in their head so they begin spewing the rhetoric taught in Sunday school, once done -POOF!- they're back!! When confronted that there response was completely devoid of logic, they have NOOOOOO idea what your talking about.
This book answer's that question! Darrel Ray's explanation is undeniable, comprehensive, and brutally accurate of what religion REALLY IS. Those who are infected will not understand his analogy, and will by definition try to protect there infection as instructed.
You will read this book cover to cover,(without a break) and come away with an epiphany. And a feeling of foreboding -because just around the next corner is another infected mind, waiting to deny logic and reason...
Kenny Nipp-

Atheist writers have compared religion to a virus in the past. Most notably is Dr. Richard Dawkins. Dr. Darrel Ray takes the analogy and runs with it. Dr. Ray does an amazing job at describing religion as a virus and showing how it acts like a virus beyond a simple analogy. The God Virus looks at how the virus competes and propagates, how it infects and works against competing viruses, how it uses vectors and survives in the biota. Dr. Ray then looks at how we can inoculate ourselves against viral infection and how to treat people that are already infected. The God Virus is the best book I have read this year, incorporating knowledge with entertainment in a captivating way. Dr. Ray articulates the analogy in a way that everyone can comprehend and walk away from the book with a new understanding of the viral analogy. I recommend The God Virus for all levels.

As a steady consumer of first, the religious memes present in our culture since 1950, when I first started sampling religions at 10 years old, with the permission of my agnostic parents, and then the increasingly clear critiques of them as balderdash, and then the study of cognitive science to try to understand why people are so nutty, through William James, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, et al, I have to say that this is an excellent Idiot's Guide to God Stupidness.

It only talks about one subject, but it does it thoroughly and accurately, with careful attention to the governing concept of the God meme as virus, and what that virus does to people and cultures. It is VERY useful for analyzing everyday interactions, and the author's psychologist training is apparent in his advice on how to handle interactions with the "infected" and the "vectors" and how to disinfect yourself and others with the minimum agony and conflict.

Highly recommended. Don't bother sending it to nutcases, but do send it to the thoughtful strugglers. They'll love you for it later.

Read it all the way through.

I grew up in a household where religion was always in the periphery. At some points it was abundantly present. It has since become a wedge between myself and my family and friends who are "afflicted" with the "god virus". I have suffered many years of feeling as if something was wrong with me as though I had somehow missed the point. The God Virus provided a logical and reasonable explanation as to how and why religion is so prevalent and destructive. I can now say that I am a non-theist with confidence and pride. It also helped me to put into perspective of those who are "infected" and how to interact. This book is a must read for all those who are suffering and they don't know why, but they know that their beliefs are not helping. This book is a must read for all those who are watching their loved ones trapped by this virus. And, this is a book for all non-theists who can't understand why there are so many who can't see the logical and reasonable truth about their affliction.

I was once caught up into the trance and spell of religion. I caught the virus at an early age and was infected by religion by family and church. Later as a teen it was other friends who were coercing me to go to church and have bible studies. As the decades went by i discoverd many things by keeping an open mind and learning. Ifinally got out of the religious spell and got my logic, common sense and reason back.
This book clearly explains how people get infected with religion, and how they spread it to others. It also explains the techniques preachers use to "hypnotize" the followers.
Overall, this is a most excellent book. If Christians and Muslims knew this book inside and out, then the world would be at peace.

I share some of the author's experience with my childhood consisting of a Southern Baptist church meetings at least 4X a week. Here I was taught racism, women were not equal, non-Christians to be prayed for, and that PHD met "piled higher and deeper". I, as a young growing woman, could not dance, drink, smoke, use profanity, laught to loud, go to movies, listen to rock, roller-skate, or swim in a pool with a boy. However, I could read. I read.

This changed my life. I thought racism was boring and wrong because people of color were so different and interesting. I thought that if God existed, he could not love anyone with some of the ways he treated them in the writings of the Bible. By 17, I knew that I would never go to church at all after I left home. I did not, do not, and I love sleeping in on Sunday mornings.

This book shows that the mind of a Christiam can be infected permanently and the damage can be thorough making a human lose their ability to think in a healthy manner. My whole family,except for my sister, display severe damage from this virus. They show sociopathic tendancies towards other religions such as Islam, Hindu, and Buddhism. They still believe that "blacks" have no souls and that "women" of a certain age are bascially children and rather useless. They are waiting around for my father to die to get thier inheritance and they wish that my mother was dead already. Afterall, she is old and they are scared of death themselves. Die old woman, die!

In my life, I would not wish Christiany or this infection on anyone on this earth. It is just wrong. This book is a good read and makes a point of explaining the mind numbing effect of religion.

It will influence a lot of people. Freedom to choose religion is important. Recently, blogs and bloggers professing faith in Christ scare me. Facism is alive and well in the evangelical community.

As a devout agnostic with atheistic tendencies, I used to enjoy debates about religion. But I grew tired of having the same boring scriptures recited back to me over and over. But after finding this book, I find it is so much more efficient just to hand the potential debater a copy and go do something else.

I have read Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, and more. "The God Virus" is in the same league. Free-thinkers will find it adds a fascinating new dimension to understanding how religion has infected human thinking throughout recorded history. Doubters will find it offers clarity and a novel perspective on their questions. Believers will find it unsettling and, perhaps, healing. Dr. Ray's book is a significant and unique contribution to the atheist literature.