God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong [Hardcover]

S. T. Joshi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

This book takes a controversial look at religion and its components, claiming that it lacks any credible evidence of existence, while calling for a wider presence of rationality and atheism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this biting but crude atheist manifesto, Joshi, author of Atheism: A Reader, laments the current lack of ridicule and derision for religious pieties in our "overly polite and deferential age." Hence these venomous essays attacking defenders of religion, including William F. Buckley (a "crippled" mind "more to be pitied than scorned"), Annie Dillard ("moony and muddle-headed"), Reynolds Price ("leave this dunce cap on"), Elizabeth Kubler-Ross ("descended from a sober scientist to an hysterical special pleader") and Neale Donald Walsch ("poor deluded fellow"). Along the way, Joshi excoriates the lapses in reasoning and evidence in such doctrines as the immortality of the soul, the benevolence of God and the authority of scripture, and underlines the incompatibility between religion and science. Far from being a foundation for public morals, he asserts, religious precepts buttress such ills as sexism and cruelty to animals and are antithetical to an enlightened society. Joshi often comments perceptively, as in an essay on William James, on the rhetorical strategies with which apologists for religion evade the challenge of science and secularism. But the book's focus on disputing religion's "truth-claims" leads to a fixation on niceties of logic-Joshi likens himself to Star Trek's skeptical Mr. Spock, and spends six bizarre pages demonstrating that there is no logical reason to oppose "the extirpation of humanity"-that ultimately seems wrongheaded. For most people, religious faith is a consolation, not a syllogism, but Joshi's frustration at this truth curdles into disdain for "the stupidity of the common people" who lack the scientific education to overcome their childhood brainwashing with religious dogma. God's defenders deserve a better critique than this misanthropic rant.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Clearly [proves] the case that non-belief is an intellectually-sound, persuasive alternative to the sea of superstition which besets our society." -- Australian Humanist, Winter 2004

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 330 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591020808
• ISBN-13: 978-1591020806
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #996,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

S. T. Joshi (Seattle, WA) is a freelance writer, scholar, and editor whose previous books include Documents of American Prejudice; In Her Place: A Documentary History of Prejudice against Women; God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong; Atheism: A Reader; H. L. Mencken on Religion; The Agnostic Reader; and What Is Man? And Other Irreverent Essays by Mark Twain.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Militant; then again, the truth is the truth., October 5, 2004

By 

Mark I. Vuletic (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (Hardcover)

S. T. Joshi is in true militant form in his new book. In the introduction, Joshi avers that religion persists in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence for one simple reason: "People are stupid" (12). The rest of the book appears to be an extended commentary on that point, taking to task a whole slew of figures the popularity of whose ideas on religion presumably can only be accounted for by human stupidity. The range Joshi covers is sweeping: William James, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, William F. Buckley Jr., Stephen L. Carter, Jerry Falwell, Reynolds Price, Anne Dillard, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Neale Donald Walsch, and Guenter Lewy. It is by no means incidental that Joshi at one point goes off on a tangent about arguments for why it might be a good thing for humanity to die out entirely.

Joshi's tone is about what you would expect: mostly entertaining if you agree with him, mostly offensive if you disagree, but over-the-top either way. However, as far as his analyses go, he always provides a fundamentally cogent critique of the ideas he is dealing with, which makes his book worthwhile even if you really wish he would please be just a little bit less combative.

40 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I've found one of the few, April 4, 2008

By 

Tom Carpenter "- www.sysedco.com" (Marysville, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (Hardcover)

"There are few more irritating writers than G. K. Chesterton."

So begins chapter 2 of the most irritating book I've read in years. Not based on the arguments of the author, but on the horrific writing of the same. This has to be one of the most porrly written books available here at Amazon. The author stabs at unknown targets like shooting gnats in the night with a shotgun. He is extremeley selective in how he quotes his targets in order to setup strawman after strawman. It's just appalling.

Believe me, I am a big fan of books that disagree with my viewpoint (and I do not hide the fact that this is one). While Richard Dawkins' books are forceful, his writing is readable. While Christopher Hitchens' books are wordy, they are almost poetic. This is a forceful and non-poetic treatment by an author with no credibility on the topic and no ability in his writing.

You can read my reviews of other books that disagree with my worldview here at Amazon and you'll see that I don't rate books poorly because they disagree with me. The book is just aweful. Have I said that enough? I think so.

So, why three stars? Simple, the author quotes so much from others that somewhere around 20 percent of the books was not written by him. That part is good.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Read, September 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. Mr. Joshi does a very good job of exposing the inadequacies in the arguements of the authors he critiques. This book is a must read for atheists and independent thinkers.

I must take issue with a statement Mr. Joshi repeats more than once, [Most people are ignorant of] "...physics, biology, chemistry, geology, anthropology, philosophy, and the many other branches of human knowledge required for even a rudimentarily intelligent opinon on questions of the existence of God, the soul, and the afterlife." I do hope he isn't saying that we all need to have Phd's. I would think that a decent high school education would touch on all the subjects one would need to ask questions which would lead you to the conclusion that there is no god. This is ofcourse assuming that you can get past your childhood indoctrination. That's the really hard part.

Although he states many times that many of the social institutions we have are simply instuments to maintain civil order and not necessarily sent to us from god, his critique of marriage (ch. 10) is disappointing. As an Atheist, I feel that if our views are to be held in high regard, we must present ways in which our views are not only the closest to truth, but also go towards building a better society. Simply saying that an institution is a instrument of the religous and political establishment doesn't mean that it cannot go towards promoting a stable, efficient, strong society.