Customer Reviews

Holy Hatred: Religious Conflicts of the '90s

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Haught discusses only conflicts in the 1990's in this book, which actually stops in 1994. Although when you realize that the book is more than 230 pages long, it puts things into perspective. The reviewer before mine was reading this at the same time as "Can Man Live Without God?" by Zachrias (I hope I spelled his name right!), folks the answer is YES! The fact is that millions of people find live invigorating whether it is with or without religion. This book, while old, will make you sick (I can think of no other word to describe how I felt) with the information about religious hatred, murder, rape, genocide, the list of tortures described in this book are despicable. Unfortunately, the fact that religion can engender evil, and in fact, may engender it easier than good, does not make religious people evil. Personally, I would be much happier if people read this book, stopped bickering about whether or not something exists out there, and started obeying some damn commandments.

Again, in summary, this book should be REQUIRED for EVERYONE! It implicitly is a loud, ringing YES for Jefferson's "wall of separation." Haught goes around the world in 230 pages to uncover the evils people will do because they worship the "One True God." Or for the Hindu, "The Several True Gods." What people will do to pave their neighbors way to Happiness and Heaven is described in this book.

Does religion make men virtuous? Does believing in God make one moral?

This book is a punch in the face for anyone who would naively answer 'yes' to the above questions. This book is just shocking, disgusting, and really makes you want to puke at all the atrocities done in the name of 'righteous' religion.

This is definitely a must read book, but it has problems. It is not very detailed and more sources would help. There is no index, and the title is inappropriate. This only covers the years 1990-1994 in depth.

Thank you, James Haught, for having the courage to write this book. I hope another comes out for the years 1995-2000!

Haught's book is one that everyone should look at. If anyone still is not aware of the dimensions of religious conflict in the modern world, they really need to be.
On the other hand, it is a little too easy to take shots at religion as the source of all the evil in the world. The simple but complex truth is that religion motivates people...to do good or to do harm, as their beliefs lead. Religion is neither all good nor all bad. It is probably all false (!), but a more serious and in-depth analysis of what violence is, what religion is, and how the two are related is necessary, rather than gleeful sticks poked in the eye of religion. God (!) knows, people have done great violence for non-religious reasons too. The point is to understand how religion can contribute to violence, not just to point an accusatory finger at religion.
I deal some with religion and violence in my new books, "Natural Atheism" and "Violence and Culture: A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approach."

This is an interesting book, but the flaws are not to be overlooked. What it does do well is to give the not-so-foreign-affairs-minded person a swift overview of the types of globally occurring unrest that we see in the newspapers today. I have a feeling that many people do not know much about Bosnia, Sudan, and Somalia except that violent things are happening there. The historical background and religious settings are just not part of our grade school education. So when James Haught discusses 28 different countries (in various degrees of depth), he hits on many major and visible conflicts.

However, I was pretty unsatisfied with the form of the book. In the introduction, Haught states that his major sources are the New York Times and the Associated Press. Indeed, almost the entirety of the book reads like newspaper articles patched together, often disparately. As such, it is just a series of events one after the other, related to religiously motivated violence. There is scant analysis, and the theme seems to be: Most conflict today is caused by religion... Here are tons of articles, see what I mean? I may be accused of academic snobbishness, but I feel that a book about fundamentalism and its horrors should be a little more analytical and more careful with its use of evidence. The section on Kuwait is more about hypocrisy and abuse of power than fundamentalist oppression or conflict. The chapter on the United States consists of various articles mainly about reverends and evangelists who did scandalous things, hardly on the same level as the events he talks about in other countries. I would even say such stories are misleading, where Haught's basic thesis is concerned.

On the other hand, HOLY HATRED is very quick to read (pictures take up many pages, and the print is large) so if you want to feel more confident reading the International section of the New York Times, go ahead and pick it up. But pick up some other books on the same topic while you're at it.