Customer Reviews

The Necessity Of Atheism

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked up this book last week on the recommendation of a friend and found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. I think Dr. Brooks did an excellent job of presenting his case. Unlike other atheistic works I've read, Dr. Brooks does not concentrate solely on Christianity. He critiques other religions as well.
I agree with his premise that religion has greatly hampered the advancement of humanity and caused a great deal of suffering, privation, and death. It also kept women oppressed for millennia, and we are still working to undo that damage. It's only been in the past century that great strides have been made to improve the lot of women, and I believe that religion has been the main culprit to blame for the inequities that women have faced for so long.
Dr. Brooks makes some very good points regarding the illogic and inconsistencies of religion and the misery that it has foisted upon humanity. He envisions a better world, one without religion holding back humanity's advancement, and makes a very good case for why we should strive for such a world.
Of all the divisive factors, religion has been the main and most persistent one. Dr. Brooks implores us to throw antiquated beliefs aside and forge ahead to build a better world for ourselves. If only more would heed his advice.

I believe this book should be on every intellectual's shelf. It's very well written and makes a solid case for dispensing with outdated religious notions if we are ever to advance to the levels we were meant to achieve. Humanity has spent far too long hobbling on the crutch of religion. Dr. Brooks asks us to cast that crutch aside and run free, and his arguments for doing so are most convincing.

Religion has bridled too many minds and bound too many hands. How much longer will humanity remain crippled by it? How much longer will we continue to point fingers at others, harm each other, and limit ourselves in the name of a god?

This is the 21st century. We're only just beginning to see the wonders we can achieve (and might have achieved ages ago if religious leaders hadn't kept insisting that the world was flat and viciously persecuting anyone who decreed otherwise). I think Dr. Brook's message is more timely than ever now that we've begun to open our minds and see what we can accomplish via our newfound reliance on science, reason, and sheer human will.

I strongly recommend this book. It's a wonderful classic, very thought provoking and optimistic. The material is presented very well, and I believe that Dr. Brook's vision of a better world is now finally within our reach.

I thought it was very well written and expressed many instances which I had never thought of. Before this I had read Nietzsche's Antichrist and compared to that book, The Necessity of Atheism was much easier to understand to me.

Reading this book, I was amazed at how timely its insights were FOR THE 21st CENTURY even though the book was written in 1933. By the weight of 1933 knowledge alone, Brooks assertion of the absurdity of religous faith in the face of scientifc discovery and its evil deeds in the name of superstition and power was already utterly compelling. Think of the scientific discoveries that have been ironed out since that time in geology, biology, physics, medicine, palentology, chemistry, astronomy, engineering, meteorology etc etc etc. Since this book was published, the human race has increased its micro and macro knowledge of universal truth exponentially and, with EVERY new discovery, heaped tons of additional weight(as if any more was even needed) to the central thesis of this book that 1) religion will always try to block, limit, stop or persecute scientifc discovery that conflicts with its dogmas (basically, all of them, see todays controversy on stem cells research) and 2) Discovery is truth to the maximum attainable degree and only the truth can set humanity free (and conversely that many people cannot cope with that freedom). Both of these concepts reasonate even more strongly today than they did in 1933. Where this books insight may be lacking is in its prediction of the inevtiable decline of the monotheistic religions within 100 years. Watch the movie "Jesus Camp" or read any news account from the Islamic or Hassidic world and its obvious that its going to take alot more than 20 more years to rid the world of this sourge. It is so depressing to consider that after almost 80 years of additional discovery and in the face of ever more overwhelming evidence against its dogmas, monotheistic religion is not only fighting a very skillful fighting retreat, in some places (the Islamic world, heartland America) it is ascendant. Rather than disappear, it seems more likely that one of these theocracies (my bet is Islam) is more likely to end the world within the next 20 years than disappear from it due to irrelevancy. But one can hope. This book saw things as they were, it just didnt take into account that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Highly recommended for those with an open mind but for those readers this book is probably only preaching to the choir. Its people of faith that REALLY need to read and absorb this information and then answer the questions WHY do you believe these myths?

This was a great read. It was much easier to understand than Nietzsche's works, but the message was still just as deep.
I've seen with my own eyes how religion can hold people back, so I completely understand the need to throw off its chains.
This book was full of great ideas and excellent arguments. I would recommend it to anyone, especially my uber-religious family who could really benefit from it. I thought it was very well written and convincing. It's a wonderful blueprint for building a better world.

I am an atheist, and I found this book uninspired, unintelligent, and boring. So bad it makes Richard Dawkins look like Voltaire and Paine rolled into one. So bad it makes Lee Strobel look like a theological genius. This is just one long rant about how inevitable it is that the religions of the world succumb to atheism and embrace reason. The guy sounds like a villain in a bad super hero movie. He makes atheists in general look bad and is completely unaware that there are shades of gray, in-betweens, and philosophical subtleties.

Why did I give this book 2 stars instead of 1? A) It's a free (Kindle version) way to kill time. B) I used to agree with many of this guy's views before I grew up a little. C) He makes some valid criticisms of religion. But there are 100 books on atheism that are more enlightened than this one.

If you believe nothing will change your mind, if you don't nothing will convince you....many arguments/discussions....pretty much the same thing...nothing new, but thorough.

There is nothing in this pseudo-intellectual rant that has not been said before, with much more readability and scholarly depth, by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and other. It is a polemic written in a pedantic style, replete with repetitive self-serving assertions and an almost total lack of illustrative well documented historical facts. There is little independent foundation to support the author's sometimes muddled argument that reason and logic always trump superstition, myth and faith. There has been historically a surfeit of suffering, persecution, death and misery directly related to religion, and its axiomatic corollary "My God is better than your God." Humankind has endured sufficient war, torture and privation to easily make the case for the logic of aetheism. Unfortunately the title of the book, "The Necessity of Atheism," is unsupported by the case that Dr. David Marshall ardently strives to make, but fails to dynamically accomplish for lack of a better researched effort.