If you enjoyed reading Al Stefanelli's articles, investigative journalism and blistering editorials, then you are in for a treat. The no-holds-barred Prince of Polemic leaves no sacred stone unturned. It is said our species is separate from all others by our ability to reason. Then why are there so many unreasonable people in the world who stubbornly cling to outdated, irrelevant, disproven and often dangerous superstitious beleifs? For the last several thousand years the world was controlled by powerful and corrupt religions. Anyone who questioned their doctrine, dogma or superstition was routinely dispatched with extreme prejudice. But the tides are turning. Organized religion is losing it's credibility to the groundbreaking discoveries made by the scientific community which is continually providing empirical evidence for what was once held sacred. With the advent of the World Wide Web and through the tireless efforts of civil rights organizations and advocates of reason, our species advances further into the post-modern world. This is positive growth, but the growing pains are giving the earth and many of it's inhabitants some very ugly battle scars. The steady and dramatic rise of dangerous, militant, fundamentally extremist terror cults are filling our streets with blood and infecting the minds our youth with poison. Al Stefanelli offers insight as to why this will get a lot worse and how important it is to the survival of our species that we do not give up and go quietly into that good night. Other topics in this book include how the fundamental extremists in the United States are affecting the quality and content of public education, race relations, the first amendment violations being committed by politicians from the office of the President all the way down to local town councils and the growing problem of sectarianism within the United States Armed Forces. Al Stefanelli also examines how the memetics of religious belief can cause othewise intelligent, well adjusted and sane people people to hold beliefs and act out in ways that can only be described as delusional, sometimes bordering on psychotic. You will also enjoy Al's "Greatest Hits." A large collection of the most requested articles and commentaries, refreshed and updated.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Al Stefanelli has been a writer and journalist since 1993, starting out as a weekly columnist for a McClatchy Newspaper where he wrote a column called "Think About It" for ten years. His work won a North Carolina Journalism award. Al also produced and hosted the weekly syndicated radio broadcast "Millennium" for three years. Al currently writes for the National Atheism Examiner and Associated Content and his work has appeared in numerous publications, news feeds and has been widely distributed throughout the web. Al has been a widely recognized atheist activist since 2005 when he founded the United Atheist Front, Inc., an International civil rights organization that addresses the worldwide discrimination of non-theists. The United Atheist Front, Inc., working with other civil rights organizations through political action, peaceful assembly, community organization and public awareness campaigns, has been instrumental in effecting positive change within the public, private and governmental sectors. The United Atheist Front also has a YouTube Channel. His personal blog, aptly named "A Voice of Reason in an Unreasonable World", enjoys wide popularity, and he also publishes the "New Atheist Times," "Atheist Action Alerts," and "Atheist Syndicated Press," as well as the Podcast "Radio Free Atheism," available on iTunes.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I bought this book last week and I am thoroughly enjoying reading this! Al is a very fluid writer, easy to read, plus, his ideas are dead on in regard to organized religion. I agree with his hypothesis, in Chapter 2, that there is a distinct difference between the "person of faith" and the fundamentalist. Non-believers can find alliances with people of faith, however, the religious fundamentalist is a destructive force that no one should ever align with. Great book, Al, and thank you for writing this! We look forward to reading more work from you.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
If Al Stefanelli,the author, had only written the first 2 sections of this book, it would've been excellent by itself. It was deeply honest and thought-provoking analysis that is not without humor. Because of Stefanelli's unique background (a former Baptist minister who became an athiest), this analysis of where we are in our society and how we came to put ourselves in such a ridiculous position is really a clarifying and meaningful read. The last section, which the author refers to as "mashed potatoes" is a selection of essays about certain aspects of our current society. The only reason I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars is because of the presence of typos, but typos and all, it is well worth reading.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Lupus
Amazon Verified Purchase
I expected a lot more from this book than I got. I'm not a "believer" but too many times in this book Al stoops to just calling names and hurling insults. And I don't think he'll win any hearts and minds by calling the Christian god by gutter names. He was inconsistent, at best. Sometimes, especially in the first couple of chapters he did give the appearance of being a voice of reason, but that soon went away.
I have to think he hates what he once was (an evangelical minister) and his hatred spills out on nearly every page. But even aside from that, the book is full of grammatical errors and cases where words (for example, conjunctions) are simply missing. I don't think I found one example of his correct use of apostrophes. For example, several times he writes the possessive of "who" as "who's," instead of the proper "whose." Combine this with the obvious omissions and errors, and it leaves a bad taste.
But near the end, in "Debunking the Christian Myth..." I also came across some factual errors. Osiris was the chief male god of the Egyptians and a god of fertility. Osiris was dismembered by his brother Set, and Isis, his sister and wife, gathered the pieces of his body and buried them, and then sought revenge against Set. Al claims that Osiris died for the sins of the world, which is not what I know of the myth. But what really struck me as incorrect was that he said the Buddha was "crucified as sin-atonement" and was "resurrected" after 3 days in hell. Really, Al? I know that the Buddha is supposed to have lived until his 80s and died (presumably) of food poisoning. What's this "sin-atonement" and "resurrection" nonsense? Now, there are different schools of Buddhism, just as there are in Christianity and Islam, but never have I come across a "crucifixion and resurrection" fable about Prince Gotama (the Buddha). It seems that Al just throws all kinds of assertions around to make a point, but writing with such a loose purchase of the facts is not something I expect in a book about "Reason."
I just think he hasn't left his fundamentalist streak behind, and now he's a "fundamentalist" atheist who plays fast and loose with the facts to make an appeal to the emotions of people who are already in the choir. There are far better books that present the atheist position than this one, and they are available at Amazon. For example, "Atheism Explained," by David R. Steele.
I have to think he hates what he once was (an evangelical minister) and his hatred spills out on nearly every page. But even aside from that, the book is full of grammatical errors and cases where words (for example, conjunctions) are simply missing. I don't think I found one example of his correct use of apostrophes. For example, several times he writes the possessive of "who" as "who's," instead of the proper "whose." Combine this with the obvious omissions and errors, and it leaves a bad taste.
But near the end, in "Debunking the Christian Myth..." I also came across some factual errors. Osiris was the chief male god of the Egyptians and a god of fertility. Osiris was dismembered by his brother Set, and Isis, his sister and wife, gathered the pieces of his body and buried them, and then sought revenge against Set. Al claims that Osiris died for the sins of the world, which is not what I know of the myth. But what really struck me as incorrect was that he said the Buddha was "crucified as sin-atonement" and was "resurrected" after 3 days in hell. Really, Al? I know that the Buddha is supposed to have lived until his 80s and died (presumably) of food poisoning. What's this "sin-atonement" and "resurrection" nonsense? Now, there are different schools of Buddhism, just as there are in Christianity and Islam, but never have I come across a "crucifixion and resurrection" fable about Prince Gotama (the Buddha). It seems that Al just throws all kinds of assertions around to make a point, but writing with such a loose purchase of the facts is not something I expect in a book about "Reason."
I just think he hasn't left his fundamentalist streak behind, and now he's a "fundamentalist" atheist who plays fast and loose with the facts to make an appeal to the emotions of people who are already in the choir. There are far better books that present the atheist position than this one, and they are available at Amazon. For example, "Atheism Explained," by David R. Steele.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
