Customer Reviews

Why So Many Gods?

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4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I was looking briefly at this book while at the grocery store and looked at the entry for my own religion. The information provided was not just biased, it was inaccurate. The publisher asserted that Mormons believed Jesus was the son of Joseph. This is not our belief. We believe that He is divine - literally the Son of God. If the book's publisher misrepresents a fundamental belief of my religion, I am left to wonder how it treats other religions that do not adhere to the Christian premise of the book. If you are looking for an academic overview of world religions, I suggest Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't. If you are looking for spiritual enlightenment, I suggest you go directly to the source of the religion(s) you are interested in. Most religions have an official website where you can get non-biased theological information.

After reading this book which I borrowed from a friend, I frequently found myself growing frustrated with it. As my frustration grew, so did my concern; if people are reading this book looking for information supported by facts, then they are in serious trouble.

My first problem with this book is its format: Although it is intended for Teen readers, remember that many teens are capable of reading the Bible itself, and so a book such as 'Why so Many Gods' which claims to make things easy for teens is doing so needlessly. If teens can read the Bible, and all the difficulties inherant in such an endeavor, then why would an introductory book of world religions need to dumb itself down in order to be understood? Give young people more credit.

A second major problem lies in the distinct lack of citation. Where does the source material come from? How are people supposed to check this book against its research material if no citations of research material are forthcoming? How are the readers to effectively ascertain the 'facts' of the book from the opinions of the author? If they didn't want to include all of their sources in the book, then they could easily have supplied a web address which could contain all the relevant material.

A third concern: Many of the 'reviews' of world religions are erroneous, misleading, or outright false. For example: in the Christian section, the 'Protestant' faith is lumped all together as a single coherent faith, overlooking the fact that it is formed of Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Pentecostals, etc. It also states that the geographic center of the faith is 'the Holy Land, Israel'. But if Martin Luther was the instigator of the Reformation - as is common knowledge to anyone with the tiniest bit of education in religious history - then wouldn't one have to put the geographic center of 'Protestantism' in Germany - or at least Europe? That's where it all began for the Protestan Reformation, right?

Another gem: Under Occult Practices: Parapsychology. The book claims that Parapsychologists actively seek to gain paranormal abilities and other 'tricks to impress people at parties', when in fact, Parapsychologists seek to use the scientific method to explore these phenomena - frequently parapsychologists are skeptics. Although the book does mention the use of science by parapsychologists, it also appears to confuse the object of study for the actual beliefs of the observers. Additionally, in the 'rituals, rites, and sacraments' section of Parapsychology, the book mentions Chinese ACUPUNCTURE as though it were of some occult significance! The two things are entirely unrelated - one deals with supernatural phenomena, the other with healing the body through the use of manipulation of the body's nervous system - something generally acccepted by medical and scientific communities!

It seems to me that a person with a mature and developed faith would be able to handle reading material which deals with religions and movments that are different, and in some cases, antithetical to their own, and not have to worry about their faith crashing down around their ears. Part of a mature faith includes being able to look at your faith and others full in the metaphysical face and recognize all the good AND the bad in each one. This book fails to allow Christians to do that. It deliberatly distorts the beliefs of other faiths, mocks their historical roots through the use of stereotypes, colloquialisms, and poorly used slang, and seeks to 'disprove' other faiths in one or two sentances, some of which include 'it just doesn't make much sense'. Really? Why not? Qualify that argument please, so that I am able to see how alternative faiths hold up to strong criticism.

This book would have been much better if it had tried to take other religions - and its own - more seriously. If it is meant to provide teens with tools to recognize other faiths, then it is going to fail horribly. In the next edition, perhaps the authors should cut out all the flashy little bits, add at least another 500 words or so to each section, qualify their arguments, cite their sources, write the material as though it wasn't meant to be read by toddlers, and in general aim for making their work more book-like, less child-like.

I am a Christian, but I don't believe that 'Christian' should be synonymous with 'Ignorant'. Do not buy this book if you are seeking an education.

Here's a better book:
Religion in Society : A Sociology of Religion (8th Edition) (Paperback)by Ronald L. Johnstone

A pastor lent this to me because he thought my friends and I would find it interesting. This book isn't repuatable nor is it accurate. On a section describing fundamentalist Islam, there were pictures of GUNS. This book is far too biased.

"All content has been reviewed by experts in Christian theology..."
Obviously this text wasn't reviewed by experts, or even novices, in any other theology. The descriptions of everything besides Christianity and the denominations seen as acceptable by the authors are shallow at best, outright deceptive & borderline slander at worst.
I saw this book & at first thought it was going to be good. I'm so glad that I sat down in the Barnes & Nobel cafe and checked it out. This book is so far off, using cosmology (which was used to argue PLATONISM thru "first cause"), and can likewise be used to argue for ANY form of Theism or for the existence of any of the creator gods in any religion in this book, not just Christianity. The Intelligent Design argument, Pascal, Ontological and the like are all likewise support any philosophy/religion with a original creator either powerful enough to generate the universe...
Since the Author chose to use Pascal's Wager, I'll bring this up: once you decide that you need to hedge your bets & join up with a religion, HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE IS RIGHT? Christianity is by no means a logical choice, at least not any more than any other religion. & if God knows all, he definitely knows who's simply signing up for some afterlife insurance.
Not to mention that this book suffers repeatedly from a classic induction problem, using the Christian religion to justify or argue for the Christian religion... "Jesus love me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so"...
As for "The Trick" that doesn't apply to Christianity... how irresponsible of the authors to no include any of the "Tricks" in Christianity, such as the fact that the Life of Jesus is made up of, what, at least a handful of earlier messiah figures, right down to the nitty gritty details such as virgin birth, all of the miracles, 12 disciples, death & resurrection...
This book isn't educational by any stretch of the imagination. It's pure Christian Fundamentalist propaganda, nothing more. Don't buy it.

Christ is enough for Christianity, God bless Him.

Truth: There is no god but God.

Yes, but F these guys. And by 'f' I mean forget.

God = omnipresence. Therefore, present everywhere simultaneously. Not contained in the conditioned brains within one of humanity's religions, but E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.

I thought this was a comparative religions book, something like the good man Huston Smith's "World's Religions."This is not about comparing religions. This is about ignorance brainwashing more ignorance. We could grow ourselves in compassion and unity and further understand the One big way in which we're all connected, or we can scare kids into thinking everyone is flawed except for those who say they love Jesus and do not want to burn eternally. It should not take long to reason how this idea has no grounded possibility. GOD, the presence of Love and Compassion, simply would not operate by allowing us a short span of time to be confused, and then consequently damn our souls to eternal fire. This laughably does not add up. The real hell exists in our reality of children growing with prejudging eyes because they blindly accepted and adapted to something that they had not yet been able to fully think about. GOD is perfection, which by its very nature is beyond our realm of comprehension. So unless you know something that you cannot possibly know please do not cloud the matters of God with more talk like I am doing. GOD IS LOVE. These guys are also Love, being that only God exists, but they are perceived shrouded heavily in illusory, deceptive disguise. Every statement within this book has the full intent of dulling the mind's critical thinking skills rather than uplifting all of human consciousness to a level of optimum productivity (i.e. understood unity). Every single one of us needs to get right within ourselves for the sake of everyone else having the momentum to do the same. One can only truly believe in one thing, and that is that these people writing their fantasy book was just another cosmic joke being played within our perceived existence, and that we were a part in it's cause, as we are an effect of every other cause. And no matter how enraged someone can feel from hearing about this book, it is true that these author's and all others of various disgusting works are intrinsically equal to one another, even the more Christ-like figures like Gandhi and King, in the sense that they are all eyes catching Light.

This book's author with such a low level of an awareness COULD NOT POSSIBLY have felt in this lifetime the magnitude of Love that binds all life in worship of God as One.

Nevertheless, here we are, as One, working together to piss ourselves off and make ourselves right.

Which is why we need to have Love and prayer for any corrupted and clouded lens which is obstructing our ability to communicate and have Love together.

that being said, I still feel like vomiting when I read the arrangement of words within this book. If I met the authors, I would without a doubt throw up instantly. Hopefully that could communicate in some way how I feel to those without ears to listen.

This is a biased and poorly written pretense at a comparative presentation of religions---except that some are left out, apparently by being lumped together with the next most similar religion. The text is sprinkled with snide remarks about other religions that leave the reader with no doubt as to where the bias of the author is located. Look for something more balanced, something in which you cannot detect the preference of the author. This is not that book.

It's not that I found the contents of the book offensive, it's that they were very erroneous in some areas. I understand that this is a Christian book meant to encourage kids to stay Christian, but they really have to make some generalizations or flat out make stuff up in order to do that in some cases. There's a section called "the trick" at the end of each chapter that basically explains why not to believe in the faith. Fair enough, if they used legitimate reasons, but that didn't always happen.

For example, the thing that was wrong with Judaism is that Jewish people think of Jesus as a great teacher, and, as C.S. Lewis said, you can either think of him as a madman or a savior, nothing else. That's pretty simplified right there, but that's another debate. The point is, Judaism is totally unconcerned with Jesus. It's been functioning thousands of years without him, and as such, has no formal teaching. Why make that stretch? Just say "It isn't Christian" since it's geared toward Christians anyway.

Other areas were just flat out poorly researched. The section on Satanism clearly came entirely out of the author's head. They cited the Church of Satan as a religion that was the "opposite of Christianity," a fair opinion, believed in Satan as a diety, which is incorrect, as they are pretty much just self-indulgent ATHEISTS, and that they have human sacrifices, which is a flat out lie. Anyone can call themself a Satanist, and some may believe/do these things, but the Church of Satan just plain does not.

I have many Christian friends and family members. I was raised as one myself. I have enough faith in the sincerity of the ones I know that they don't need misinformation to keep their belief in God strong.

This book is the kind of horror that only fundementalists could love. It alternates between intentional ignorance and blatant ommission to attempt to prove that christianity is the only religion that is 'true'. As a read it bounces between mildly offensive to comical. Just about any other book would be better research for those wondering about other belief systems. This book is intended to reinforce christian prejudices, not enlighten.

After reading this book, I have come to the conclusion that I have great distain for this author- or at least distain for this closed minded piece of work. He gives an unfair account of other religions outside of Christianity, refering to every other religion as "they" and Christians as "us". I believe this to be one of the most closed mind, Christianity persuasive books I have read. Sadly, I can see a youth group getting hold of this book and tainting the ideas of the youth. If anyone is looking for real, unbiased information on other religions, I would suggest not wasting your money on this book, but rather doing some research of your own. If you liked this book, or you are content with believing the first thing you read, then I am very sorry for you.

Present a bunch of "proofs" for your beliefs (the second law of thermodynamics disproves evolution, C.S. Lewis's trilemma presents the only options for thinking about Jesus, etc.) as if they hadn't been debunked hundreds of times, to a target readership that has been brainwashed into believing a set of dogmas since birth or shortly thereafter. Unfairly use basic techniques of logic to "disprove" tenets of other religions that are based in faith, not logic, but refuse to put your own beliefs to the same scrutiny. Reiterate as often as possible that the consequence for not accepting your beliefs is an eternity in hell, conveniently sidestepping why an all-loving God could torture anyone for all eternity for believing the wrong things.

This is a sad, scary book, and I would hope that any teen looking for real information about other religions would look elsewhere. Not only are other religions falsely presented, but so are other varieties of Christianity.