Customer Reviews

Your Religion Is False

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In an era where cranky atheists debate shrill fundamentalists on the true meaning of global events, a humorous take on religion like Grus' "Your Religion Is False" is a much-needed laugh break.

Grus sells his case that Your Religion (whatever it may be) Is False the best way possible: by presenting the ludicrous claims made by world religions with ironic commentary and humorous exaggeration. And he doesn't play favorites, either. He levels the same sarcastic barrage against fringe beliefs (Reiki, transcendental meditation, giant stone head worship) as he does against the larger faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism).

This book is not only a perfect gift for atheists and agnostics, but also for believers who need to take a lighter view of their faith. By reading a little more about what makes each of the world's other religions false, maybe they'll start to question the strength of their own convictions. Either way, Your Religion Is False is smart, silly and true fun.

This book isn't what you might expect. Well, unless you are expecting a very funny book with genuine insights on religion, then it is what you would expect. You're going to be disappointed if you are expecting an angry book attempting to offend everyone, one that provides rigorous proofs disproving the ontological existence of God, or one that gives a systematic and encyclopedic overview of religion. Don't get me wrong, you will be offended, then laugh, and then be offended again. Reasons for believing in God (like free Bible-study pizza) are quickly gone over as well. Joel Grus does has an encyclopedic knowledge of religion, but more often than not that encyclopedia is Wikipedia. It will make you uncomfortable when it in goes over bits of your religion humorously, like getting the virtues and vices in Sikhism mixed up and providing convincing arguments for them, but then he'll make another absurd joke and you'll be laughing again.

Now that I've read the book and reading the blog, I'm eagerly looking forward to reading negative reviews of the book. Atheism is after all just one-half of a debate. I expect two main types of negative reviews. One is from people who obviously haven't read more than Amazon.com's Product Description, like Kansas City James, and review it anyway. The other type I expect are from people on the internet that feel the need to refute him and pedantically grab onto a joke while conceding the main point. Like granting that Mohammad did marry a seven year old girl and had sex with her at nine, but standing fast on that there is absolutely no proof whatsoever that he played with her dollies. Insightful negative reviews are also possible I guess. The internet might surprise me.

Joel Grus mixes explaining religious beliefs with absurd non-sequiturs (but I repeat myself), obscure geek references, and even more obscure 80s music references. You'll want to read this book near a computer in order to look up obscure references, like chutney ferrets, monkey rockers, and tesla girls. Well, maybe not those ones. Since he is talking about religion, it is not always easy to tell when he is explaining something straight or making a joke, so you may want to guess and then look it up to see how you did. Once you find out that you did poorly, you will have reached enlightenment. Or weighed some flax. Or something like that.

If Dawkins or Hitchens are too angry and not funny enough for you, this is the book to read. Hilarious overview of almost every religion people have heard of, and why all of them are false. As the book points out, religious people believe every other religion is ridiculous and silly but their own, and atheists just believe your religion is false, too.

I agree with the author that all religions (that I have encountered so far) are false, often ridiculously so. But they are false for real reasons, including theological reasons, rather than for trivial sound-bite satires. This book was heavily weighted toward fluff, without rigorously confronting real problems.

I don't know what this book is, but I can tell you what it is not: it is not serious, funny (neither ha ha funny nor Woody Allen funny), witty, or insightful. It is not much of anything, although it is a complete waste of money. I purchased the book thinking that it might contain a relevant discussion of why the many religions were false. Upon seeing that this author intended the book to be "cutesy", I was hoping for some creative "laugh-out-loud" approach. The only word I can come up with that describes the tenor of this author's writing is "inane". Mr. Grus makes references that are so obscure that any potential humor will whiz over the heads of most readers. Example: "Popular reasons For believing in God- Creed Album 'Human Clay'"; "Angelness is False- Taffy, famous for her cry of 'Zowie!' whenever she comes up with another Daffy Taffy Plan"; "Greek Mythology is False- The pantheon of less powerful gods includes Iris (goddess of the Goo Goo Dolls)"; "Hinduism is False- Shiva stains his body with ashes ('All the better to stain your Pottery Barn Jadestone everydaysuede"; "Judaism is False- Jews celebrate 'Yom Ha-Carew Day', commemorates Rod Carew's 3000 hit on August 4, 1985."
And on and on and on it goes for all the religions the author tackles. It's not fun and it's not funny. Perhaps the author was sitting around the house with family and friends, who laughed hysterically when he said that the resurrection of Jesus was announced by Marv Albert in the Book of John, but that same statement doesn't translate well as humor when Grus writes it in his book. My bet is that the great majority of readers will have no idea who Marv Albert is or what makes the statement inherently funny. Then again, if you find Grus funny when he states that "Catholics believe that they must participate in seven sacraments (so called because they first became popular in Sacramento, California)," then perhaps this book is for you. I consider myself as having been ripped off. This book is false!

Ok, so this book is sort of like The Daily Show of religious text, except massively more boring. It is ultimately too hard to discern the facts the book is making fun of, from the facts the book is just plain making up. This is probably not to religion's merits. My biggest gripe is simply that the book isn't sold as a parody, but as an educational parody. There is simply nothing the book has to offer intellectually. It brings nothing new to the argument table, and the substance is more often childish blather then witty attacks.

Let me pick a random passage, out of a random page -- if you think this doesn't do it justice head over to (...), and read a sample of the book:

Pg 146.
Peace: Quakers all acknowledge the prophetic gifts of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" folksinger Ed McCurdy.

I just didn't find the vast majority of it funny, or educational.

This book can be very funny, for example, one of my favorites is that one of the many different names for the devil is "a friend of a friend of Jerry Garcia."
However anyone who is thinking about buying needs to know that there is nothing serious about it. There is no philosophy, no argument, not much insight. It is a book of jokes. If you want a book of jokes about religion then buy this book. If you want any information don't buy it.

This is a bit of a strange book in my mind. It is entertaining to read and has a lot of interesting information, but it is at times a bit tedious. The author will at times go into providing very long lists of things, and in some instances, I felt the list was too long.

I think the book was aimed at both informing and entertaining its readers. Unfortunately, on both counts it is not, in my mind, completely successful.

The book covers many religions which I was not familiar with, and so it is potentially an interesting source of information about them. The problem is that the author blends humor in with the facts. The humor is sometimes straight forward, in which case it is easy to spot, while at other times it alludes to a piece of lesser known trivia or pop culture. If you know what is being referred to humorously then you are fine, but I must admit that in many instances, I was not familiar with the particular trivia and so was not sure where fact started and ended. I am willing to accept that part of the problem might lie with my own ignorance, but then isn't one reason for reading books to reduce ignorance? If you are aware of all or most of the trivia referred to in the book, then you will know what is fact and what isn't. In such a case, I would advance that the book is likely successful on both counts.

The book is also quick at times to state that a particular religion is false. Not that I believe in any of them anyways as I am an atheist, but in some cases the argument leading to the end-of-chapter-statement `...and so (name of religion) is false.' could have been a bit stronger. But this is a minor point as I don't think the book was ever out trying to academically disprove every religion.

The book's chapter on Scientology is also very perplexing. About 30% of the words have been completely blanked out (as are a few in some other parts of the book that refer to this crazy cult). The author does state at the very beginning of the chapter that his `lawyers insisted he redact portions of it'. Now, is this part of the joke? I know Scientology has a lot of money and powerful lawyers who love to sue anyone saying less than nice things about their `religion', but if it's not a joke, then why even include the chapter at all. Simply explain that Scientology was left out due to its crazy intolerance of criticism. If it is part of the joke... well it gets old very fast. There are usually too many blanks to allow the reader to guess the censored words.

In summary, I think this book has potential but in its current format, it misses the mark a bit. If the author is open to constructive criticism, I would recommend trying to find a way to let the reader know where facts start and end (maybe using a different font for each could work?). I still enjoyed reading the book and it made me discover some pretty crazy beliefs: the best one being `Jediism', a religion based on the jedis from Star Wars. I'm still not sure if anyone actually takes this religion seriously, but there are web-sites devoted to it and one CAN donate to it if one so wishes.

YRIF is a supremely entertaining read. As an atheist, it is easy to get caught up in the angry "holier-than-thou" mindset, so to speak, of refuting specific religious claims (a la Dawkins - not that I have anything against Dawkins). Grus manages to remind us that you can't lose sight of what is really important: that all religions are equally ridiculous and should be happily mocked.

The author gives a brief overview of nearly every world religion followed by the statement "...is false". No heavy philosophizing needed, because, really, is a god with an elephant head any more ridiculous than a virgin birth?

But in all seriousness, Grus clearly has a handle on the real issue here and makes it clear in his final chapters of the book entitled, "But what about all the good things religion did", "But religion is what gives my life meaning", "Religious freedom and religious tolerance", and "Separation of church and state". In this country, religious tolerance has come to mean that no one can be criticized for any belief or practice that claims to be religious, and separation of church and state do not effectively exist as long as the governement provides funding to faith-based organizations and provides support to organizations that discriminate against atheists.

YRIF is a fun read and will provide you with fodder for hours of co-worker mocking!

This is not the kind of book that will appeal to everyone; it certainly won't appeal to a lot of religious believers; it won't even appeal to some atheists.

If you are less than moderately literate, or moderately literate but not too widely read, you probably won't like this book. If you are an ivory tower hermit that has no idea who or what Captain Caveman, Marv Albert, or Creed are, you probably won't like this book. The humor is rather slapstick, but in order to get some of the jokes it helps if you have:

a) some background in philosophy
b) spent some time studying comparative religion
c) have a good working knowledge of popular culture from about 1985 onwards
d) an appreciation for the Three Stooges "Niagara Falls" routine, or
e) at least three of the above.

I do, and I found "Your Religion is False" hysterical.

Although the religious practices and tenets described are absurd enough in themselves, Grus slides seamlessly into deliberate silliness which, to me at least, has the effect of taking any edge of cruelty off his sarcasm. He makes a valiant effort to ridicule -everyone's- religion (Dai Dao Tam Ky Pho Do? Pastafarianism?) more or less equally, and includes a few general categories for any he may have accidentally overlooked (cults, New Age). Nor does he spare environmentalists, astrologers, Dungeons and Dragons addicts, or agnostics.

The bulk of the book is presented as humor, based on the thesis that -every- religion is a fairy tale, and absurdity is a constant across the spectrum even though specific details differ. However, beginning with chapter 80 (yes, there are 91 chapters; most are only 1-3 pages long) Grus does put forth some serious arguments for atheism, and some reasons why religion may be sometimes problematic in our culture. Nonetheless, the overall tone of the book remains whimsical, demonstrating that it is possible to have a serious point and still maintain a sense of humor in presenting it.

If you're looking for a metaphysical discourse on religion or atheism, go read Schopenhauer, Russell, or even Richard Dawkins. If you're looking for a religious joke book along the lines of "a priest, and minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar...", go read Loyal Jones. This book is neither of those things.

But if you have an appreciation for the absurd, and maybe a secret desire to find out just how Feng Shui /does/ measure up against Voodou on the wackiness scale, then I highly recommend this book.