Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness - A.C. Grayling

Advantages: Amazing read, great cases against religion
Disadvantages: None

.... This book is a superb reinforcement to the "God Delusion" and also shows how religion's claim to occupy a moral high ground and provide a moral framework is both historically false and demonstrably fatuous. Hitchen's also lays bare the fact that so called secular governments such as Stalin's and Hitler's were effectively pseudo-religions where the "God" was the head of state in whose name all manner of atrocities could be committed. There is often an argument that these polemics don't show the other point of view but that is the nature of a polemic and it is a very short walk to find the alternative point of view screamed at you, loudly and hysterically because it is so irrational. Hitchen's diligently highlights religions horrors from fostering hatred, to coercing children, enslaving women and endorsing mass murder. He shows, as does Dawkins... Read review

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Advantages: Fun, interesting, atypically Sayers
Disadvantages: -

...with the wrong technical qualifications. The worst religious films I ever saw were produced by a company which chose its staff exclusively for their piety. Bad photography, bad acting, and bad dialogue produced a result so grotesquely irreverent that the pictures could not have been shown in churches without bringing Christianity into contempt. God is not served by technical incompetence; and incompetence and untruth always result when the secular vocation is treated as a thing alien to religion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sayers is also rather forward for her time at discussing sex, claiming that the primary sin of her time was seen as sex (in that regard, not much has changed!); hence the title of the final essay, 'The Other Six Deadly Sins'. Here she looks at sin and morality with her... Read review

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Advantages: Great articles, great topic
Disadvantages: None

...and ministers came together to address the theological, spiritual, and practical aspects of the arts in ministry and religion. This deals with issues of theological theory, interpretation, and practices. The arts discussed here are broadly drawn - they include the visual arts, musical arts, storytelling and liturgical arts. Some of these essays draw on issues from historical perspectives, and some are very personal. While each essay stands on its own merit and reads as a complete unit, together the essays complement each other drawing the same issues in different directions. What is the importance of art for religion? Those who attend worship services are familiar with certain kinds of architecture, music (or the lack thereof), vestments (or the lack thereof), and a host of other elements that add in some way (even by the absence of certain... Read review

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