Your Religion Is False (review)

Jan20 Your Religion Is False, A Review
Category: Ramblings

I recently had an opportunity to read Joel Grus’s book Your Religion Is False. I want to start out by saying that Joel is absolutely hilarious, even if some of his references are quite obscure. The problem I have with this book is it is TOO irreverent. The jokes and allusions are so frequent it becomes a chore to decipher the facts.

The book essentially goes step-by-step through many popular religions. Each religion gets its own chapter following the format of “Insert Religion Is False”. The goal is to prove to believers that their disbelief in other religions should also be applied to their own. The issue is how this is argued. It is almost as if he points and laughs at the religions and implies only a crazy person would believe something like that. So obviously that religion is false.

This was really written with a good premise. Prove all religions as crazy and people will see the light. Sadly the flaw comes from the execution. The book is way to funny to be taken seriously. If I wanted to give a questioning relative a book, I’d probably opt for The God Delusion instead. Now if the relative or friend was a good humored atheist, it would be perfect. The book is not bad, but don’t hope to lose your religion from reading it. Definitely worth a read and the laughs it provides. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. At the very least you will walk away with some knowledge of finer points in many religions.

Just look at the cover for an excellent summary of what is inside: