Product Description

Is Religion Dangerous? Does it do more harm than good? Is it a force for evil - or even 'the root of all evil', as Richard Dawkins has claimed? Many contemporary commentators would answer in the affirmative to all these questions. They would argue that religion is something to fear and something we should oppose because it corrupts minds and leads to terrorism and violence. Religious beliefs, they say, are irrational and immoral, and have no place in modern secular society. In this intelligent and insightful book, Professor Keith Ward responds to the critics. Looking at the evidence from history, philosophy, sociology and psychology, he focuses on the main question at issue: does religion do more harm than good? He begins by examining the key area of religion and violence and goes on to assess the allegations of irrationality and immorality, before exploring the good religion has done over the centuries. Is Religion Dangerous? makes powerful reading for all those interested in issues of truth, freedom and justice. Without religion, the author argues, the human race would be considerably worse off and there would be little hope for the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203110 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Keith Ward is one of Britain's foremost philosopher-theologians. Former Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and Joint President of the World Congress of Faiths, he is now Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London and a Fellow of the British Acadamy. He is also a well-known broadcaster and author of over twenty books, including God: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Pascal's Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding.

Customer Reviews

Well worth reading
Keith Ward is a relatively accessible writer, knowledgable and well worth reading. His style of writing leaves something to be desired, but that's only a minor point. In this book Ward explores the defence of religion before the criticism it has endured in recent years by the anti-theists who seek to prove it as dangerous.
This is a short book written to set some relatively straight forward but forgotten or misinterpreted facts in their right place. In light of the fashionable debate between atheists and religous figures about the danger of religious belief (refer to Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins for the atheist perspective), this is a very welcome sober contribution. Religion is not so easy to reduce to the status of a dangerous superstition, it turns out.
Framed simply, how is religion dangerous? If your first answer harks back to the Crusades, there's something in this book for you for sure. Though the value of Ward's work here shines through beyond that.
Having recently heard Ward speak on his promotional tour, I found out that he is an open and smart man. He speaks and writes clearly for the masses, which is valuable in itself, regardless of his conclusions, which incidentally aren't too far off the mark.
If you've been seduced by Bertrand Russell, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennet, give this a go. It won't cost you much, and it will certainly give you an alternative perspective. This is a defence of religion without asking you to convert. It is therefore a smart, ballsy and much needed addition to the ongoing theist - anti-theist debate.

Something for everyone?
Is Religion Dangerous? Whatever your response to the question this book supplies points which will validate your answer and points which will challenge it. This would suggest that it is a fairly balanced book. Having said this, it does sit firmly on the monotheistic side of the fence. Ironically, it may be atheists who find this book most useful - particularly as a reminder that there are reasonable, religious people. Don't expect to like the whole book. Equally ironically, this book may cause greatest offence to any who see the bible as the literal truth. I'm sure there will be copies with bible verses scribbled into the margins. Quakers come out of it pretty well. I assume they will be happy.

I soon warmed to the author with his frank admission that Christianity has perpetrated some horrors in the past. This openness strikes me as an important basis for dialogue. It is refreshing not to encounter a defensive attitude.

This was balanced by times when I felt I was being subjected to a sales pitch for the author's version of a moderate, loving and reasonable Christianity. Some sections did have the feel of a personal credo.

He draws out an interesting contrast between Nazism and religions in that religions contain something which is potentially self-correcting where Nazism did not. Whereas Nazism was never likely to change its spots, religious atrocities might, potentially, be stopped from within.

At other points in the book I was reminded of the oft repeated phrase, `Communism is fine in theory but it doesn't work in practice.' I think it was Karl Popper who pointed out that this isn't really possible. If a theory doesn't work in practice then it was a poor theory to start with! In a similar way, Keith Ward does have a tendency to see religion as basically good but spoilt by those pesky people. He suggests (on page 197) that religion should be judged on its transformative power. To the extent that it is failing to transform real people in the real world then it is failing by these standards.

I feel that more space could have been devoted to non-theistic religions. Two pages are devoted to a discussion of Buddhism. However, a more general discussion of religion for those who find theistic belief unpalatable would have been both interesting and useful.

For an equally balanced account but from the atheistic perspective, I would recommend `Breaking the Spell' by Daniel Dennett.

An excellent and thought-provoking book
This excellently-written and very readable book has 200 pages dealing with this most modern of issues - is religion dangerous? Keith Ward explores how we define religion and the ways in which religions and groups can be seen to be `dangerous' where their intent might be quite the opposite.

I liked the way that he drew examples from all aspects of life and history - Christianity, Islam, Nazi Germany, the Crusades, Iraq, Quakers, Buddhism and more. This wide-ranging look at the world and the religions that are part of it, their history and form today and ways in which their followers can be dangerous was excellently portrayed.

His conclusion - that it's the human within the religion that is dangerous, not the religion itself - is perhaps not a surprise but his masterly arguments are well worth reading. A useful book to encourage thought and dialogue within Christianity and other religions.