Product Description

Many books that challenge religious belief from a sceptical point of view take a combative tone that is almost guaranteed to alienate believers or they present complex philosophical or scientific arguments that fail to reach the average reader. Journalist Guy P Harrison argues that this is an ineffective way of encouraging people to develop critical thinking about religion. In this unique approach to scepticism regarding God, Harrison concisely presents fifty commonly heard reasons people often give for believing in a God and then he raises legitimate questions regarding these reasons, showing in each case that there is much room for doubt.Whether you're a believer, a complete sceptic, or somewhere in between, you'll find Harrison's review of traditional and more recent arguments for the existence of God refreshing, approachable, and enlightening. From religion as the foundation of morality to the authority of sacred books, the compelling religious testimony of influential people, near-death experiences, arguments from "Intelligent Design", and much more, Harrison respectfully describes each rationale for belief and then politely shows the deficiencies that any good sceptic would point out.As a journalist who has travelled widely and interviewed many highly accomplished people, quite a number of whom are believers, Harrison appreciates the variety of belief and the ways in which people seek to make religion compatible with scientific thought. Nonetheless, he shows that, despite the prevalence of belief in God or religious belief in intelligent people, in the end there are no unassailable reasons for believing in a God. For sceptics looking for appealing ways to approach their believing friends or believers who are not afraid to consider a sceptical challenge, Harrison's book makes for very stimulating reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58580 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Review
"Harrison has hit the right mix. One can almost imagine that he is smiling as he writes - not a sardonic smile but a real, life-affirming, comfortable-with-who-I-am smile. His joyful embrace of the natural world and humanity in all its triumphs along with low points and his admission that he does not understand everything he encounters makes this author's atheism a very happy state of being." -Free Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 1, December 2008/ January 2009 "In this thought-provoking book, Harrison makes a powerful case against religion without the need for name-calling, contempt or condescension." --The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, Ron Ferguson opinion article, October 27, 2008

Nick Wynne, PhD; Executive director of the Florida Historical Society
"Guy P. Harrison has written a persuasive and frequently humorous book about an important topic . . .This thoughtful work should be read by religious practitioners, political leaders, and the general public and should be taught as a foundation for explaining the role of religion in society. I recommend it heartily."

James A. Haught, author of 2,000 Years of Disbelief and editor of West Virginia's largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette
"Deep wisdom and patient explanations fill this excellent book. The author--a journalist with worldwide experience and thorough scientific knowledge--doesn't ridicule supernatural beliefs. He seems fond of believers. But he quietly employs logic to show that invisible gods, devils, heavens, hells, miracles and the like belong in the superstitious past, and cannot be taken seriously by educated modern people."

Customer Reviews

Mind Opening
It seems such a responsibility to be writing the first review of a book! It is innovative in style, starting from the reasons people give for believing in a god/christianity/other religions. Interestingly, the final reason, no 50, isn't a reason anyone actually gave Harris, but which he thinks they would have liked to. The statement is "I am afraid of not believing" - I agree with Harris that this is very likely a true reason and we could speculate why it was never given, but maybe believers just find it shameful to admit - not as "noble" a reason as some of the others?

I'm not sure now, but I think Harris doesn't claim to be an atheist, but an agnostic veering towards secular humanism. Maybe this is why his book doesn't come across as belligerent, antagonistic and anti-god as some others? There is also nothing to indicate that Harris ever had a strong faith and rejected it which is often, I think, why people seem to get so vitriolic in their attacks on religion - like they were somehow "duped" into believing. I have always been surprised at the number of hostile atheist websites - what are they trying to prove? None of them is going to convince any ardent believer to give up his faith (assuming h/she bothers to read it) any more than reading a biblical, evangelistic website would persuade me to change my beliefs. I agree with Harris when he says that believers' belief is not based on anything rational and reasonable, so why should they be "converted" by something that is? Personally I cannot imagine any point in asking my "born again" daughter to read this book - she would refuse and probably say it was inspired by the devil.

My reason for only awarding the book 4 stars instead of 5 is that I began to find it gets more and more repetitive as it goes along. Although the reasons for belief were different, many of the ways Harris dealt with them was very similar. And to me, as someone who has looked into various religions and atheism over many years, some of the reasons given were ones I had already thought about and dismissed as puerile. Harris is, at the very least, obsessed with science, and for me there was just too much of it in his refutations. Still, as Amazon don't give you the opportunity to "search inside" this book prior to buying, I thought I would give you a flavour of some of the 50 "reasons"

"Faith is a good thing"
"Our world is too beautiful to be an accident"
"Believing in my god makes me happy"
"A sacred book proves my god is real"
"My god sacrificed his only son for me"
"Without my god we would have no sense of right or wrong"
"Millions Of people can't be wrong"
"No-one has ever disproved the existence of my god"
"My god changes lives"
"The End Is Near"

Finally, if you are a Brit reading this book (as opposed to an American), prepare to be astonished at the level of hostility and discrimination shown to those in the US who are brave enough to declare their non belief! I mean there we have a country which would not vote for an atheist to be President. In the UK of course, we probably wouldn't vote for a right-wing evangelical who talked about his beliefs as part of his/her campaign to be Prime Minister! I glad I live here!

Finally, each chapter is headed by some pithy, witty comment by various people throughout the ages, and I can do no better than to quote one of the author's own, found at the beginning of the Introduction: -

"No gods were harmed in the making of this book" Enjoy!

With or without faith - This book is for you.
I have read a number of books that challenge religious belief from a skeptical perspective. Some take a tenacious and combative tone that would be off-putting to believers; some describe the popular but nevertheless complicated apologetic and counter-apologetic arguments. Such arguments are more palatable to theologians, philosophers, perhaps those who are questioning the efficacy of their beliefs, and those theists and atheists alike who believe their arguments are above reproach.

However whilst I do believe these books are indeed essential given the contest between religious and non-religious outlooks is such an important one, a matter of literally life and death.
It's possible such books will fail to reach the average reader. Neither perhaps would believers find them a comfortable read.
The reason being the vast majority of religious folk believe in something far more basic, traditional, cultural and social than the logic and inventions offered by philosophy and theology.
People trust in their religious beliefs without question, they find comfort and solace in their faith. Most are simply absorbed by the dominate religion within their personal locality. This audience will not be drawn naturally to any book that directly attacks their faith.

Here's why I felt Guy P. Harrison's book is different. Put simply, it's a book that any person of faith can indeed read and appreciate; it's a book that can be handed to a believer by a non-believer without any smugness or arrogance. It's a book that both believers and non-believers will savour equally and find captivating and relevant.
Harrison is certainly uncompromising in his skepticism but is never guilty of being conceited or displaying contempt towards his audience. If you are content within your religious comfort zone but do not necessarily know why then this book will provoke thought, is your religious commitment rational and intrinsically deserving of respect? Is your religion immune from criticism and ridicule?

If you welcome a book that can be read, understood and enjoyed regardless of your religious or non-religious persuasion then this is a book for you. I highly recommend it.

The way to discuss religion with real people
When buying some other books I added this to my shopping basket on impulse hoping that it would give some insight into the psychology of belief. However, psychology isn't really what the book is about so in that respect I was disappointed. 50 reasons people give for believing in a god is instead a series of responses to the most commonly cited reasons for god-belief, intended to promote critical thinking. Despite the above misunderstanding, I'm glad I shelled out for it because it is, in many respects, an excellent book.

What 50 reasons is not is a book of complex theology. You'll find little discussion of apologetics, no mention of the Kalam Cosmological Argument, nor any discussion of, for example, what text was or was not interpolated into Josephus' writings. The author aims to treat all religions equally and so doesn't spend a disproportionate amount of time on any one belief. Each chapter is prompted by the justifications that ordinary believers across the world have given Guy on his travels, so the book is accessible and relevant to the ordinary person. Examples of the 50 reasons include, "My god is obvious", "Our world is too beautiful to be an accident" and "Without my god we would have no sense of right and wrong". I'm sure these are all arguments that those of us who frequent atheist blogs or debate with believers will have heard before, perhaps many times. In which case, the brief discussions in 50 reasons probably won't be particularly new. What is noteworthy is the tone of this book.

It's not that Guy Harrison compromises with regard to evidence; he never seems to shrug his shoulders and say, "Well maybe your religion is true". Instead he makes simple observations and encourages the reader to make comparisons with other beliefs from around the world. The book is clearly intended to speak to god-believers and to get them to think more critically about their beliefs. With that in mind the author goes to some effort to avoid insulting them. For example, when interviewing a believer who claims to feel his god when he prays, Guy describes the problems faced by a skeptic.

"I asked the believer who said he had heard a god how he can be sure that he did not imagine it. It was at this point that I began to sense his rising irritation and decided not to push any further. So how does one question this amazing but common claim of personal contact with a god?"

The answer he comes up with becomes a reoccurring theme in the book. There are thousands of gods that people have believed in. Those believers them have had similar experiences and present the same arguments as you - so why should these arguments work better for one god than any other? By treating all religions with equal skepticism and making reasonable comparisons, the arguments for belief are shown to be weak and often flawed.

The book's simple approach has obvious benefits - 50 reasons is very readable. Probably the most readable book I've read on religion or atheism. The author is an accomplished journalist rather than an academic and the style of language is as accessible as you would expect. There are some great insights in the book, many of which will be familiar, but they are expressed with such simplicity and clarity that I found them sticking in my mind. One of my favourite quotes is in chapter 41, "Science can't explain everything".

"Gaps in our scientific knowledge are not shortcomings or failures. They are shining examples of why science is better than religion. Science can't answer everything because science doesn't cheat by providing answers without evidence."

Noting the simple style is not to say that the book lacks real content or research. To his credit, Guy Harrison has obviously done his homework and 50 reasons contains some good examples, research and anecdotes to illustrate his points. A good example is in chapter 10 - "Believing in my god makes me happy". Guy cites research surveying some eighty-thousand people worldwide to discover the world map of happiness. As it turns out, some of the happiest countries are also the least religious.

Critics of 50 reasons have accused it of being superficial and lacking the detail of other similar books. It's true that others can and have written entire books discussing the points which Guy Harrison covers in short, roughly 5-page, chapters. However, that's not what this book is about. To thoroughly debunk all religions ever would require many volumes and probably amount to several lifetimes' work. In any case, as the author points out, the vast majority of believers don't believe because of convoluted apologetic arguments; they may not even be aware of them.

In my opinion, 50 reasons is the ideal book for a non-believer to swap with a believer as part of an attempt to understand each other's points of view. I've previously taken part in book swaps with believers and found them worthwhile. So I look forward to lending 50 reasons to my religious friends; I'd even consider buying additional copies for this purpose.

But is it worth reading, even for the well-read atheist who isn't planning a book-swap? Well, such a person may not learn much about the arguments against religion from the book, but the concise insights, style and tone are worth experiencing. It demonstrates a different approach to debating with believers - one which I think is more suitable to discussions with friends and colleagues, especially in person. In these situations it is more important to keep things simple and amicable, whilst encouraging critical thinking. I must confess that several times I've made valid arguments which were insensitive and relationships have suffered as a result. I think the approach Guy Harrison uses in 50 reasons is a good example which I'd like to emulate in future.