Introduction

Tom Stayer has gained a lot of attention by spending $20 million promoting the case to impeach Donald Trump. It’s not uncommon for the one percent class to spend heavily on the passions they embrace. In 2016, donations from the 50 richest Americans totaled $50.7 billion. Unfortunately, I’m a few billion short of funding a campaign of any kind, but if reviewing this book results in a windfall of epic proportions, I’ll dedicate a good percentage of my well-earned profits to sponsoring the distribution of “The illusion of certainty” to the nation’s fundamentalist Christians. It would be very good for America to rescue these decent people from their grotesque superstitions and, frankly, religiously inspired madness.

One reviewer called “The Illusion of Certainty” (hereinafter “The Illusion”) a “wicked book,” albeit an “appealingly” one. I disagree with the wicked part. I think biblical literalists and other fundamentalists married to the flaming nonsense of so many improbabilities (e.g., a young earth, a literal interpretation of sacred fairy tales, creationism, and a variety of mind-boggling nonsense such as miracles, original sin, eternal torture, transubstantiation, saints, angels, demons, etc.) might have doubts about their faith, IF a way could be discovered to include “The Illusion” in their reading lists.

Shadows of the Wizard of Oz

In Frank Baum’s classic tale, Dorothy scolded the Wizard of Oz with these words: “You are a very, very bad man.” These words came to mind when I came across the reviewer’s reference to “The Illusion” as a wicked book. If the Wizard read the book and came across that review, I think he would defend it like this: “No, dear. It’s a very good book. Christian fundamentalism is just a very bad religion.”

Structure

“The illusion” is organized in five parts, divided into 40 short chapters over 381 pages. This allows the reader to progress rapidly, in awe and wonder at the gullibility of a large segment of our fellow men and women deceived beyond belief by religion. Featured chapters deal with the origins of religions in general and fundamentalist Christianity in particular, the illusion of creationism, how the scriptures are worldly, flawed and unreliable, as well as arguments for and against the gods and even a bit of prophecy on the positive side: that “this illusion has no future”. As much as I would like to believe it, this was the only section of the book that I found unconvincing. But James Houk will not be the first Christian scholar to optimistically predict its downfall. Even Robert Green Ingersoll was wrong.

Faith is the heart and soul, the foundation of all religions. It is based on hope alone: ​​it does not require or invite any proof, evidence of any kind, data, logic, or reason. It is immune to objections based on common sense. The author states that “faith is essentially unabashed optimism in the absence of supporting evidence.”

a bit of perspective

There are more than 10,500 religions in the world today; probably an equal number of religions have come and gone during the 200,000 year span that modern humans have been on the planet. No one has any idea how many religions might have existed during the roughly six million years that our non-modern ancestors moved among the trees and roamed the plains. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were more than a few ancient religions that made a lot more sense than contemporary Christianity, as interpreted by the fundies.

With so many options, why do you assume that Americans are overwhelmingly (80%) Christian? They are largely Christian for the same reason that 99% of those born in Turkey are Muslim, 81% of those born in Thailand are Buddhist: it’s what Houk calls “the law of geography.” It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Religion is an educational, cultural virus, transmitted daily for almost two decades. It’s a miracle that anyone ever breaks free, and an even greater mystery that at least 25 percent of adults today claim to be free of religion, or “none.”

Summary

Faith is a mental toxin that paralyzes logic, reason, science, data, and common sense. And it is the heart and the “soul” (whatever that is), the foundation and the bastille that allows religion.

If you plan to be born again, apply to Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Australia or Iceland, which are among the least religious countries in the world and are all doing relatively well in terms of democratic governments and high quality of life. Or stay with the US, if that’s what you want to repeat. Just choose wisely: find parents who support reason, science, evidence, free thought, and, for additional protection, members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and/or the American Humanist Association . The chances of being subjected to Christian indoctrination or other forms of religious fundamentalism if you do so are as close to zero as you can get.

Five stars for “The Illusion of Certainty” by Frank Houk.