Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

There are really only a few things you need to know about this book:

“I could have approached this book that way (highly scientific and detailed), But had I done that my audience would have dropped considerable. So I did simplify things.”

No, I swear to God that particular misspelling actually is in the book. But just remember, this book was written for dummies, that will be important later.

“Our new world needs tolerance.”

“When I was religious, I was very arrogant.”

“If you’re on the fundamentalist bandwagon, it’s time to get off……We nonreligious will inhereit the earth, but we won’t share it with fundamentalists.”

“What I hope to have done with this book, however, is undermine and destroy the appeal of religious fundamentalism.”

“To my mind the scientific research suggested to me a logical path – to reject religion. You need not do that. You could choose the best religious alternative to that: liberal religion. I can respect that choice.”

“After people read this book, they should view religious fundamentalists with sympathy and a bit of scorn.”

“Religious fundamentalists are detriments to society and they should be treated as such. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that we round them up and lock them away – that would be awful and is unethical. I’m suggesting that you should think about religious fundamentalists as though they are misogynistic, racist, homophobic Luddites, because they are.”

“…but you can pity then, and frankly, I think it is perfectly fine to tell then that you do. Tell them that you feel sorry for their choice to oppose the qualities of a progressive, modernized, advanced, democratic society. It’s time that religious fundamentalists were considered socially deviant.”

So, am I the only disturbed by these quotes? Tolerance huh? Yes, this is a very tolerant book! It will tell you for 250 pages that the highly religious are dumber, less well off, less educated, more prejudiced, more violent, misogynistic, homophobic, hypocritical, arrogant racists. I wanted to give this book a fair shot, I really did. The author is a former Mormon, and so am I. I was a fourth generation Mormon, born into the faith and I stayed long past the time I started to have doubts. I finally left the religion and frankly it left a bad taste in my mouth. So I wanted to agree with this author! And I couldn’t! Because I have never read a more prejudiced and hateful book by a more arrogant author in all my life.

This book was purported to be about the social science of how and why people are religious, and whether or not religion is really such a benefit to people’s lives as it claims to be. This intrigued me. But what I got was “look at this graph, this is what that graph tells us. now look at this graph, this is what it tells us. shit, religious people suck!” And rinse and repeat for 200 something pages. I learned nothing about religion and everything I ever needed to know about the author’s character.

Now, by this point the author will probably tell you one of two things about me (and he admits it in his book). If I don’t agree with his points then:

A. I am a religious fundamentalist who just is socially deviant and can’t understand simple logic, even though the book was written for dummies. Everyone should point and laugh at the idiot with a God.

B. I didn’t read the book all the way through and so therefore I failed to grasp it.

Let’s address this. First, I did read this pile of garbage until the very last sentence. And I learned nothing and have thoroughly wasted my time. Also I am one of the people who would be classed as “non religious” in his book. I am now a Pagan and have been since a few years after I left the Mormon church. I have faith in many things and I practice my faith in private, but I do not participate in a religion with others.

Save yourself the time and find an actual book about the science of religion, because this one is just thinly veiled hateful spew about religious people and religion in general. Oh, who am I kidding, there is no veil!

"...But you can pity them (religious people) and, frankly, I think it is perfectly fine to tell then that you do. Tell them that you feel sorry for their choice to oppose the qualities of a progressive, modernized, advanced, democratic society."

Um....kay.

"It's time that religious fundamentalists were considered socially deviant."

Ummmmmmm.....kay.

""Since it's rather difficult to ascertain whether or not someone is a religious moderate, it's probably best to save your scorn for religious fundamentalists and simply let these people be."

Ummmmmm, I just have no words. He literally gave religions a grade and marked several of them as failing...at everything, including life. The arrogance of this author and this stupid book is astounding. If religious people are social deviants in his book then I don't want to be part of his society.

This just keeps getting worse and worse. Now it's devolved into "see graph A, this is what it tells us. now see graph b, this is what it tells us."

And all still massively anti-religious. I get it alright author, you hate religion.

More things that make religious people bad, no shocker there.

1. I actually found this line in the book, "religion, unlike computer manufacturing doesn't require anything toxic to create (hot air and false promises, alas, are not toxic).  Oh yeah, this is a totally scientific book!

2. Religious people hate the environment and thing that manmade global warming is bullcrap. But wait, since much of the evidence supporting this theory was proven to be false, misrepresented, and blatantly fake then this doesn't really sound so nutty does it?

3. Religious people are way more prejudiced than nonreligious people.

4. Religious people really hate women. They have the nerve to believe outrageous things like that kids are better off being cared for by a parent than someone the parents hired to care for them. That's just outrageous! You need to shut the hell up on that sir! How radical!  But on the other hand, apparently women are more religious than men overall despite religions being so woman hating...weird how that happens.

More things I've learned in this totally scientific and mostly unbiased book.

1. Religious people are way more arrogant than nonreligious people, who are in fact not arrogant at all.

2. Religious people are way more immoral than nonreligious people.

3. Religious people are way more likely to beat their children and be bad parents than nonreligious people.

4. Religious people are as likely as nonreligious people to go to jail, but nonreligious countries have lower crime rates and more social justice *eye roll here*

5. Are we noticing any patterns here? Selectively chosen surveys and data sets to confirm his idea that religion is bad and religious people are bad people.

PS. Oh yeah, I forgot the one where religious people are way more likely to push marriage on their constituents to get more asses in the seats and promote the religion, despite knowing that it will end badly.