Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 264 pages
• Published by: Arcade Publishing January 16, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1559708506
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1559708500
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 12.8 ounces

Product Description
This tightly argued, hugely controversial work convincingly demonstrates how the world's three major monotheistic religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-have attempted to suppress knowledge, science, pleasure, and desire, often condemning nonbelievers to death. If Nietzsche proclaimed the "Death of God," Onfray starts from the premise that not only is God still very much alive, but increasingly controlled by fundamentalists who pose a danger to the human race. Documenting the ravages from religious intolerance over the centuries, the author makes a strong case against the three religions for demanding faith, belief, obedience and submission, and for extolling the "next life" at the expense of the here and now. Not since Nietzsche has a work so groundbreaking and explosive appeared to question the role of the world's dominant religions. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About The Author
Michael Onfray was born in 1959. The prolific author of over thirty books, he teaches philosophy at the Free University of Caen and lives in Paris. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (Paperback) *This absolutely excellent work is a very precise deconstruction of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, charting the historic origins and evolution of these three closely related monotheisms. *The original title in French is "Traite d'Atheologie", which accurately describes the contents. Here in Canada, the English translation's title is "In Defense of Atheism", which is unfortunate, the tone of the book being far from defensive (It's rather scathingly critical). *Onfray is a very popular French philosopher, and I tremendously enjoyed his literary style: it's both flowery and ... meaty. *The author obviously spent a tremendous amount of time pouring over the so-called "holy" texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (and other books). There are no factual errors in his work to my knowledge. *Critics complain Onfray ignores the good side of religion. Well, he doesn't: he just dismisses it as relatively insignificant compared to its atrocious side. *Onfray interestingly observes that even though our western societies are now secular, they are still pretty much stuck with judeo-christian values (See for example the institution of marriage or the bioethics debates). *I highly recommend this book, that I just finished reading today in its original language.