 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | What makes religion so powerful? How does it weave its way into our political system? Why do people believe and follow obvious religious charlatans? What makes people profess deep faith even as they act in ways that betray that faith? What makes people blind to the irrationalities of their religion yet clearly see those of others? If these questions interest you, this book will give you the tools to understand religion and its power in you, your family and your culture. For thousands of years, religion has woven its way through societies and people as if it were part and parcel to that society or person. In large measure it was left unexplained and unchallenged, it simply existed. Those who attempted to challenge and expose religion were often persecuted, excommunicated, shunned, or even executed. It could be fatal to explain that which the church, priest or imam said was unexplainable. Before the germ, viral and parasite theory of disease, physicians had no tools to understand disease and its propagation. Priests told people disease was a result of sin, Satan, evil spirits, etc. With the discovery of microbial actors, scientists gained new tools to study how it spreads. They could study infection strategies, immunity, epidemiology and much more. Suddenly the terrible diseases of the past were understandable. The plagues of Europe, yellow fever, small pox, pneumonia, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. were now removed from the divine and placed squarely in the natural world. This book owes a great deal to Richard Dawkins concept of viruses of the mind, but it seeks to go a step further to personalize the concept of religion as a virus and show how these revolutionary ideas work in everyday life. The paradigm can explain the fundamentalism of your Uncle Ned, the sexual behavior of a fallen mega church minister, the child rearing practices of a Pentecostal neighbor, why 19 men flew planes into the World Trade Center or what motivates a woman to blow herself up in the crowded markets of Baghdad. Learn how religion influences sexuality for its own purposes, how and why it protects pedofile priests and wayward ministers and how it uses survivor guilt to propagate and influence and how it might influence a person's IQ. |
Average Customer Rating:   Excellent! Homerun! This is an excellent book! Eventhough religion has been compared to a biological virus before, Ray takes it to the next level! This book is revolutionary! Applause for the author!!! If you want to understand religion on how it works on the human mind, pick up this book! This is the first time I ever write a review for a book on amazon. It is excellent! I'm cured As a recovering Catholic, I had one "oh yea" moment after another. There is no attack dog sentiment, just thoughtful reality presented in a nonconfrontational style that is easy to read and very reassuring in our ever more fundamentalist society. Please read and pass it on. A good source of novel perspective This book presents an interesting perspective on how religions take hold of people and retain that hold. It seems to be consistent with facts and goes beyond other popular writers of similar material in its explanations. It also makes practical suggestions about the non-confrontational stance a non-believer might take regarding interactions with people who are infected with the virus.
Amazingly, Religion IS a virus I have often thought about how religions have built-in features that promote their own propagation. The metaphor is deep. In fact, it's not just a metaphor at all. If a virus is something that evolves by mutating and multiplying within a population of hosts, then religion IS A VIRUS. And that's Dr. Ray's thesis.
One continuing theme in the book is that religions deactivate the critical-thinking capacities of the infected. Religions frown upon objective questioning of the dogma, and instead insist that faith is a moral virtue.
He also points out the guilt cycle. Religion places unrealistic expectations on us, which makes us feel guilty. Naturally, those same religions also offer a way to relive that guilt. It's one-stop shopping for the gullible.
One of the most striking examples of religion's selfish promotion:
"By actively attacking condom use and birth control [in Africa], the god virus facilitates the HIV virus. The result is a conversion to Catholic sexual practices or death from HIV."
Dr. Ray also discusses crime and religion. As an atheist, I feel good about the fact that atheists comprise about 0.5% of prison inmates, even though we are between 6 and 10% of the population.
There is a chapter on science, and how religions simultaneously use it and contradict it. Dr. Ray points out that many religious proponents "rail against science even as they use the tools that science gave them". And that "religion uses the fruits of science to make the world far more dangerous". "Those who are waiting for heaven don't focus well on the problems of today."
My only ciriticism of the book is that I didn't really get a feel for its organization. The chapter headings divvy up the topics, but I didn't get the sense that each section belonged only in its chapter. But this could be more to do with me than the book.
Final analysis, I really liked the book. Every biologist, evolution enthusiast, and theologian should read it. "Religion is a virus" is not just a metaphor, it's reality.
I also interviewed Dr. Ray on my blog, Intelligent Falling. Exploring the viral spread of religion In The God Virus, Darrel W. Ray presents a reasoned metaphor for the propagation of religious belief. While this is not a new analogy, The God Virus is the first book to deeply explore the concept of religion as a social virus.
Though theists may be offended by the comparison of religious belief to a virus, Ray makes an effort to offer his analysis without rancor. The book is written with the goal of understanding why otherwise intelligent, rational people put faith in the fantastic claims of their religions. It also offers advice for nontheists living in religious societies.
Through his analysis, Ray tackles both religion and the actual belief in a god (or gods). Examples throughout the book strengthen the god-virus analogy by showing striking similarities between theism and the functions of a virus. While The God Virus is a thought provoking read throughout, arguably the most practical information comes later in the book when Ray discusses Understanding and Living With the God Virus (chapter 9) and The Journey: Living a Virus-Free Life (chapter 10). As both a psychologist and an American atheist, Ray has experienced the occasional difficulties in living among theists and offers useful advice for how to maintain relationships despite religious differences.
For nontheists, The God Virus may shed some light on what makes a god (or gods) so appealing to believers and may help with living in a religious society. Ray's approach of responding to the person, not the virus, will likely ease religion-infused conversations and help to respectfully avoid conversion attempts.
While the subject matter may be uncomfortable for some believers, those who are willing to read this book with an open mind may begin to think about some of the practices of their own religion. Regardless of how it affects their personal faith, the concepts presented may help believers become more tolerant of both other religions and non-believers. |  |
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