Michael Parenti

God and His Demons

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A noted author and activist brings his critical acumen and rhetorical skills to bear in this polemic against the dark side of religion. Unlike some popular works by stridently outspoken atheists, this is not a blanket condemnation of all believers. Rather the author's focus is the heartless exploitation of faithful followers by those in power, as well as sectarian intolerance, the violence against heretics and nonbelievers, and the reactionary political and economic collusion that has often prevailed between the upper echelons of church and state. Parenti notes the deleterious effects of past theocracies and the threat to our freedoms posed by present-day fundamentalists and theocratic reactionaries. He discusses how socially conscious and egalitarian minded liberal religionists have often been isolated and marginalized by their more conservative (and better financed) coreligionists. Finally, he documents the growing strength of secular freethinkers who are doing battle against the intolerant theocratic usurpers in public life.Historically anchored yet sharply focused on the contemporary scene, this eloquent indictment of religion's dangers will be welcomed by committed secular laypersons and progressive religionists alike.
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324 printed pages
Original publication
2010
Publication year
2010
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Quotes

  • 302 Rizvi Khadijahas quoted2 years ago
    As much of this book suggests, perhaps we should not blame God for the endless religious turmoil but his creators, those self-appointed holy hucksters who deign to speak on his behalf. God himself is remote, removed, invisible, inaudible, and unknowable. He does nothing to us, nothing for or against us, because he probably does not exist, neither in the way he has been fashioned by his shills nor in any way that allows us to comprehend him (or her or it)
  • 302 Rizvi Khadijahas quoted2 years ago
    To win our unswerving devotion why doesn't God communicate with us directly? The holy writings of the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim faiths reveal that God is obsessed with getting us to believe in him. Why then does he do so little to make his presence known? How can we believe in his existence unless we have evidence of it? The “evidence” we do have comes from only the select few to whom he purportedly speaks: prophets, preachers, priests, pastors, popes, and patriarchs. He, who has a matchless capacity to transmit his message instantaneously and simultaneously to everyone in the world, has chosen a sadly piecemeal and unsure mode of communication.

    Religious commentator Adrian Reddy notes,

    In addition to being extremely slow and inefficient, the use of prophets suffers from the drawback that each prophet has to establish his own credibility. In ancient times, as now, there [has been] no way…for a person to distinguish reliably between a real prophet and a false one and, as a result, false prophets confuse the picture even more. So the question is: why would God risk the rejection of His words by choosing a method of revelation which lacks credibility because it is so obviously open to fakery and self-delusion?
  • 302 Rizvi Khadijahas quoted2 years ago
    Those who profit most from the ongoing social order will propagate an idealized image of the dominant culture, passing over its murky aspects. Culture often operates as a cover for a host of grim realities and grave injustices, benefiting a privileged portion of society
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