Book Review - Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds

Title: Book Review - Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
Author: John Fugelsang
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I absolutely loved this book. John Fugelsang is an awesome author and I loved how he used humor to show how hypocritical religion can be. I am not religious although I consider myself to be a spiritual person. I realize many people need religion as a way to guide their lives and for that reason, I think religion can be a good thing. The teachings of Jesus are something everyone should try to abide by. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening in America today. Christianity has been hijacked by a relatively small faction and turned into a weapon for controlling people. This book should be required reading, especially for those people who consider themselves Christian but for some reason still like Trump. 

Description (Audible): In the spirit of George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens, the son of a former Catholic nun and a Franciscan brother delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred

Description (ChatGPT): Fugelsang, a comedian, broadcaster and self-described “son of a former nun and Franciscan brother,” turns his attention to how he believes Christianity—particularly the right‐wing, fundamentalist version—has been co-opted as a vehicle for politics, power and exclusion rather than the original message of compassion and justice. The book works through common debates (abortion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, guns) and examines how he argues they’ve been mis-represented in the name of “Christianity,” then offers scriptural and moral counters grounded in what he sees as the “true” teachings of Jesus. 

Book Review - Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Title: Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
Author: Sam Harris 

My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍

My Review: I consider myself to be a spiritual person. However, I do not consider myself to be a religous person. I feel that sprituality is an evolutionary process that happens throughout a persons life. I haven't  reached  a state of nirvana yet but I do feel content with my current beliefs. I liked this book and feel that it helped me better understand how it's possible to live a spiritual life outside religion.

 
Description (Audible): For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’ new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.  From multiple New York Times best-selling author, neuroscientist, and "new atheist" Sam Harris, Waking Up is for the 30 percent of Americans who follow no religion, but who suspect that Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history could not have all been epileptics, schizophrenics, or frauds. Throughout the book, Harris argues that there are important truths to be found in the experiences of such contemplatives - and, therefore, that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow. Waking Up is part seeker’s memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris - a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic - could write it.

Description (ChatGPT): Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris is a blend of neuroscience, philosophy, and personal insight that explores how people can achieve spiritual well-being without relying on religious beliefs. Harris presents meditation and mindfulness as tools for self-discovery and inner peace, offering a rational and secular path to experiencing deeper states of consciousness.

Book Review - Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion

Title: Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
Author: Michael Taylor 
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍
My Review: Pending...

Description (Audible): When the twelve-year-old daughter of a British carpenter pulled some strange-looking bones from the country's southern shoreline in 1811, few people dared to question that the Bible told the accurate history of the world. But Mary Anning had in fact discovered the "first" ichthyosaur, and over the next seventy-five years—as the science of paleontology developed, as Charles Darwin posited radical new theories of evolutionary biology, and as scholars began to identify the internal inconsistencies of the Scriptures—everything changed. Beginning with the archbishop who dated the creation of the world to 6 p.m. on October 22, 4004 BC, and told through the lives of the nineteenth-century men and women who found and argued about these seemingly impossible, history-rewriting fossils, Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind's place in the world.

Description (ChatGPT): Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion is a rollicking ride through history’s most jaw-dropping clash—dinosaurs versus dogma. Michael J. Boulter digs into the bones (pun intended) of how science and religion have tussled over the truth of our past, all while dinosaurs lurk in the background. It’s part adventure, part intellectual brawl, and all fascinating. If you’ve ever wondered how we went from believing in fire-breathing dragons to discovering fossils that challenge the status quo, this book will show you the jaw-dropping journey.