Atheism Kills: The Dangers of a World Without God - and Cause for Hope: The Dangers of a World Without God — and Cause for Hope

I got halfway through this disaster of a book before giving up finding anything reasonable. He lumps radical Muslims in with atheists--ridiculous. Radical Islam is the true form of Islam, same "God" and characters as Old Testament, just a different false messiah. The author thinks that only Christians and Jews (small part of world population) have morality. He thinks Christianity stopped slavery in 19th century--laughable. If Lincoln hadn't gotten back into politics, slavery would have continued in this country into the 20th century, just like it did in some backward Muslim countries. The southern slave owners in this country were Christian and churches enabled the disgusting dehumanizing practice, for God's sake!!!Chapter 2 has a section "Argument For Atheism" which is brilliant (the only intelligent part of book). Then a section "Argument Against Atheism" that is idiotic, claiming that free will means doing whatever you want, you can ignore consequences, morality is absent if you're a rational person. Is this a grade-school essay with no knowledge of retaliation by peers or civil authority? Besides basic human morality that is inborn, adults know that there are consequences like beatings, shooting, stabbing, civil penalties and jail time--THAT is the deterrent to indiscriminate violence, not fear of divine retribution or morality learned from some religious scam. As Marina Diamandis lyrics say in "Savages"-- "I'm not afraid of God, I am afraid of Man".But, the book is supposed to prove that atheism kills. His proof apparently is the same old junk science--dictators and blood thirsty monsters like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Castro, Che, etc. They were born without morals (even if raised Catholic--Hitler, Castro, Che), but they had armies of men and citizens protecting them that were not atheists, I guarantee most were Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. The problem is that belief in some ancient book like the Torah/Bible/Koran that portrays scenarios that nobody can defend and passages so ambiguous as to be interpreted a thousand different ways doesn't make you moral any more than not believing makes you immoral, or turn you into a Hitler.What the author is trying to say, and takes forever making his point is: morality is impossible without Christianity or Judaism. That is just so juvenile and shallow and wrong that it doesn't deserve commenting on. Then, he blames atheism for everything the immoral power mad leaders do--juvenile, shallow, idiotic.Christians destroyed unknown millions of natives in the Western hemisphere from 15th century on.Christians enslaved millions of Africans and clergy supported them both in the North and South USA.Spanish and American Christians killed unknown thousands of Philippinos in order to "civilize" them.Did they do those atrocities because God told them to or allowed them to? Some may have, but most practiced slavery (or killed and robbed natives) for earthy pleasure and treasure, apparently morality is subjective.Did "God" punish the Europeans or the slave owners? I see no evidence of divine intervention in all of human history, unless you count "acts of God" as divine intervention. An 'act of God' (hurricane, tornado, flood, fire, etc.) destroys lives and churches in the path no matter their belief system; atheist, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, whatever.Did Hitler destroy only religious people? He destroyed ANYBODY that got in his way, but he singled out complete Jewish civilian families for gas chambers because he was raised Catholic and Catholics blamed Jews for the worlds ills. Plus, Christians and Muslims assisted (or at least stood aside, mostly) the German SS in their genocide.The author glosses over the hundreds of thousands lives lost over seven centuries of Inquisitions over the world. He ignores untold hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Europe over centuries of feuds between Catholics and Protestants.This author tries to argue that the Bible shouldn't have been intimidating to the populace since there are no intimidating characters in it--so completely ridiculous. A 'God' that punishes "sins", a made-up scenario of an abusive afterlife, and church leaders that will burn to death infidels and heretics--THAT was intimidation. Until the printing press and general education of the masses, Christians and Jews ruled the Western world. Were the Middle Ages theocracies Utopian? NOT!! Ask Joan of Arc, or Mary Queen of Scots, or King Henry VIII's 2nd wife Anne Boleyn, or----.As Richard Dawkins says "with or without religion, good people will do good, bad people will do bad, it takes religion to make good people do bad". THAT is pure genius. Dawkins, people. Not mish-mash nonsense like this book.Atheism doesn't kill, people kill for many reasons, some kill because their 'God' insists (Islam), or allows (Judaism) it. Read more

This book is a joke. It is FULL of logical fallacies like quoting out of context, equivocation, and setting up a straw man. It was written by someone that promotes conservatism without analysis. I do not recommend this book.

Hi. Atheist here. Sorry to make any of you feel threatened. I promise I won't kill you, or the world. I go to church with my mom on Christmas. I donate money to charity when I can afford to. I participate in canned food drives, buy Girl Scout cookies, volunteer when I find the time. I pick up garbage when I'm out walking my neighborhood. Fred Rogers is a personal hero of mine. I give loose money to beggars if I have any on me. And I don't go around claiming that Christianity Kills, or spout off about the Dangers of a World With God. I'd say most of my friends are atheists, but most of my family and coworkers are Christians. Would you believe we all get along and love one another?Maybe instead of buying (or writing) books about how people who think differently than you are "killing" things, you could have a sense of togetherness, human brotherhood (you know, like the Bible mentions once or twice), and make friends with an atheist, or at least pick their brain a little. You might not agree about whether or not God exists, but I bet you're on the same page about soup kitchens and the basic value of human life and dignity. Why not save your money, and instead of giving it to hatred-stoking charlatans just out to make a quick buck off your fear of the Other, save that money and do something nice with it, like buying the meal of the person behind you in a drive-through or something.

Mr. Lurie is wrong on one main point. The dangers of the political left are espoused not only by most atheists, but by many religious. If atheism vanished, that would not eliminate the wrong headed thinking that is tearing down western civilization. The point cannot be made too often that those who pride themselves in being logical believe in a great many things without evidence and with contrary evidence.Mr. Lurie is on firm ground when discussing the benefits of religion to western civilization. Sadly, I am not hopeful about the future. Mr. Lurie wisely sidesteps the issue of who is right, because either proposition requires faith, and is irrelevant to the author's premise. We can see the fall of civilization with the rise of modern atheism and Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

This Stanford University trained lawyer tells why he left atheism and became a Christian. He realizes that evolutionism is the doorway to atheism, and gives many reasons why Darwinism is not, and can not, be true. He also shows the harm of the former consensus science of eugenics and the harm this worldview has done. He gives many examples where Christians at great personal risk did what was moral even if it would have been to their benefit to do the opposite. He also covers Progressivism and how its goal was not to look in the past for wisdom, nor to the heavens, but rathe to the self only. Then Lurie documents the harm that this idea, which sounds good and true, has done. He covers a lot of ground but covers the high points to make his case. I read the negative reviews before writing my review, and can conclude that their main goal is to convince readers not to buy this book. Read it for yourself and then judge. This is one of the best books I have read in a while. It is a breezy read, full of good illustrations to make his points.

I can only conclude that those who have raved about this book do so out of simple acceptance of its premise (that God exists and atheism makes people kill) rather than being moved by persuasive argument. The writing is quite basic and without nuance and the author merely shoves his point across with a series of uncorroborated anecdotes, seeking to do what religion has always done best; scare people into submission. Not worth the price of admission.

Much of what he says can be found in other books but there are a few things that stand out as noteworthy. He talks about how atheism inevitably leads to the removing of distinctions that help us give value and meaning to life. He points out that without God distinctions do not matter, particularly the distinction between good and evil, holy and unholy. In that context, he makes the point that "those who are kind to the cruel will soon be cruel to the kind... When you have little or no ability to discern the valuable and the holy from the trivial and the unholy, there is nothing to be truly passionate about, nothing to consider meaningful. It’s all a meaningless morass, like the strewn rubble of buildings mixed together following an earthquake: yes, it’s all the same material, but they’re just not what they used to be. Without God, there can never be anything meaningful. This section alone is worth the read.

I think, besides religious people, it takes only intellectually honest ones to agree with the writer. He exposes in a clear and simple manner how it was the lack of a value system, culturally called judeo-christian values, that has caused mass-murderer dictators like Stalin, Pol Pot, and so on.As an atheist myself, I have found that many arguments mr. Barak Lurie gave, in behalf of the religious mind, were rather shallow.Overall, I enjoyed the reading, it served as a good wake-up call, which in many parts of the book made me re-assess my core values, and see that just like religion, which throughout history has killed many, atheism, when coupled with the sheer lack of a value system, can lead to even uglier things.I do not condone with many points Mr. Barak Lurie raised in this book, as I stick to the point that one can still live a moral life, if he decides to stick with some moral code system, but as I said before, and Mr. Lurie himself points: it takes one intellectually honest person to admit these things.I fully recommend the book, even though I see that many atheists out there will refuse to admit that atheism, without a moral code, is just as good as nothing. Just as well as many atheists out there will refuse to admit the historical fact that the western moral code system is the judeo-christian one.

Amazing book, really shows how bankrupt the atheist worldview is compare to the Christian worldview, it's gonna make them angry 😡