The Happy Atheist

June 3, 2013
In this collection of punchy essays, Myers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota (he also happens to be the voice behind the popular blog Pharyngula), takes on what he deems the many contradictions and absurdities of religious thought. As Myers puts it, “religion is a parasite of the mind that makes people do stupid things and think stupid thoughts,” and it “breeds the most disgustingly vile haters in our country.” Written in an accessible, informal style, the author lashes out at the Catholic Church for its sexual-abuse scandals, at the faulty science employed by anti-abortion activists, and at proponents of intelligent design. Particularly scathing is his dismissal of Christianity as a fundamentally misogynist, patriarchal system, in which “women are treated as chattel to be abused and misused.” Myers is able to deftly present serious scientific and philosophical counterarguments to belief in God, but he also acknowledges the necessity of humor—of fighting fire with fire: after all, “religions sure do promote some goofy stuff.” Effectively kicking the legs out from beneath the wobbly logic that undergirds religious thought, he ultimately argues that “meaning is derived from the reality of what we see and feel, not from some convoluted vapor and self-serving puffery about the abstract concept of ‘God.’ ” Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman Inc.

June 15, 2013
This series of scattershot attacks on all varieties of religion suggests that it's as pointless to argue with a true nonbeliever as it is with a true believer. Myers (Biology/Univ. of Minnesota, Morris) is preaching to the choir here, that choir of atheists who have total contempt for "the folly of faith" and who believe that "what religion does is make people believe ludicrously silly things, substitute dogma for reason and thought, and sink into self-destructive obsessions." Readers need not be believers to find Myers' position reductive, as it dismisses not only the fundamentalists who are such easy targets for his ridicule, but also fellow scientists who have somehow been able to reconcile their field with their faith. "Science and religion are incompatible in all the ways that count," he writes. "Science works. Religion doesn't." His rigidity permits no tolerance, no sense of wonder at anything that lies beyond human reason, no gray area or shades of interpretation. Even a nondoctrinaire writer on comparative religion such as Karen Armstrong receives rebuke for her "pretentious preciousness" as a former nun who "has rediscovered religion as a nebulous source of vague meaning." Most of these essays have the length and depth of blog entries, and they mainly seem designed to provoke anyone who isn't as disdainful as the author. Representative chapter titles include "The Top Ten Reasons Religion Is Like Pornography," "Afterlife? What Afterlife?" and "The Big Pink Guy in the Sky." The points Myers makes about religion have been made before, and the humor to which he pays lip service rarely lightens the repetitive load. Unlikely to change a single mind or cause even the slightest shift in perspective.

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August 1, 2013

Myers (biology, Univ. of Minnesota), author of the blog Pharyngula, is an excellent example of vocal atheists, ready to take up the torch from the so-called Four Horsemen (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens). This book is a series of amusing essays against religious belief. Like the Four Horsemen, Myers tends to assault the easiest and most ridiculous targets in religious life and take them for good samples of the whole of it. The spiritual seeking that renders over-literal readings of religious texts, shared by both too many believers and too many atheists, eludes him. VERDICT A ragout of witty essays that will enchant Myers's fellow atheists and interest others.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
Myers' exploration of his atheism is brilliantly designed and executed to entertain and enlighten, but also to be shocking; for some, it will surely be hurtful. He uses words almost as weapons, calling religion a kind of parasite of the mind, calling God a lazy invisible man in the sky. But he's not just doing this to be insulting; Myers has a plan. He wants us to be appalled, to be angeredto be so steamed that we're compelled to try to refute his arguments, which are, it must be said, usually cogent and well presented. (Heaven, he says, no matter which way you look at it, would strip us of our humanity.) Readers of the author's popular blog Pharyngula, from which many of this book's chapters are drawn, know him to be outspoken and a bit on the antagonistic side, but even they might be surprised at the linguistic and thematic extremes he goes to here. This is a very entertaining and thought-provoking book, but it's definitely not for all tastes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)