God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong

In this biting but crude atheist manifesto, Joshi, author of Atheism: A Reader, laments the current lack of ridicule and derision for religious pieties in our""overly polite and deferential age."" Hence these venomous essays attacking defenders of religion, including William F. Buckley (a""crippled"" mind""more to be pitied than scorned""), Annie Dillard (""moony and muddle-headed""), Reynolds Price (""leave this dunce cap on""), Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (""descended from a sober scientist to an hysterical special pleader"") and Neale Donald Walsch (""poor deluded fellow""). Along the way, Joshi excoriates the lapses in reasoning and evidence in such doctrines as the immortality of the soul, the benevolence of God and the authority of scripture, and underlines the incompatibility between religion and science. Far from being a foundation for public morals, he asserts, religious precepts buttress such ills as sexism and cruelty to animals and are antithetical to an enlightened society. Joshi often comments perceptively, as in an essay on William James, on the rhetorical strategies with which apologists for religion evade the challenge of science and secularism. But the book's focus on disputing religion's""truth-claims"" leads to a fixation on niceties of logic--Joshi likens himself to Star Trek's skeptical Mr. Spock, and spends six bizarre pages demonstrating that there is no logical reason to oppose""the extirpation of humanity""--that ultimately seems wrongheaded. For most people, religious faith is a consolation, not a syllogism, but Joshi's frustration at this truth curdles into disdain for""the stupidity of the common people"" who lack the scientific education to overcome their childhood brainwashing with religious dogma. God's defenders deserve a better critique than this misanthropic rant.