JULIO

I must say that I'm a Christian atheist. I was raised as a Christian and became an atheist as I became more knowledgeable on history and science. It’s a path people must follow on their own. I don’t think arguing with someone will convince them to drop their religious beliefs. Even though you won’t won the discussion, you might plant a seed that may make people search for the truth themselves.


This book presents great arguments against how much time is wasted on religious practices and how prejudice from religious sources negatively impacts our society. The arguments are elegant and presented with a scientific approach.


On the down side, I don’t appreciate the sarcastic tone against religion, especially noted in the first two chapters. That might prevent people from having an open mind throughout the rest of the book. Also some arguments are sort of incomplete or use religious extremists as the only example.


Anyway, this is a must read if you are on the fence. Being on the fence probably means that you have a feeling that it can’t be true but haven’t exactly written down a list of plausible versus implausible arguments.


Two Suggested audible (even better if listened to before this one):
1. On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, Narrated by Richard Dawkins (ABRIDGED)
2. The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, by Robert Wright, Narrated by Greg Thornton

I'm not able to recommend this book.

No, this one in particular was just bad story telling.

The narration was good. No complains. Julia's voice is quite enjoyable.

The story did not develop as one would expect and I didn't see this book going anywhere interesting.

Skip this title.

This is a great and insightful introduction to evolutionary psychology. I'd recommend everyone to read it. There's a lot of knowledge from that discipline that is useful in our daily lives and that help understand what is known as the human nature.

While listening to the audio book, I found myself wanting to underline a lot of the contents. I think I will buy the print version as well.

Thumbs up to the narrator. He deserves special congratulations. Too bad there are no more books in the audible library narrated by him.

This book is 100% worth your time and money.

The firs half of the story is awesome. It is very plausible and well written. The scientific fiction is nearly perfect in the sense that it doesn't harm the laws of physics we know. It's all very plausible and that makes it a great story.

The second half is nonsense, and unfortunately contradicts a lot of things mentioned in the first half. I'm very against the anthropocentric view of the universe, so the second part of the book was a disappointment to me. I really wish the author had developed the story differently. Still, no one can he's not very talented and this book isn't a great science fiction story.

Sam Harris has a great point and I totally agree with the principle that science should provide guidance to moral values. I also agree that religion does much to deprive humanity of good moral values and science development.

The book offers a great concept but falls short on providing substance to its arguments. I had high expectations given the reviews here, when they even compared this work with the work of Kant, Descartes or Rousseau. It is definitely no such kind of work. Most of the examples are extremes and not the usual case. Sadists and people that take advantage of others will be present in any culture, even one driven by science and knowledge.

The book is too focused in the USA and too much time is spent criticizing the current Obama administration team. Also, I was very disappointed in the author for the failure to realize that the war against terrorism is a resource dispute, like any other war in history, and that Islamic radicalism is a tool for manipulating poor people into fighting *back* the many western invasions (direct or indirect) in the middle east for the control of the oil production.

I believe the author should embrace a social experience trip and go live 6 months in Europe, China and Afghanistan, each. It will provide different perspectives and better arguments for the ideal of a humanity that does not recur to mysticism and instead uses science to explore the world and define our moral codes.

I'm afraid that liberating itself from religion is outside of the capabilities of homo sapiens. It could possibly come with the next species we possibly genetically engineer it ourselves in the next centuries.

Overall, the book was disappointing but sill an interesting read. I hope someone else with more cultural background does a better job of exploring these ideas. They are great indeed.