To Pray Is Not the Way - How to Be an Atheist

Religion - the Most Dangerous Addiction (Intelligent Atheism)

By: Lindsay U.A. Harlan

Narrated by: Jeremy Zentner

Length: 1 hr and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

Inside, you'll discover three controversial discussions:

Part one: "Religion Is a Dangerous Addiction"

Regardless of whatever prejudgments you may have, I commend you for opening this educated rant at all. I’m especially impressed if you are of the religious persuasion and therefore want to make one point irrevocably clear before I get into the meat of the message. There is a significant difference between religion and faith. Religion and faith may coexist, but they are not linked to one another as strongly as some people tend to think. Yes, you need faith if you’re going to practice religion, but you don’t need religion to have faith. It’s easy to blur the lines between the two, but you don’t have to have religion to believe in something unproven.  

Part two: "Is Religion a Genetic Flaw?"

Religion versus science. It’s one of the most heated arguments of the last few centuries. Religion has felt the heat of scientific advancement since Galileo backed the idea of heliocentrism, the belief - now known to be fact - that the Earth revolves around the sun. Galileo would stand trial, be threatened with torture, and spend the rest of his days under house arrest for his belief. It’s just one example of many that show just how arrogant religion can be in promoting ignorance.  

Part three: "Coming Out of the Atheist Closet"

We live in an odd time where the word tolerance is much misunderstood and selfishly used. In the US at least, we’re continually being told to have an understanding of other people’s life decisions, yet lawsuits to the contrary continue to crop up on a daily basis. One of the best examples of this double standard has to do with the ever-pressing issue of homosexuality. We’re supposed to be tolerant of homosexuals but not allow them to marry one another? How does refusing one’s rights equate to tolerance?

©2018 Lindsay U.A. Harlan (P)2018 Lindsay U.A. Harlan

Needs a rewrite

Halfway through and I must say that there are better books out there covering topics concerning atheism. This one has unsubstantiated assertions (some of which may be true, but the author provides no evidence), and halfway through has not discussed prayer yet (despite the title). The author seems overly concerned with something they call "Religious addiction" (not well explained), which has nothing to do with the book's title nor what the Publisher's Summary says the book is about (although there's a tip-off in the blurb at the top of the cover image). The author states (without supporting evidence) that people who are religion addicts will behave in certain ways, and prescribes a step-by-step guide to convincing such people how to give up their religion (things like saying to just talk to them logically), steps which anyone who has spoken to the devout knows will not work like the author states. The author (or at least the publisher) seems to know this, as the first thing the book addresses is a disclaimer that they are not to be held responsible for any of the advice in the book. Overall, the book reads like a self-published thought experiment by someone without a lot of evidence to back up assertions (at least the first half, anyway; I'm giving up and returning it).

The narrator does an ok job, but mispronounces some common words like "vehemently." Also pronounces "cult" and "dull" as "colt" and "dole," but that may just be a result of the reader's natural dialect rather than a mispronunciation.