Unbelievable

The Greek word "atheoi" from a manuscript of a New Testament epistle. It's best translated as "the godless." Image courtesy of wikipedia.

During Slacker Week, El Cabrero is reviewing last year's reading material. And no discussion of that would be complete without mentioning some recent books attacking religion.

For the record, El Cabrero is a fairly religious person, although I probably won't make Eagle Scout. Still, given all the mischief and worse unleashed on the world in the name of religion, I don't begrudge those who give it an occasional whack.

Thanks to local public libraries, I was able to listen to two such books on CD. Ironically, both times I was driving some distance to attend one or another religious function. There has been a spate of atheist books of late but the two I spent time with were The God Delusion by British scientist Richard Dawkins of "selfish gene" fame and God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.

Both were lively and entertaining, although I found Dawkins to be the more persuasive of the two, not that I was won over. That would be too much of a leap of faith for me.

And in all fairness, I don't think it's fair to say that religion is responsible for all the evil in the world--I'd say it's closer to 70 or 80 percent. Besides, people use whatever material is at hand to justify their nasty deeds, religious or otherwise (although religion does work pretty well in that department).

NO LINKS OR SNARKY COMMENTS ABOUT CURRENT EVENTS TODAY--I'm too busy slacking. Maybe tomorrow.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: GOD ONLY KNOWS