I was waiting for it to come out on kindle - picked it up a few days ago and have been reading it on my iPad. The thing I found interesting was the discussion of religion as culture. For most people, a religious attachment is best thought of as a cultural attachment.
Asking someone to change their culture is clearly a big deal. It may be more productive to find ways to help people understand that culture and belief can be separated. While belief can be punctured rapidly, which is why atheists are "scary and dangerous", cultural change does not have to happen, and can shift slowly from dogma based to a rational base at whatever rate you like.
What I mean is that someone may read this book, lose their belief, but keep and appreciate their existing culture. Then with a more open mind, over time, explore variations and alternative cultures if they want to.
4 comments:
Good! I just downloaded it on my Kindle. Thanks for the heads up!
I was waiting for it to come out on kindle - picked it up a few days ago and have been reading it on my iPad. The thing I found interesting was the discussion of religion as culture. For most people, a religious attachment is best thought of as a cultural attachment.
Asking someone to change their culture is clearly a big deal. It may be more productive to find ways to help people understand that culture and belief can be separated. While belief can be punctured rapidly, which is why atheists are "scary and dangerous", cultural change does not have to happen, and can shift slowly from dogma based to a rational base at whatever rate you like.
What I mean is that someone may read this book, lose their belief, but keep and appreciate their existing culture. Then with a more open mind, over time, explore variations and alternative cultures if they want to.
I just bought your book (paper version) off Amazon after stumbling across this blog a couple of weeks ago. I'm eagerly awaiting its delivery.
Cool Martin! Let us know what you think.
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