Book Review - I Don’t Believe in Atheists

I’m on vacation this week and today we’re heading across the border into the U.S. of A. to spend some time at the Buffalo Zoo. And, if we have some time left over, we’ll swing by Niagara Falls since we haven’t taken the kids to see that site in some time. Today I just wanted to post a short review I wrote quite a while ago but haven’t yet had opportunity to post. It’s a short review because the book was just so utterly stupid, three paragraphs was all I could stand to write.

This may well be the dumbest book you’re ever likely to read. And that is saying something if you’ve read Hedges previous effort American Fascists. In American Fascists Hedges took on the Christian right, a group he (rather conveniently) left undefined, though he seemed to indicate that it was really any Christian who actually took his faith seriously. His purpose in writing the book was to warn Americans that Christians are rising in great numbers and are waiting only for the next national disaster before attempting to seize power and to create some kind of an American theocracy. He offered little proof and gave the reader little reason to trust or believe him.

In his follow-up, Hedges sets his sights not on Christians but on atheists and somehow manages to entirely alienate both those who love God and those who deny His existence. The danger, it seems, is not just Christian fundamentalists, but fundamentalists of every stripe. In I Don’t Believe in Atheists Hedges does the hatchet job on atheists, though he does have to pause every now and again and affirm his disgust towards Christian fundamentalists as well. He affirms the value of faith and the possible existence of God, but describes a God that is of his own making. He believes the Bible is merely a collection of moral fables that are designed to guide us toward some version of a useful deity.

This book is utterly ridiculous. The very few reasonable sections of the book are by far overshadowed by the sheer stupidity of the vast majority. I suppose I could spend time analyzing his arguments and even refuting them, but it’s just too hard to take this seriously. This truly is an almost inconceivably stupid book and one that is not worth anyone’s time to read. Avoid it!