The Religion Virus: Why We Believe in God - Softcover

James, Craig A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482371006 ISBN 13: 9781482371000

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

The Religion Virus is a fun and fascinating tour of how simple ancient spiritualism evolved into the incredibly infectious religions we know today, punctuated with humorous and insightful stories of the author’s own spiritual journey. Whether you are religious, agnostic, or atheist, when you close the book’s last chapter, your understanding of religion will forever be changed.

"Ingenious. Craig James has cracked open the mystery of Religion's tenacity. It puts the pieces together into a fascinating, coherent model that makes sense!" - Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of Godless.

At any given moment, tens of thousands of religions, branches, sects, and belief systems are competing with each other for survival in a battle as ferocious as anything in nature. But this battle takes place in our minds and in our culture. Religions are locked in an endless fight for survival, and with each generation there are winners and losers. Only the "fittest" survive.

The trouble is, "fitness" has little to do with truth and everything to do with what we want to believe and fear. Religion has evolved for thousands of years, and in the process has become incredibly infectious to the human mind. It preys on our hopes, fears, instincts, and desires, and it's very good at it.

Like biological life, ninety-nine percent of the world's religions are extinct, but the ones that remain are quite remarkable, the very strongest and best.

"I don't say this about very many books, but Craig A. James's The Religion Virus can facilitate a wholesale change in the way we think about religion ... an engaging, entertaining, and educational journey ... packed with a lot of good information." -- Secular News Daily

"Full of powerful, ground-breaking ideas, packaged in a deceptively simple, easy-reading style. This is the most fun I've had reading non-fiction in a long time." -- Phil Steele, editor of The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics

About this title

About the Author:

By day, Craig A. James is a computer scientist who studied artificial intelligence, linguistics and genetic algorithms at Stanford University. By night, he studies religion, sociology, psychology and memetics (how ideas spread across society and down through history). James is an accomplished guitarist, a tolerable clarinet player and a deep-sea sailor. He is married and is the father of three grown kids who pursue their dreams with passion. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, hiking Southern California's beautiful beaches and traveling the world.

Review:

Like a selfish gene or a parasite, the religion virus catches a free ride in the minds of our species, infecting our history and culture. What Guns, Germs and Steel did for anthropology, this book does for faith. It puts the pieces together into a fascinating, coherent model that makes sense! (Dan Barker, President, Freedom From Religion Foundation.) Craig A. James has written an accessible book on evolution and religion that manages to explain memetics while being both funny and touching. (Wes Unruh, author, The Art of Memetics, editor of alteratic.com.) Full of powerful, ground-breaking ideas, packaged in a deceptively simple, easy-reading style. James has created one of those rare books where, every few pages, I find myself thinking, "I need to send a copy of this to so-and-so." This is the most fun I've had reading non-fiction in a long time. (Phil Steele, Editor, Fragment and The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics)

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1482371006
• ISBN 13: 9781482371000
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 212