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36th out of 149 books
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God Virus, The: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture
Dr. Darrel Ray, psychologist and lifelong student of religion, discusses religious infection from the inside out. How does guilt play into religious infection? Why is sexual control so important to so many religions? What causes the anxiety and neuroticism around death and dying? How does religion inject itself into so many areas of life, culture, and politics? The author ...more
Paperback, 241 pages
Published
December 5th 2009
by IPC Press
(first published January 6th 2009)
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This is probably the best book on the subject of religion that I have ever read. The book explains how religion does what it does.
The book uses the term "god virus" as an extended analogy for what happens when a person becomes infected by religion. There are many parallels between viruses and religion. Ray uses terms such as vectors, binding, and uncoupling (from culture) to describe what happens to the individual who falls prey to a god virus.
A god virus is...more
The book uses the term "god virus" as an extended analogy for what happens when a person becomes infected by religion. There are many parallels between viruses and religion. Ray uses terms such as vectors, binding, and uncoupling (from culture) to describe what happens to the individual who falls prey to a god virus.
A god virus is...more
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Thought provoking. Somewhat overdone and inaccurate at times, but makes some good points about the problems of organized religion and emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility for life choices. Is it interesting that atheists and agnostics apparently have the lowest divorce rate, while evangelists a high one?
Many people use religion as a crutch for anxiety and lack of direction, or become overly religious after life trauma. Additionally, many people grow up within the struc...more
Many people use religion as a crutch for anxiety and lack of direction, or become overly religious after life trauma. Additionally, many people grow up within the struc...more
I would have given this book a 4 were it not written like a high school text book. I don't really need a summary section at the end of each chapter to re-read the all of the main points which also happened to have bold headings. I did find Ray's virus analogy for religion as a virus an apt device to explain the ways in which a religion spreads across cultures and works to defend itself from competing ideas as well as adapt to changing environments. One drawback to this "god virus" worl...more
the book is full of excellent quotes and really gives a lot of good evidence of how pernicious and irrational are all religious activities - his comparison to a virus is valid but overdone and gets a bit tiring. Nonetheless, I found it a good book that further underscores the need for thinking people to reject everything about religion and furthermore, to stop giving religion a free pass as "it must be respected" - it should NOT - there is no reason to respect it and every reason to r...more
This is a really good book. I have an interest in psychology, so really appreciated the insights that Dr. Ray brought using his psychology background. His discussions on how guilt and fear are such a strong motivation for the infected to stay infected was particularly illuminating. The book is not written in complicated, technical terms, which makes it an easy and accessbile read to everyone. The virus analogy is sometimes, a little over done, but mostly perfect. I was extremely impressed with ...more
An excellent exposition of the fallacy of religion. The author clearly identifies the analogy between infection of the body with a biological virus and infection of the mind with religious delusion (a god virus). In so doing, he makes apparent the insanity of religious convictions which are so readily accepted in modern societies, even though they are obviously wrong.
Do yourself a favor and read this book. The mind you save may be your own!
Do yourself a favor and read this book. The mind you save may be your own!
The analogy may be somewhat overdone, but an interesting analysis -- perhaps more so to someone who was raised in a religious tradition. The last few chapters on dealing compassionately and constructively with very religious people are particularly useful. The author, a psychological counselor, was raised a fundamentalist and presumably has had much practice in that area.
The author basically breaks down how religion infects the body and acts like a virus, controlling, infecting, eliminating, and narrowing down the individual into groups that agreed with the specific virus/religion. Interesting and fast read, informative. Lots of website related information posted at the bottom verifying facts and such.
the parasite nature of religion , and how it become more like the vampire bite once u were bitten u will complete ur entire life bite and drink blood , it talks about the thoughts viruses
its about the dark maze of myth where most of 70% of the world live in .
i loved the book it made me feel FREE
its about the dark maze of myth where most of 70% of the world live in .
i loved the book it made me feel FREE
Nice followup read for people who enjoyed The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins or similar works. Describing religion as a virus with the main goal being to protect and propogate the virus really encouraged deeper thought for me about my thoughts on religion.
I enjoyed this book, if not for any solid philosophical reasons then for its easy reading style, and to the point attitude. The thesis is that religion is a virus that attacks society in the same way that viruses attack their hosts, the implication being that we ought (a moral judgment in this case) to attack the religious "virus" in the same way that we attack biological ones: with reason and medicine respectively.
Darrel Ray is not a philosopher, nor a scientist, and this is b...more
Darrel Ray is not a philosopher, nor a scientist, and this is b...more
I really enjoyed this book, more so than I thought I would. I know nothing about viruses so I thought the book might be over my head but it wasn't. The author put everything in easy to understand terms and used analogies that anyone can relate to. I don't know if he's got me believing that God is necessarily a virus but it's an interesting concept.
Well done, easy to read. It makes sense to compare belief in god & viruses.
vitriolic even by my standards and noticeably self congratulatory. There is valuable information on offer here, the only issue is you may have to sift through plenty of dubious narrative to find it.
Markii
marked it as to-read
GREAT interview with author i heard on the Point of Inquiry podcast.
Fascinating perspective and concept!
Beware, this book causes bouts of rational thinking.
This book is perhaps the most simple and straight forward explanation of how the insanity of religion in an age of knowledge is able to propagate. The medical analogy to a virus is right on the mark. Now all we need is an inoculation to cure this disease.
The concept of this book is excellent, but unfortunately the author is not a great writer. He repeats many ideas, and leaves others completely unsupported. I really wanted this book to be a million times better than it was.
The author uses "virus" as an analogy to show how religion spreads from person to person, generation to generation and culture to culture. Great for those interested in how religion works in the minds of people.
It was good but to redundant. Kept saying the same thing over and over and over just using different examples.
A good and consistent comparison of the infectious processes that spread physical and psychological diseases.
I'm hoping to get a copy of this book.
Tabitha
marked it as to-read
Josh Grotstein
marked it as to-read
Christi
marked it as to-read
Joseph
marked it as to-read
Richard Corey (HMSH)
marked it as to-read
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
Jessica
marked it as to-read
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Darrel Ray, Ed.D. is an organizational psychologist and author of three books. His latest book, The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture is the most ambitious and controversial. A student of religion, Dr. Ray has studied the psychology, anthropology and sociology of religion for much of his life. He was raised in a fundamentalist home with first hand exposure to all the ideas an...more
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