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Oct 03, 2009

D. rated it:

Written by a mathematician who went out of his way to refrain altogether from using formulas and equations and stick strictly to prose, this charming book is a humble refutation of a collection of the most common arguments in favor of the existence of god. Paulos goes through these arguments one after the other, first documenting the form of the argument itself before discussing how the argument holds up.

For people who are already avowed nonbelievers, this book is an invaluable reso More...

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Sep 26, 2008

Raja99 rated it:

Why I read this book: I saw a mention of it online, either on a website or Amazon. As an atheist married to a mathematics major, I was curious to see Paulos's take.

This was a good book for me to read on the airplane; it was (mostly) interesting, but not too challenging. (As I get older, I find that noisy settings--like airplane cabins--make it hard for me to concentrate.)

The book is pleasantly and smoothly written; it deals with how none of the popular "mathematical" More...

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Feb 05, 2008

Adam rated it:

If Dawkins or Dennett are a little too hardcore for you, Paulos might be the one to truly deflect the mainstream meme that has placed the poorly thought out label of 'fundamentalist atheism' on this movement. He's thorough in his debunking of 'God Exist' arguments without being arrogant. For those who want a summary of false claims of the supernatural, IRRELIGION is a nice primer for those of us within the U.S. minority that is, as Penny Edgall puts it, "the glaring exception to the rule More...

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Apr 28, 2011

Eric rated it:

I've been through this one two and a half times and still haven't figured out for whom this book was written.

This book takes a few of the classic arguments for the existence of God and refutes them. He refutes them effectively but in the standard manner. Your average atheist or agnostic already knows these arguments. The average theist will be put off by the tone of the tome, which is a bit condescending. Some atheists will be put off by that too.

What disappointed me ab More...

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Nov 18, 2010

Yupa rated it:

for fans only

Librettino che riordina e riesamina le varie prove logiche che nei secoli hanno tentato di "dimostrare" l'esistenza di dio. Limitandosi quasi unicamente al dio dei monoteismi trascendenti, ovvero a quello cristiano.
La lettura è veloce, lo stile è garbato e ironico, non senza qualche osservazione puntuta che magari potrebbe un po' infastidire il credente.
Ma probabilmente non molti credenti leggeranno questo libro che, come tanti altri del genere, ver More...

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Mar 18, 2010

Mateo rated it:

This is a nifty little (150 pages) book that takes the major arguments for the existence of God and dispatches them quickly and more or less painlessly, simply by examining the logic behind them. All of the hoary favorites are here (Argument from First Cause, Ontological Argument, etc.), plus some newer, less formal sources of belief, each presented in the form of a syllogism that Paulos examines and breaks down. For the most part, Paulos doesn't bother with marshaling facts and evidence again More...

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Nov 16, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

This is the first skeptical book about religion that I've read, which is kind of funny to me. I'm agnostic, but I've read more books about religion than atheism. It's kind of ironic, really. I've even read the Bible (or parts of it, anyway. The New Testament and most of Genesis). John Paulos is fairly verbal for a mathematician which was refreshing; so many math people I have met suck at explaining things for me and my fellow word-nerds. However, I did not find his arguments particularly convinc More...

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Dec 10, 2010

Martin rated it:

Like a person with no ability to appreciate art writing about painting, Paulos writes about religion from the perspective of a strong, early intuitive feeling toward materialism. Paulos conflates the idea of explanation with the idea of meaning, thus missing the richness of life. Toward the middle of the book, Paulos acknowledges the metaphor of a person with perfect pitch trying to explain music to someone who is tone deaf, but he then pivots to an analogy of sightedness v. blindness, as if t More...

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Dec 10, 2011

Prospero rated it:

God does not compute...or at least the belief in a divine power does not logically withstand scrutiny according to Paulos, who systematically refutes all the extant arguments for the supernatural from his perspective as Professor of Mathematics at Temple University. This is a subject Paulos has written on before in various columns so readers of his will find all of this to be familiar ground.

Are his analyses as eloquent as those of Hitchens, or as provocative as Dawkins? Not hardly. He More...

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May 23, 2009

Dale rated it:

Paulos playfully takes on 12 alleged 'proofs' of the existence of a deity - proofs that range from the subtly fallacious to the downright silly. The thing I liked most about the book was that Paulos summarized most of the proofs in syllogistic form, to help expose the flaws in the proofs. He cites an example from Woody Allen :

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, all men are Socrates.

It has never seemed to me that the proofs of god's exis More...

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Mar 24, 2009

Shelley rated it:

I only read this book because my sister loaned it to me to read, then my 16 year old son read it & told me, "don't read it!" Well now I know why, cause I didn't understand it (& neither did he). What's the need for all these huge words and not just every so often, I mean most of the time and quite a few in one sentence. Anyone reading this would say, ah, she's a dummy, but seriously, pick up this book & just randomly open the book to any page and try a sentence. I would skip over p More...

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Feb 05, 2008

David rated it:

This small, breezy book covers many of the main arguments for god. Most of the refutations aren't original, but Paulos doesn't claim they are - he just thinks it'd be useful to have them all in one place. Fair enough. He's generally pretty careful, as you'd expect a mathematician to be, but he does at one point make the extremely silly mistake of assuming perfect mixing of human populations when calculating descendents.

In any case, his subject matter doesn't interest me a great deal. More...

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Dec 05, 2009

James rated it:

Another excellent book from the author of 'Innumeracy' - this time he takes on about all the arguments for the existence of God, at least in any of the forms envisioned by mainstream religions.
Some other authors writing on this topic have taken tones ranging from urgent to strident. I believe there's a place for their outlooks, because as they note, a large share of the human suffering in the world is rooted in religion. However, Paulos' take is much gentler, more accepting of believers t More...

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Mar 28, 2011

Bretbenesh rated it:

A good summary of why arguments for the existence of God cannot be convincing. This is mostly what you have heard before (although he provides better summaries of the arguments than you usually see), and he has a couple of interesting perspectives on the arguments.

Not very groundbreaking, but he adds enough new ideas to make it interesting. I was vacillating between giving this three or four stars, and I decided on four because it was gripped me enough to keep turning the pages.

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Jul 11, 2010

Jerrod rated it:

Over all a good read. I don't know if I would put it up as something for a philosopher per se to read. But, anyone interested in a mathematical glean on the proofs for god could benefit from this book.
It is a short engaging work. Which I think would be only slightly offensive to any theist reading it, though I can't imagine any theist picking it up unless they were already beyond them self in such a way as to not get offended.

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May 06, 2011

Zach rated it:

The mathmetician's twist on trying to explain away faith is often a bit too thick. With the use of tons of mathematical terminology the average reader will be left with not a whole lot to hold on too. At times the reader may feel confused or alienated due to the lack of understanding.

Though there are some chapters that are more universal, overall there are not any new ideas offered, and seems like a rehashing of an argument against God, just saying that God is more improbable than th More...

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Dec 08, 2009

Nikolay rated it:

Много интересни, логични и забавни контра-аргументи за всеки аргумент на вярващите. За съжаление няма как такава книга да промени статуквото. Нито може да помогне на един не-вярващ да разубеди един вярващ.

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Feb 24, 2008

Axie rated it:

At first I saw this book and thought to myself "Ok, another skeptical book that tries to dispprove God. How lovely!" I felt that because it used mathematical concepts, it would be easy to follow...but how wrong I was.

Generally, I liked the book, I thought it was extremely interesting, and the thought process behind the author was truly logical and unique- wonderful qualities to have in any novel. But I did feel that it was a little beyond my level of reading. Still, I'm gl More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Saeed rated it:

Easier to read than most books of this genre, at times the author does wander off a bit with difficult references. However, for the most part, this concise text evaluates and debunks (not always successfully) most of the arguments for the existence of God. A good read that is more approachable than you would expect.

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Nov 21, 2010

Emma rated it:

A less than original but concise and approachable summary of rebuttals to arguments for the existence of god. Read my full review at my book review blog, Em and Emm Expound on Exposition.

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Apr 17, 2010

Melody rated it:

It's me, over here in the choir robes. Nothing in this book I didn't already embrace, I mean. The geeky mathematical angle was a huge bonus. I found this audio book fun, funny and comforting. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you like. And I do.

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Apr 26, 2010

Preeti rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It introduced me to some interesting arguments that I hadn't heard previously. I really liked Paulos' random humor sprinkled throughout as well.

There were some concepts that I felt were beyond my understanding but I don't think that detracted from the reading overall.

I think this was a great intro book to read for the beginning atheist (is there such a thing?) or an agnostic. Now onto more in-depth books! Perhaps Sam Harris or Richard Dawki

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Jul 30, 2011

Joel added it

Short and sweet, like a Beatles song. If a Beatles song were to describe the logical fallacies underlying belief in a god, that is. The author is a mathematician, but no math is involved in this book, just logic.

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Jul 20, 2010

Charley rated it:

Unworthy of this brilliant man. Warmed-over, watered-down newspaper columns. Lazy, unresearched, unwitty, un-incisive, flat. Snark diluted as extravagantly as any homeopathic muck. Give him a do-over.

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Jan 01, 2010

Atheist Apologist rated it:

Good, short book, but it didn't really cover any new ground or re-cover ground in a new way. Nothing new here for people already decently well-read in the genre.

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Jun 02, 2009

Kathleen rated it:

The subtitle for this book is fairly descriptive. Paulos does not attempt to prove that there is no god, or that belief is somehow wrong, he simply uses logic to disprove most of the common arguments that God exists. It is a good book and well worth perusing whichever side of the great theological divide you camp on. For one thing, it is never bad to consider deeply consider the logic of your arguments. For another, it is always good to consider the logic of the arguments of someone you migh More...

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Aug 31, 2011

Jim rated it:

This won't convince anyone not already convinced, but Paulos does apply a mathematical edge to the analysis.

The most telling chapter was the last - Athiests, Agnostics, and "Brights". I agree with Paulos in that I am also not to fond of the name "Brights", but maybe it'll catch on. THe statistics are disturbing in how others view atheists and non-believers. The stigma is still hard to overcome.

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May 07, 2008

Evan rated it:

I enjoyed the book, and in a climate where millions are convinced that Intelligent Design enjoys validity on par (and even above) hard science it is important to brush up on the debate's basics. The trouble with the book, however, is that Paulos is more comfortable and effective derailing arguments for God's existence based in logic (e.g., intelligent design or other complexity arguments) than those rooted in more subjective beliefs (e.g., "God exists because I feel it" or even Pascal' More...

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Jul 11, 2010

Allena rated it:

Paulos clearly lays out the old arguments and equally clearly tears them apart. Finally, I've got a good description of the arguments.

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Aug 14, 2010

Charles rated it:

Short but basically boring; I kept putting off reading/finishing it for an astonishingly long time. The author examines various pseudo-logical arguments for why god exists and finds them wanting. Early in the book he shows why, but as the book goes on he spends less and less time showing why and more time using them as a springboard to ramble on about various related thoughts which I'm sure he found a lot more interesting than I did.

Still, worth it for the section where explores vari More...

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