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Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer

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Jul 22, 2014 Lenka rated it it was amazing

"Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a crucial component of spiritual devotion. And when religious fanaticism supplants ratiocination, all bets are suddenly off. Anything can happen. Absolutely anything."
This is the best non-fiction I've read in years: well-written, interesting, captivating.
It opens with a story of two Mormon fundamentalists who decide to kill their sister-in-law and her baby because that's what god told them to do. This story is interwoven through the whole "Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a crucial component of spiritual devotion. And when religious fanaticism supplants ratiocination, all bets are suddenly off. Anything can happen. Absolutely anything."
This is the best non-fiction I've read in years: well-written, interesting, captivating.
It opens with a story of two Mormon fundamentalists who decide to kill their sister-in-law and her baby because that's what god told them to do. This story is interwoven through the whole book and one can't help but be shocked at how these people show no remorse and how they really believe that god would (coincidentally) tell them to kill people they don't like.
The author states that he wanted to write a book on religion and chose Mormonism because he grew up among them. I think Mormonism is an excellent choice for another reason: it originated relatively recently, making us able to take a peek at something I've been puzzling over for years: how is it possible for one, albeit charismatic, person to fool millions? Krakauer (at least partly) explains: "Many people would also argue that virtually everyone who has introduced a new framework of religious beliefs to the world—from Jesus to Muhammad to Joseph Smith to Ron Lafferty—fits the diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder." Well...that paints the picture of religious people as simply being exceptionally prone to manipulation by mentally atypical individuals, but I think it hits the spot. That said, although the book deals only with Mormonism (and some of its fundamentalist sects) I think it generalizes pretty well to many other belief systems: there comes a charismatic narcissist who pulls a nice story out of his ass, and suddenly there are thousands of his followers who think they stand above the law if their god commands them to rape, kill or plunder.
“It's amazing how gullible people are. But you have to remember what a huge comfort the religion is. It provides all the answers. It makes life simple. Nothing makes you feel better than doing what the prophet commands you to do. And that's a real big part of what holds this religion together: it's not having to make those critical decisions that many of us have to make, and be responsible for your decisions.”
But, in the end, as one of the apostates realizes: “Some things in life are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself." ...more

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