Away with All Gods!: Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World

by Bob Avakian

Book Overview

Bringing a unique revolutionary communist voice to the current discourse about god, atheism and morality, Avakian demystifies religious belief and examines how, even in its most progressive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0976023687
• ISBN13: 9780976023685
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Insight Press, Inc.
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A must for any who seek a dissenting opinion for religious studies shelves

Is religion far more harmful than it's worth? "Away with All Gods!: Unchaining The Mind And Radically Changing The World" certainly believes so. Calling out Religion as a roadblock to scientific, moral, and political progress that oppresses people on terms of race, beliefs, and gender, author Bob Aviakian makes a call to action against all belief systems that stand in the way of social progress and world peace, stating that religion is not a necessary element to solid moral values and peace of mind. "Away with All Gods!: Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World" is a must for any who seek a dissenting opinion for religious studies shelves and for anyone who is disillusioned with their God or gods.

A book for the rest of us

For those who believe that God is a creature of the human imagination, this is your book. Bob Avakian has done his research well. Drawing from history and theology, Avakian makes his case without the flaming rhetoric often heard from the Christian Fundamentalists. He notes that under the Judeo/Christian/Islamic religions, exploitation, oppression, violence and poverty continue to be widespread, and that the concept of "sin" teaches the suffering that their misery is their own fault. You may not agree with Avakian's solution - Communism - but the people who would buy this book probably have open minds, and no author could ask for more.

On reading hte manuscript version...

Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies Bob Avakian has written the first book in years that makes me actually want to re-read the Bible, but this time as freaky horror show, weirded out fiction and gothic nightmare. Everyone should read Away With All Gods because it is necessary, critical and timely, but also because it is a book written with joy and humor. Avakian has a whole lot of fun mocking the absurdities of those who should be called `god-botherin fools' - never better than when he retells old Richard Pryor routines about Cleveland or reminds us of the hypocrisy of Ronald Reagan as Christian leader while wife Nancy reads the tarot. The trouble is that the people who go in for this religious-fantasy foolishness are serious, and they must be stopped. Avakian shows how and why. Pointing out that the myth that Zapata had not been killed and would return to fight again some day was flawed because it overlooked the fact that he was just as dead as was the resurrected Jesus; showing that Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ' movie perpetuates an anti-Jewish slander that the mob killed the son of God; equally critical of contortions such as the one where the Quran is as fair to women thieves as it is to men (`cut off their hands' if they do not repent); and skewering Christopher Hitchens' whose critique of religion is just as much an anti-Muslim tirade ('God is not great') as is the US War on Terror; Avakian eviscerates all manner of soft thinking on issues that have a mysterious afterlife in popular thought today. Avakian has answers as to why religious fundamentalism (Christian or Islamic) is on the rise, and he does this not with candles and mirrors, dark robes and incense, but rather a philosophico-political analysis and a program for change. These are things we really need to hear. - Professor John Hutnyk, Academic Director, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London. Author of Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies

A breath of fresh air. . . .

Bold, wide-ranging, down-to-earth, provocative. One needn't be a Marxist to learn a lot from this work. I especially like the forthright critique of the obfuscating epistemology of religion, and of religion's appalling consequences for women. -- Laura Purdy, McCullough Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Hamilton College, 2007-08; Ruth and Albert Koch Professor of Humanities, and Professor of Philosophy, Wells College

Deeply scientific, accessible, and important for humanity!

As Allen Wood, author of Karl Marx and Kantian Ethics states: "What most distinguishes Avakian's Away With All Gods from other much publicized books of this kind, such as those by Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, is the direct connection Avakian makes between combating religious fundamentalism and promoting a radical political agenda. Avakian is also to be commended not only for combining his religious freethinking with an endorsement of the modern Enlightenment tradition, but also for providing a sober warning against 'the smug arrogance of the enlightened.' Anyone who has read any of the other books mentioned above should also take the time to read this one." If you are interested in atheism, history of religion, and more importantly, a SOLUTION to the problems of religious fundamentalism (and religiosity in thinking)- this is a book you cannot miss.