Imagine No Superstition: The Power to Enjoy Life With No Guilt, No Shame, No Blame

by Stephen Frederick Uhl

Synopsis#13; Faithful Catholic priest'become'atheist psychologist shows how he did and how you, too, can unlearn childhood prejudices and superstitions and really enjoy the Golden Rule. #13; This book... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979316901
• ISBN13: 9780979316906
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Golden Rule Publishers
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Understanding My Journey

I was a truth believing Protestant until I was 18 years old. Then I converted to Catholicism after another course of instructions in Christian truth at age 20. After 28 more years, I found that I could no longer accept either set of the old dogmatic truths. What a relief it was for me to read Dr. Stephen Uhl's little book, Imagine No Superstition; The Power To Enjoy Life With No Guilt, No Shame, No Blame. It was really comforting to me to find such authoritative understanding of my personal journey. The book flows through the serious subject of religion and the battles between faith systems; it accomplishes this with clear knowledge, common sense and fitting humor that had me laughing out loud at times. Dr. Uhl, a former Catholic priest who left the church and became a psychologist, shows that he is very well qualified to deal with matters spiritual and psychological. He shows both patience and understanding in his guidance dealing with life's important issues. Early in the book, Dr. Uhl, an experienced clinical hypnotist, shows how prayer that is effective is very similar to ordinary wish fulfillment with self-hypnosis playing a major role. He shows clearly how the wonderfully empowering mechanism of hypnosis makes it easy for the praying believer to accomplish more than she/he thought she/he could. The believer then finds it very easy to attribute this accomplishment to God or some Higher Power. Dr. Uhl deals with an extensive list of reasons why most people believe in God, Allah and the like. Then after a thorough analysis of the most generally accepted of the "proofs" of God's existence, he admits that thinking man, confined to this universe and limited to knowledge of only this universe, cannot know if there is something outside this universe. So there can be no conclusive logical proof of God's existence or non-existence. Philosophical agnosticism is the logical result. At the same time, witnessing "the problem of evil" and the standard painful economy of the fox crushing the rabbit while the big fish eat the little fish, the author admits that there cannot possibly be a loving, compassionate, caring personal God. This, of course, leads him to reasonable, pragmatic atheism. Such a practical atheism is strongly reinforced by the sometimes bizarre and quite commonly contradictory beliefs of those who believe so strongly that they "know" the existence and the mind of their own God. Societies down through the centuries have used their Gods to help them commit genocide after genocide. Likewise down through the centuries almost all but one of these thousands of Gods have been cast out of existence. Dr. Uhl cites many examples throughout history and to the present where faith has led mankind into devastating consquences. Yet the sectarian believers in only one God continue to kill each other and distrust deeply those who cannot accept such divisive sectarian dogmas today. After showing an impressive series of ways human life

A fascinating journey from religion to secular humanism

America is a schizophrenic place. For all our love of technical wizardry and modern conveniences, we still hold on to extremely traditional morays which make us puritanical in comparison with older societies. Our moral center is formed from a number of influences, but old-time religion plays a significant role in how we embrace life, and how other societies view us. Stephen Frederick Uhl's Imagine No Superstition; the Power to Enjoy Life with No Guilt, No Shame, No Blame is a treatise on religion in America and its ill-effects upon the human condition. Uhl draws from his background as a former Catholic priest turned atheistic child psychologist in his look at the crippling `don't do as I do, do as I say' attitude of the Christian church and its hierarchy. Uhl is unsparing in his criticisms of Christianity and religion in general showing his former brethren in the church to be one part humanitarian and three parts con men. Imagine No Superstition begins with a brief autobiography of Uhl, and his decision to join the priesthood based upon his mother's familial connections with the church. Essentially, Uhl was raised to be a priest just as a number of his male progenitors were. This introductory section is brilliantly written. It shows Uhl to be a young man eager to please his mother even though he had lingering doubt about the church throughout his seminary years. The vulnerability Uhl displays during his younger years will be recognized by young people today straddling the fence between full religious indoctrination and a life free of archaic rules meant to keep flocks of believers credulous. As the chapters on Uhl's personal journey towards atheism ends, Imagine No Superstition examines the ersatz nature of all religions, rooted as they are in anachronistic customs that have no place in the real world of the twenty-first century. With a combination of well documented research and a biting wit, Uhl addresses the futile nature of belief, noting that belief acts more like a shield from adult responsibility than a place where one can find answers to difficult problems. As an alternative, Uhl suggests people adopt The Golden Rule; a belief-free set of paradigms that have had a place in our world for several hundred years. Uhl shows the Golden Rule doesn't discriminate as the religious orders who constantly argue over which of their deities are the true universal forces. While Uhl's presentation of the Golden Rule is admirable, he has some difficulty following it himself throughout the book. In several instances, Uhl makes unflattering judgments about religious people, which is the opposite of the main goal of the paradigms he sites: to treat others as you would like to be treated. So Uhl accidentally engages in a little `don't do as I do, do as I say' himself, tingeing his credibility. This minor piece of flawed logic aside, Imagine No Superstition is a tremendous achievement as a first work from this author. Uhl hits the right tones in creatin

Simple and Profound

Stephen Uhl's book is both profound and simple. Profound in that it deals with some of the most important concepts facing the world today; simple in that is clear and persuasive. Dr. Uhl is able to speak from an unusual perspective. He is a former Roman Catholic Priest, and has moved very carefully and thoughtfully to an agnostlc/atheist position. His insights are remarkable, and many of us who are increasingly doubtful about the existence of the supernatural, and worried about the effects of a belief in the supernatural, will find the book a very solid grounding for our currently vague concerns. An excellent and thoughtful exposition of important and even crucial ideas. Philip E. Johnson, Ph.D.

Lose the Guilt

Review of Frederick Uhl's Imagine No Superstition (Trafford Publishing, 2006, Victoria, British Columbia~184 PP. paper, ISBN: 1-4120-8797-X) By Michael Judge We are all sinners. This postulate, one of the foundational dogmas of the Christian religion, is blindly accepted without question by its adherents. Why is that a bad thing? The problem is, it is part of a much larger process by which institutional religion degrades, demeans and belittles the human entity with the express purpose of creating feelings of worthlessness, weakness and, most significantly, guilt. Once this human feels sufficiently dejected, these organizations then, for the price of loyal lifelong support, promise protection from the sufferings of hell and guarantee the rewards of immortality and infinite happiness in heaven. Stephen Uhl is exceptionally qualified to understand the strength and motives of the institutions and proselytizers that perpetuate religious myths and, more importantly, the effects and consequences to the individuals suffering from confusion and guilt nurtured by years of debasement. Uhl is a psychologist and former Roman Catholic priest. Each of these positions requires intimate personal contact with an individual's emotional and psychological processes. As a psychologist, he has been able to help people identify, confront, and remedy their problems but as a priest he unintentionally confused, condemned and, eventually, controlled people. This benefited his religious institution but left them in a perpetual state of guilt. In "Imagine No Superstition," Uhl attempts to make restitution by exposing the religious lies thereby helping its victims shed their guilt. He begins with a brief summary of his journey to priesthood followed by his gradual `de-conversion.' Believing he was `destined to be of special service to God and his church,' Uhl attended seminary and became a priest. Truly believing in the truths of his faith, he administered to his congregation with devotional passion. As time went on, however, he began having some doubts as to the validity of some of these `truths.' Even though the process was gradual, lacking any sudden revelation, Uhl says that, `When this spell broke for me, it was like the sun coming up in my life.' So after twelve years as a priest he could no longer live the lie and resigned his position. He became a teacher, married, obtained a Ph.D. and spent the rest of his career as a psychologist. In this position he was able to repair some of the damage he once so enthusiastically contributed to during his years as a priest. Uhl presents an excellent discussion on how people come to believe supernatural claims and why it can often be harmful to the individual. While the title uses the term `superstition,' Uhl's emphasis is clearly on religion and, in his view, religion is simply a form of superstition. His concept of superstition is `belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic o