The Profits of Religion

by Upton Sinclair

Book Overview

Bootstrap-lifting? says the reader. It is a vision I have seen: upon a vast plain, men and women are gathered in dense throngs, crouched in uncomfortable and distressing positions, their fingers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1976094879
• ISBN13: 9781976094873
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

And you thought Richard Dawkins was hard on religion...

I give it 5 stars because of all the trouble people like U. Sinclair and H.L. Mencken had to go through to speak a word of truth in this time. Also, it seems to me that researching and preparing a modern atheist book would be much easier than combing through libraries in the manner of the author of this book. I'm about 3/4 of the way through with this one and it is the fourth book I've read from Sinclair. It is very wordy(like most religios books) and I would have been frustrated without my Kindle(really easy to find a definition). I have enjoyed The Jungle, The Moneychangers and King Coal. I haven't read Oil!, but I "There will be blood" is what turned me on to this author. This book is no different. Why is everyone so dismissive of this writer anyway? About the book, it is what it says it is. Get ready to read about the "unholy alliance" of organized religion and "big business". Ever wonder how the church benefits from its actions and why they are tolerated by the aristocracy? Sinclair explains it clearly(could have done without some of the verbage). He gives one example after another of how the church has stood in the path of every human advancement throughout history. Name a reform of the last 500 years and Sinclair will show you how it was opposed by the church. Child labor laws? Check. Improvement of labor conditions? Check. Innoculations, education(not just darwinism) and so it goes. When all is said and done, I have to admit that religion is taking a beating these days from the media. Not a word was spoken contrary to religion in Sinclair's time. I know the tyrrany of Catholic child molestation was unpunished and deserved more hate than it received. But, it was reported. Also, just today, I saw the NYT bitching about fundamentalists messing around with Texas public school curriculum and Bill Maher premiers a new comedy on HBO tonight. How do I know he is? Because I keep seeing advertisements everywhere. So, we are in the process of slowly eradicating organized religion. It will happen. But, it will also be replaced. In fact, I think it already has. Oppression has become more subtle. The ruling class is less blatant and the masses only need good entertainment to keep them in check. American Idol, anyone? All in all, the book is thought provoking and relevant. We all owe this author a debt of gratitude. He fought hard in his life and it was worthwhile.

Interesting book

Muckraker and socialist writer, Upton Sinclair, takes on the subject of the corruption of formal religions in this vitriolic piece of non-fiction. Sinclair writes mainly about the crimes that organized Christian religions have committed against the common laborer and the strides they have taken to ingratiate themselves with big business.Sinclair loads up a cart of rotten eggs and begins hurling them. He scores some major hits. He takes on the Anglican church and their faults as they drove the country of England into lack of preparedness for World War I. The Catholic church, which Sinclair argues is the worst of the bunch, gets 50 pages of scathing attacks--everything from where money came from to buy their churches and how they duped soldiers into world war I with seemingly holy prayer books. He also gives case examples on how they patched the wounds of the striking workers but failed to address the inequalities which causes the workers to strike. The protestant churches get their fair share as well with their crooked ministers who Rockefeller used to pacify his unruly and striking workers. Organized religion, Sinclair points out, has also undermined women's rights, the right of poor worker to strike or find something better, and brought in a breed of charlatans (some of which have grown tremendously and still exist today). Sinclair also uses history to point out obvious abuses and shows how in some cases the writings of saints with socialistic ideas have been suppressed and not taught (or conveniently ignored).Sinclair, at the end of the book, does not condemn Christianity. He believes that when the Social Revolution occurs that a new Christianity will take place that will encourage and make equal everyone's rights. Some of the facts and information are a bit dated, but over all the some of the same problems that existed at the turn of the century are still around. In addition, some of the ideas were a bit complicated and probably required more knowledge of what the issues were of the day than what I was familiar with. This book is a definite reminder of the effects of religious corruption and abuses.