The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes ; Ye Will Say I am No Christian

Today I will do a joint book review since both of the reviewed books relate to the same topic:

The Faiths of The Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes is an excellent book for those who wish to learn about the religious views of the founding fathers of the United States. The book starts by looking at the religious views of the colonial Americans in the 1770s, looking at different churches and sects in different colonies. It then explores the relationship of the Founding Fathers and the Anglican (or Episcopalian, as the colonial Americans chose to rename it after rebelling against the English crown -the King was the head of the Anglican Church), and chronicles the rise of Deism in the European Enlightenment. It explores the influence of Deism on the Founding Fathers, and then investigates the views of Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Afterwards, it explores the views of their wives and shows that their wives held more theistic orthodox Christian views, and explains that Deism was popular among scholars (women were not allowed to go college) and Freemasons (an all male organization). After that, it shows how to distinguish a Deist from an orthodox Christian, and then looks at the three founding fathers that we know to be Christian: Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay. The concluding chapter explains that the Christian Right is wrong to re-write history and view the Founding Fathers through the lens of modern evangelical Christianity. The book is followed by an epilogue that examines a few more modern presidents.

10/10

Ye Will Say I am No Christian: The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values, edited by Bruce Braden, is a collection of letters that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson wrote to each other. Adams was a Unitarian Christian, while Thomas Jefferson was an anti-clerical Deist and far more skeptical than John Adams. They frequently conversed on their favorite topic, philosophy, via letters to each other. In these letters, their religious views are spelled out to each other, and it makes for a very interesting read once you get used to their archaic English. These are not all of the letters that they wrote to each other, much less to other people, on the topic, but they are very good. Being of a more skeptical bent myself, I appreciated a lot of what Thomas Jefferson had to say; He has been a personal hero of mine for a while. I would recommend reading The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes first before reading this, as this book is an excellent supplement to the discussion of the religious views of these two great men in the previously reviewed book.

10/10

Be sure to check out the brief biography of Thomas Jefferson on my People of Interest Page, as well as more books on the topic of the Founding Fathers on my Reading Lists page.

Buy Faiths of the Founding Fathers today at Amazon.com

Buy Ye Will Say I am No Christian today at Amazon.com

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins

The Magic of Reality is Richard Dawkins's newest book. It is primarily targeted towards a younger audience. Judging by the content of the book, I would say it is best read by children of about 1o or 11 and up. However, this book is extremely enjoyable to adults such as myself. To those who are put off by Dawkins's "militant" approach to religion in The God Delusion, have no fear here. Dawkins doesn't lash out against religion as he does there. What Dawkins does do is go through a list of questions that everyone has wondered at some point in their lives; the questions range from the scientifically curious, such as "Is there life on other planets?" and "Why are there so many different types of animal?" to the philosophical, such as "Why do bad things happen?" and a host of other questions. Dawkins begins most of each chapter by asking a question, and giving a myth from some culture that explains it. He touches on Greek mythology, Norse mythology, African mythology, Judeo-Christian mythology, and more. He doesn't give any special preference for or against any particular culture's myth. In other words, he doesn't make a target out of the Abrahamic faiths. This might make the book more attractive to some people, including the non-religious, who were put off by his tone in The God Delusion. This book could have equally well have been written by a deist instead of one of the world's most outspoken atheists. In more philosophical chapters, such as "What is a Miracle?", he advocates rational thinking about these issues and explains them in a very easy to understand manner that should be understandable to most pre-teens. Instead of tearing down religion and arguing for atheism, here he advocates the beauty of studying the natural world without needing superstition to make it beautiful. I like this approach much more as a naturalist. I personally prefer the title of "Naturalist" when describing what I believe. I believe in the natural world, and that's what I wish to be defined by, not my disbelief in (or lack of knowledge of) the existence of a deity. To me, the title of Naturalist side-steps the issue of the existence of a creator, because there have been deistic, pantheistic, and atheistic Naturalists. For those with a similar opinion to my own, you will enjoy this book. If you are wanting to buy your child a science book, this would be an excellent one.

“I want to show you that the real world, as understood scientifically, has a magic of its own – the kind I call poetic magic; an inspiring beauty which is all the more magical because it is real and because we can understand how it works. The magic of reality is – quite simply – wonderful. Wonderful, and real. Wonderful because real.”-Richard Dawkins

The artwork in this book is absolutely beautiful. The artwork is done by Dave McKean, who is an accomplished artist. The illustrations are colorful and in many instances help give an excellent visual companion to the text that might help younger readers comprehend the material more easily.

This book gets a 10/10. This book deserves an award. If you are interested in science, or have a child that is, get this book. Unless you are very religious, this book shouldn't pose a problem to you.

Buy the book today at Amazon.com.