Atheist Manifesto by Michel Onfray

"A cautionary tale that marks monotheism as more dangerous than stockpiles of nuclear weapons."

Atheist Manifesto is a religious and historical time capsule containing the true deceptions of theological philosophy. It is divided into four parts: aethology, monotheisms, Christianity and theocracy. Each section details the historical chronology of the three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and atheism. Michel Onfray pulls back the veil on the Holy of Holies, delves into the workings of Islam, and excavates for the true identity of Jesus Christ while uncovering the groundwork laid during the Age of Enlightenment.

As Onfray details the myth and bloody history of monotheistic religions, he concludes that monotheism in general, and the religious beliefs of the major players on the Middle Eastern and Western stages in particular, have two ideologies in common: extinguishing the light of reason and total investment in death. Onfray leaves no stone or mythology unturned, shining a light on the religious ruling class and their determined grip on the minds and hearts of mankind. Citing religious and secular texts and history that has been censored and censured, Onfray details the bloody swath monotheism has cut through the history such as bringing knowledge and science to a standstill in Europe during the Dark Middle Ages, and how it continues to threaten social and civil evolution with unending war and the submission of the self to dogma and empty religious rhetoric.

What makes the Atheist Manifesto so horrific is not its clear, concise and dispassionate rendering of the past and the present, but the all too accurate map Onfray draws of the future if theocracies are allowed to proliferate and spread. Onfray’s work is a cautionary tale that marks monotheism as more dangerous than stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Onfray’s Atheist Manifesto is the one book all thinking individuals able to exercise their minds, unwilling to submit to living in the hopes of Paradise, should read, reread and implement
Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell