diederickdevries.net

Review

Rating: 5

This book consists of three parts. The first part is an introduction, telling the reader about a tract from the Enlightenment period that was supposedly a logical explanation of why Mozes, Christ and Muhammad should be considered frauds. This work has in its time been attributed to many people, including Erasmus of Rotterdam and Niccolo Macchiavelli. In 1926, Jacob Presser from Amsterdam proved it was most likely written in 1688 by Johannes Joachim Mueller from Hamburg. The second part of the book is the Dutch translation of the tract itself.

The third part is a set of contemporary articles on why religion should be considered a work of frauds. These articles lack any form of accountability. They are badly annotated and it is impossible to determine their authorship. A couple of claims are made, for instance that all priests everywhere throughout history are non-believers and therefore liars. I find this highly unlikely.

The reader is better of reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion.