clipped from metrospirit.com

The essence of the book is to trace the history of Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam from their inceptions to current beliefs, reframing it in the context of scientific evolution and, more specifically, social evolutionism. That means wading through about 10,000 years of history in 483 pages.

Consequently, it’s not easy reading.

And if you are dogmatically Christian, his skeptical interpretation of how an unlikely Jesus, who talked in code so people wouldn’t convert, performed few actual miracles and who convinced very few people while he was on Earth managed to became savior of all humankind by being killed by the Romans will probably, at the least, mildly irritate you.

I particularly liked his analysis of the Gospels, showing how each one, written at a later time after Jesus’ death (they don’t appear chronologically in the Bible), expands upon Jesus’ life, adding new information.