Introduction
The Young Atheist’s Handbook is an exciting story of one man who decided to stop following the religious path that was dictated by society. The book is a deeply personal account of the author’s journey from religious to non-religious, which includes life experiences and thoughts that question the very basis of all religious teachings.
Chapter One: The Day God Died
Right from the start of the book, the author begins questioning the things that define and influence our worldview. A significant experience the author describes is growing up with a mentally sick mother and losing her early in his life (Shaha 22). For the author, this experience was indeed eye-opening, as the evidence of his mother’s death was so imminent that he could no longer believe in life after death or in the existence of an eternal soul. The chapter shows how the author’s worldview shifted from a theological to a scientific one, thus marking the beginning of his transition to atheism.
Chapter Two: Being Good
In this chapter, Shaha discusses the connection between authority and good behavior. He compares the authority figures, including his mother, Mr. Crimmett, and Kalidas, with God in the way they motivated him to be a better person (Shaha 41). Using famous examples, the author argues that religion does not always equal morality and that even a non-religious person can be good, while a religious person may act immorally or evil (Shaha 51).
Chapter Three: Escape to Narnia
Here, the author explores the issue of religious texts, such as the Bible, and the interconnectedness of different religions. This chapter first brings to light the argument that religion was invented by people to control others, which is why it made its way into every aspect of culture, including popular literature and film. The chapter also provokes the readers to ask more questions about how religion is taught: for instance, why can children and teens easily accept that the gods from Greek mythology are not real, but fail to associate them with the God that they believe exists?
Chapter Four: Coconut
This chapter examines the issues of religion, race, and identity, showing how intertwined they indeed are. The author relies on his personal experiences to show that for most people, religious allegiance is the defining characteristic of a person. This creates issues such as Islamophobia, leading to disarray in the multi-religious communities. In general, the chapter shows the internal view of what it is like to be among the religious minority and how this experience affects one’s identity and development. For the author, many of the acts that he did in his teenage years were acts of rebellion against religion; however, they can also be seen as a manifestation of his desire to fit in with the majority, caused by the rejection of brown and Muslim people in the ordinary British society.
Chapter Five: God is Love
In this chapter, the author draws an extensive comparison between religion and love. Shaha argues that people that are in love behave similarly to those that are devoted to a particular religion. The chapter is focused on the way that love is perceived in different religious doctrines. However, the underlying argument is much more complex; Shaha shows that both love and religion can motivate people to do good things and act morally. Nevertheless, religion can also be a bad influence as it may provoke violence against the members of other religions or those who are perceived as agents of evil. Love, on the other hand, is a pure feeling that cannot lead to immoral actions, which is why it is preferable in moral terms than religious devotion.
Chapter Six: My Father’s Son
This section of the book provides a deeper view of the author’s father’s influence on his life. By presenting a detailed portrait of his father, Shaha addresses the logical controversy of religion. His father was a deeply religious man, yet his actions were widely deemed un-religious: “he drank, gambled, womanized, and lived a life filled with self-gratification” (Shaha 55). Similarly, religious doctrines can be questioned by applying basic logic and investigating the chronology of religious writings, yet most people view them as laws to live by and as a valid justification for their behavior (Shaha 122).
Chapter Seven: Let There Be Light
As a science teacher, Shaha is preoccupied with the conflict between religion and science. In this chapter, he attempts to explain the roots of this conflict, which, to him, are the very basis of the two concepts. Science is empirical; it is based on the knowledge obtained from observations, experiments, and documented accounts of the past. Religion, on the other hand, cannot be proved by any of those methods and, therefore, relies purely on faith. Shaha shows that the fact that religious people are normally critical of science is because they acknowledge the fact that scientific knowledge is well-founded, whereas the existence of God cannot be proven.
Chapter Eight: Kafir
As a conclusion to his work, Shaha explains his argument against religion. The author states that, even though religion provides comfort by offering people an easy way to deal with the idea of death, it also limits their freedom by making them act and live in a certain way. Moreover, it teaches people to dislike those that are against religion, thus creating problems in the community.
Overall, the book provides a new way of thinking about religion and atheism. Shaha explores his personal knowledge in an attempt to persuade the audience to become more critical about religion, thus alleviating the pressure that religious doctrines put on millions of people all over the world.