RUNNING HEAD: Annotated Bibliography Final 1

Annotated Bibliography Final

Joshua A Zamora

University Of Texas At El Paso

Ward, K. (2008). Is Religion Dangerous? In An Irish Quarterly Review (Vol. 97, pp. 413-419).

Irish Province of the Society of Jesus.

In this chapter, the author Keith Ward argues why religion is not necessarily dangerous to

humans and he does this by separating his views into specific sections. He starts off with

a point about good and bad religion by saying that A number of authors have recently

attacked religion as dangerous, because, they say, it leads to intolerance, hatred, and

violence, it represses freedom of thought, and it fills people with guilt and anxiety. From

here he points out that it is not religion that imposes these ideologies, instead it is the

people that choose to enter religion that bring about problems and hatred. In the next

section, Ward argues that religion is not a predetermined cause of violence. He goes on to

say that atheism is a greater cause of violence over religion because most wars and

conflicts sprouted as a direct result of nonreligious philosophies such as political and

economic views. Furthermore, Keith states that the belief in life after death is beneficial

rather than detrimental to humans because it makes people think that they must act good

in the life theyre currently living, or theyll be sentenced to eternal suffering. Finally, his

last point being that religion tends to bring about happier and more joyful people. To

conclude, Ward wraps up his argument by saying that a world with religion may be bad

but a world without religion will be inconceivably worse.

The intended audience this chapter is trying to reach out to is atheistic or nonreligious

people who dont really see the positive attributes of believing in such a religion.

Therefore, this article is relevant to the topic of pro-atheism because it thoroughly

expresses the other end of the argument where religion can be a good thing in peoples

lives.
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Although this chapter didnt contain any unique features, it did contain a certain level of

strengths, weaknesses, and bias. The strengths include having good arguments to back up

his claims, but it lacked in providing factual proof to completely sway the audience.

Lastly, there is a clear bias towards religion being an overall good thing to society.

Rosch, S. (2013, July 06). 5 Pretty Good Reasons to be an Atheist [Web log post]. Retrieved

from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/staks-rosch/5-pretty-good-reasons-to-be-an

atheist_b_3434210.html

On the contrary, the author Rosch has an overall belief that atheism is good by listing 5

main points. His first point is that the bible is ridiculous by giving a summary of 2

scriptures from the bible and one of which describes a bear that is sent by god to maul 42

children for calling a guy bald. His second point states that we dont need any deities in

the scientific community because in the past humans would fit god as an answer to

complicated questions but as time goes by scientific questions are answered and we find

that god plays no role in them. Next, his third point being that there is a clear problem of

evil in god. He argues that god is egotistical because he makes innocent kids suffer by

disease and hunger for no apparent reason. Roschs fourth point is that the concept of hell

is one of the most disturbing religious ideas ever conceived because many things that will

send you to hell are no longer big issues in society. Lastly, his decisive point is that you

just dont know which he was implying that there is no considerable evidence towards a

deity being real.

The intended audience of the article is religious Christian people because it spreads

awareness to them the exact flaws of their beliefs and how irrational they are. Therefore,
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this article is relevant to disprove the idea that religion could possibly be rational and

should be trusted.

One of the unique features this article contained was a direct quote from a man that lived

about a thousand years ago. Also, its strengths included bringing up good points and

rational answers to many of the holes the bible contains. Although, it isnt completely

decisive and possibly could have listed many more ideas rather than just 5 points. Lastly,

the clear bias is towards the belief that religion is not logical to follow.

Singh Ji, B. V. (2004, September 09). 14 Good Reasons Why Society Needs Religion

[Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.sikhphilosophy.net/threads/14-good-

reasons-why-society-needs-religion.685/

Now back to the belief that society needs religion, is the author Singh explaining in his

work, that lists up to 14 points discussing his point of view. His 14 reasons are as

follows; (1) Religion helps to regulate our conduct and behavior in society by providing a

set of morals and value-system for human existence, (2) Religion guides our actions in

life, putting a check on criminal tendency in human nature, (3) A true religion will ensure

peaceful co-existence, love and harmony among human beings, (4) Religion keeps our

feet firmly planted on the ground even when our heads are up in clouds because of fast-

moving technology resulting in hectic and stressful lifestyle, (5) A true religion gives you

a clear conscience while performing an action or taking a difficult decision, like resorting

to arms in self-defense or in war, (6) Religion ensures balance in a life where negative

social influences can be increasingly disruptive, immoral and corruptive for the mind, (7)

As a science of self-improvement, religion offers a therapeutic and success-oriented

lifestyle, a victorious way of life, (8) Religion prevents deterioration of the mind due to

dehumanization and desensitization caused by highly mechanized modern living, thus

providing stability, (9) True religion is the manifestation of mercy - Gods mercy for His

Creation and mans mercy towards his fellow-beings and environment(Creation), (10)

Religion prevents us from being carried away by the tides of the times, because a true

religion has an eternal value-system, (11) True religion protects the human rights of

everyone and prevents their violation, (12) True religion ensures social justice, equality

and security for all its adherents, (13) True religion ensures a happy, holy, healthy mind

in a healthy body, (14) True religion provides for good governance of society and good

care of its citizens.

Singh is clearly biased towards religion being a necessity in peoples lives, so his

intended audience is basically anyone that reads his article. He provides good convincing

arguments but doesnt go into too much detail about them.

An Undeniable Prognosis [Video file]. (2014, March 25). Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUzExsAJLmI

This video is a collage of several well-known atheistic scientists and non-believers who

give solid points about how ridiculous it is to follow a religion. Some specific arguments

are well drawn out and others are comedically induced. One astrophysicist named Neil

Degrasse Tyson brought up a point how the bible has insane stories such as revelation

and how those individuals who wrote the bible couldnt possibly know what was going

on since the stories are so outlandish. Another speaker named George Carlin introduces a

comedic aspect to his argument by explain how God will sentence you to hell to suffer
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and endure pain for eternity but somehow, he loves you. Carlin explained this in a fairy

tale fashion as if it was something to joke around about and that is how the audience took

it.

To conclude, these renown scientists and speakers are trying to reach out to the entire

world as their audience, but they do so in different ways. Some strengths include the way

they proposed their message and others that is theyre weakness. The bias in this video is

clearly on the side of pro-atheism and it displays it very well by providing the most

entertaining arguments.

Botton, A. D. (Writer). (2012, January 17). Atheism 2.0 [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oe6HUgrRlQ

Alain, the speaker in this ted talk, presented the idea that humans should start to shy away

from the belief that you either need to be an atheist or a believer in religion. Instead, he

advocates that people should know that deities dont exist, but they shouldnt just let go

of religion overall. He points out that religion has many positive attributes that include

educational, social, and economical. Botton is stating that the world today has become so

secular that we are starting to see past these positives and we need to accept religion but

be aware of the truth to have a better world.

Overall, this talk was well organized and well thought out because Alain brought up valid

points that almost every person would consider. Although, his bias was leaning more

towards the side of atheism hence the name atheism 2.0 and his weakness lies in not

justifying his beliefs that there is no god but instead jumping to the conclusion that

people are already believing that there is no god.