Books

Liberated from Religion

To believe in God is unnatural. To follow a religion, even more so. You disagree? Then, do this experiment: if you are a Christian or a Muslim, stop going to the church or the mosque and reading the Bible or the Koran. What do you think will happen? That’s right: your faith will naturally wither. Even if you don’t become an atheist, God will no longer be part of your daily life. At most, you’ll believe in a “creating energy”, nothing like the god of these books, whose supernatural stories will sound to you like bedtime stories.

That children believe in fairies and elves is natural. Yet, how could it be natural for adults to believe in, for example, talking snake, invisible beings with wings on their backs and lake of fire and brimstone? It’s, therefore, evident that adults are only able to believe the infantilities of books such as the Bible and the Koran if subjected to relentless indoctrination accompanied by autosuggestion.

Unintentionally, one of the most influential pastors in Brazil revealed the technique to induce people to believe and prevent them from stopping believing. In a video in which he criticizes the press, Silas Malafaia says: “Our mind decides to believe what it is repeatedly told” and “Fear has the power to inhibit potential, hinder the present and spoil the future”. Well, it’s precisely through repetition (reading sacred books, listening to sermons, chanting, practicing rituals and saying prayers) that religions manage to program brains to accept their obvious puerilities, absurdities and perversities, and it’s through fear (threat of punishment) that they manage to inhibit the acknowledgement of this.

By exposing the contradictions and irrationalities, for example, of the Bible and Christianity, what my book Liberated from Religion does is to deprogram minds dominated by religious brainwashing, taking away their fear of reflecting, opening the way for them to liberate themselves from the darkness of religion and come out into the light of Freethought.

Wasting Time on God

This book is more personal: I talk about my origins, Evangelical family, time in Christian schools and reveal the name of the church in which I was indoctrinated. I undoubtedly demonstrate that the belief in God is the product of fear, brainwashing and religious hysteria and that, because of this, there are no reasons to waste time (much less money) on invisible beings.

Many people are prejudiced against atheists, think that disbelieving in God makes people immoral and evil. In Wasting Time on God, I show that this prejudice is 100% unfounded. Over the millennia, people with God in their hearts have committed unspeakable evils. Still today, believing in God is reason for discord, hostility and violence. In some parts of the world, even war.

Disbelieving in invisible beings is the most natural thing in the world. Pure and simple, Atheism is intellectual honesty.

Ratings, Reviews and Opinions

Think for yourself

By J. Boaler

Paulo Bitencourt challenges religious belief. He champions freethinking, asking that believers step back from what they unquestioningly accept and think for themselves. He defines a freethinker as “someone who, in the search for truth, doesn’t trust revelation, tradition and authority, but evidence, logic and reason”. The book is clearly written in a lively style and raises many serious questions about religion and the nature of religious faith.

Definitely worth reading!

By Mesha

Liberated from Religion is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read! There’s a lot of wisdom there and great insights, and the author has a wonderful way with words and a delightful sense of humor, even while handling a subject as morose as religion often is. I can say that I appreciate much of what this book has to say, even though, unlike the author, I am not an advocate of Atheism.

Excellent

By WMC

Liberated from Religion is so packed with useful information that if the author had added footnotes or endnotes it might have academic value as well. Much of what the author writes is referenced in the text. While reading the book, I was skeptical about a few things the author wrote. So, I researched those online and found the author to be correct. The author’s command of the subject is impressive. The whole book is worthwhile, and Chapter 6 alone is worth the price of the paperback copy. Liberated from Religion is informative, contains compelling commentary, is in places very funny and extremely well-written. I learned a lot and enjoyed it very much. Highly recommended!

Essential

By C. Buarque

Liberated from Religion is one of the most important books of our time, in view of the dizzying growth of Christian fundamentalism that undermines the separation of Church and State, an essential pillar of democracy and freedom of conscience.

Passionate defense of reason

By A. P. Ferreira

It’s amazing to see the lucidity with which the author dissects this infectious disease called religion, exposing layer after layer of the corpse in the light of reason. It’s stunning how he presents a staggering volume of facts without ever being dull, often even appealing to good humor. An inspiring and invigorating read.

A bedside book

By J. di Salvo

Paulo Bitencourt shows an argumentation of impeccable logic, well-founded and rich in details and observations, only possible in a mind free of dogmatisms. Liberated from Religion is on the level of those of Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkings or Bertrand Russell: frank, provocative and libertarian.

A worthwhile read

By Kindle Customer

The book Liberated from Religion was very thorough and pretty good overall. It opened my eyes! I was also surprised to see that some things are just as bad in Brazil as they are here in the US.