Godless: The Church of Liberalism
by Ann Coulter
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Book Reviews of Godless: The Church of Liberalism
Book Review: Coulter Speaks Her Mind - What a Mind!
Summary: 5 Stars
Her book deals with the many absurdities and shortcomings of liberalism. But in a lot of ways her job is really easy. She just spends a considerable amount of time quoting the liberals themselves. All of their ridiculous pronouncements are footnoted. All the weird claims and puzzling ideas of the leftists are documented.
Coulter is really very clever, and this book abounds with funny one-liners. And with her legal background, her wit works well with her powerfully trained mind. Indeed, she could easily pen a much more serious, academic and scholarly book, but she is a lot more fun to read in this style. Because of her legal expertise, her sections on law and the legal profession are quite good. She offers an insightful critique of liberal visions of justice, sentencing and policing.
A huge shortcoming of liberalism is their inclination to be weak on crime. Liberals love to exonerate the criminal while finding fault with the system and ignoring the crime's victim. Most have an invalid understanding of human nature. They do not view people as made in the image of God and being ethically accountable; rather liberals see people as glorified animals without any moral responsibility. "A chief ingredient of the liberal religion is the bestialization of humanity."
Liberal think that people are born good, but corrupted by their society. So, liberals believe murderers are "basically good people except for their tendency to sometimes kill people". Coulter documents how these liberals often raise convicted criminals into celebrities. She documents many cases of liberal madness, from light sentencing, restraining the ability of the police in their jobs, to rewriting the Constitution.
A typical liberal's approach to law and order has been disastrous, and a return to true law enforcement, mandatory sentences and real concern for the victim is part of the process to bring back sanity. Coulter clearly demonstrates the rise in crime under liberal policies, and the fall in crime under sane conservative rule.
For many liberals, abortion on demand is the test of true liberalism. Liberals hate the 2,200 American lives lost in the Iraq war, but they speak of the 1.3 million children murdered each year in America as the right to choose. It seems to Coulter that the liberal's most important value may be destroying human life.
The priorities of the left are clearly set out by Coulter: "Liberals are more upset when someone chops down a tree than when a child is aborted. Even if one rates an unborn child less than a full-blown person, doesn't the unborn child rate slightly higher than vegetation?"
Then we see the `I hate America' liberals; those are the ones who have a pathological hatred of America, and find America responsible for all the world's ills.
She also has a few chapters on "junk science" and the left's misuse of science. "Liberals lie about the science on stem-cell research because they warm to the idea of destroying human embryos. If they can desensitize Americans to the idea of harvesting human embryos for imaginary medical cures, liberals believe it will help advance the cause of killing the unborn."
She tackles the issues of education and the teachers' unions. These are breeding grounds for leftwing propaganda; they are also hothouses for humanism and secularism. "Public schools are forbidden from mentioning religion not because of the Constitution, but because public schools are the Left's madrassas...."
Many other leftwing beliefs are strongly attacked. Her abrasive approach is not for everyone. Of course, she could say "Most liberals..." or "Liberals usually..." or "In general, liberals..." instead of just saying "liberals...". But it is a great rhetorical feature. It makes her case stronger and delivers more punch. So it is really a question of style. The content is right on, and there are plenty of quotes straight from the liberals' mouths to help make the case. The altar of liberalism has many cracks, and Coulter is happy to expose them.
If you are sick of the up to recent left/liberal hegemony in the mainstream press, and want a humorous and hard-hitting expose of the liberal/leftist agenda, this is great!
Book Review: Political Views Are One Thing, Science is A Different Story
Summary: 1 Stars
You can't fault Ann Coulter's passion for her political views however, BUT you can completely dismiss her scientific views. You can agree or disagree with political views but when it comes to making factual statements about the natural world you either stick to the science or spout a bunch of logical fallacies. And it is logical fallacies that this book is peppered with when Ann Coulter's pen turns to anything related to science.
Ann Coulter makes the big mistake of making all her arguments from a value-based (politics and religious) position. Science is not a matter of conjecture or democratic vote. She does this by making fallacious claims about evolution simply because the bible says something different. She then goes on to describe evolution as a 'godless religion' that is worshipped by liberals. If this is her argument for conservatism then she is making a big error in judgement.
If it was a simple dichotomy such that Liberals accept evolution while Conservatives do not, then we could quite happily say Liberals accept facts while Conservatives do not. Apparently this is the case.
Secondly, if evolution were to be a religion with Darwin as its prophet, why isn't she trumpeting the same argument with Newton (Gravitation), Einstein (Relativity) and Watson/Crick (DNA)? Presumably these are all prophets and religions too given Liberals would accept their discoveries as valid? Evolution is purely singled out because it provides a natural explanation to life that directly contradicts the bible. By this logic, we ought also accept the bible definition of pi at 3 and completely massacre all of geometry and engineering.
You have every reason to be skeptical of someone who makes a bunch of claims and then attacks the science that undermines their position. Any ideology that requires a smear campaign on real world evidence needs to be seriously criticised. In Ann Coulter's case, the case could be argued that because she should know better, her flagrant abuse of science and reason is completely unethical. How does that fit into the conservative "moral" case?
Of course, any criticism of biblical claims to fact is viewed as Godless by Ann Coulter. I would hope the need for criticism of blatant abuses of reason isn't only a Liberal value but if it is then Conservatives really need to examine their own beliefs.
P.S. For those who claim Evolution is "just a theory": A Theory in Science is a label applied to a hypothesis heavily supported by experimental evidence from multiple strands of inquiry. In 150 years, Evolution has been criticised and analysed by scientists (this is how the scientific method works). It remains standing as the unified theory of biology, something physicists are striving to attain in their field. If you wish to undermine evolution, you must necessarily dismiss genetics, the fossil record, molecular biology, ethology, zoology, germ theory... One must be incredibly confident of the antithesis claim to say they can dismiss an entire field of science.
Book Review: "You know you're over the target when you're taking flak." - U.S. Airforce quote
Summary: 5 Stars
Just reading the whirlwind of far-left hate around this book (where they rant about being exposed as the godless anti-Americans they truly are) should be reason enough to buy this book. But Coulter's endless citations and references, two words unknown to failed Air Amerika broadcaster Al Franken, make it a scholarly work. I have to laugh at the liberal reviews; you'll find not a scrap of contrary evidence to counter Coulter's devastating points. But their true reason behind their manic rage is that someone would dare expose the Big Lie of Liberalism. As W.F. Buckley said, "A liberal claims to want to give a hearing to other views, but then is shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."
Her commentary on Evolution is especially devastating and serves as a bible for those doing battle with uninformed liberals. And its points will likely usher in the complete discrediting of this hoax that paved the way for Eugenics and eventually Hitler's Final Solution. For despite liberals best efforts at brainwashing our children with their propaganda, less than 4 in 10 people today believe in Evolution. Darwin is to science what Karl Marx was to politics: A morally-bankrupt dead end.
Coulter delves slightly into discussing what is truly behind crazed liberalism, that being an immature and less-than-sane mind locked in the body of an effete adult. More evidence slowly mounts to support this, as recently an acclaimed psychiatrist argued liberalism is a mental disorder. "Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, "modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded." In his book The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, Rossiter says, "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the responsibilities of adulthood and demand a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."
While political activists on the Right have long made similar observations, Dr. Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism or links to the "vast right-wing conspiracy." For more than 35 years he's diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist, and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. His medical and psychiatric training are from the University of Chicago.
Her defense of evangelicals is also of high import. Today, approximately one of every four American voters is a Christian evangelical.
There were three major debates of presidential contenders -- two Republican, one Democratic. Despite the entitlement programs bankrupting the country and health-care costs going through the roof, abortion was the main domestic issue the candidates were grilled on.
Those same evangelicals - who don't harbor a "deep hatred" of anyone - are the ones who'll put Palin into office in 2012.
Book Review: Conservative, thought provoking spewings on the usual subjects
Summary: 2 Stars
Interestingly, this book reads most like a similarly toned antithesis of Richard Hitchens' god is Not Great: How Religion Spoils Everything. Coulter has done what Hitchens did in the way of in your face inflammatory "journalism," although with an obviously pro-religious slant and bonus topics: abortion, crime and (lack of) punishment, the environment, public school teachers, 9/11, and even the war in Iraq. Although her book is well researched, it is a clinic on a skilled writer's ability to spin information in such a way to support their cause, opinion or point of view, especially as relates to evolution versus intelligent design. Noteworthy:
"...even Chernobyl wasn't as bad as people thought." (p 6) [I beg to differ. Read Voices of Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich]
"Anyone found guilty of homosexuality under Sharia law has a wall dropped on him. End of story." (p 28)
Refers to Dukakis as, the "Greek midget" (p 64)
Of today's Democrats, "It's as if all the brain-damaged people of America got together and formed a voting bloc." (p 84)
"The most important value to liberals is destroying human life." (p 97)
About the Jersey Girls (four 9/11 widows) or as she dubs them, the "weeping widows," she writes, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." (p 103)
"The only sort of authority Cindy Sheehan has is the uncanny ability to demonstrate, by example, what body types should avoid wearing shorts in public." (p 128)
"In real life, these taxpayer-supported parasites [public school teachers] are inculcating students in the precepts of the Socialist Party of America--as understood by retarded people." (p 148)
"Priests: 820 abused children per year; educators: 32,000 abused children per year." (p 168) [for those of you who went to public schools, there are a heck of a lot more public school teachers than priests]
Coulter's time spent arguing the pros of the death penalty as a punishment might more Christianly be spent encouraging prospective death penalty candidates to accept a certain someone as their personal savior, confess, repent, or whatever they need to do to get access to the non-hot section of the afterlife. She writes as if societal issues are black and white and the beliefs of Republicans are mutually exclusive of those of Democrats and vice versa. This has not been my experience. Although hatemongering is not my genre, I found that she made some excellent points during certain moments of lucidity. In fact, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with a significant portion of several chapters, while disagreeing ardently with the rest. Her attempt to convince atheists (read "liberals") that evolution is a crock and intelligent design is the way to go will probably be about as effective as Richard Hitchens' and (author of The God Delusion) Richard Dawkins' (who, by the way, she calls a "congenital retard" (p 295)) attempts to do the opposite.
Book Review: Some Observations About Evolution and Intelligent Design
Summary: 4 Stars
Ms. Coulter does an excellent job of explaining the controversy about evolution and intelligent design. She creates some confusion, perhaps, by not explaining the evidence for what is called common descent. It is this evidence that makes evolution "....the most pervasive principle in biology, and a thematic thread woven throughout this book."
The quote is on p. 110 of the fourth edition of the textbook used by 65% of biology majors in the United States: Biology by Neil A. Campbell.
On page 77, Campbell replicates the probability calculation for random mutations given by Coulter to show that evolution is absurd. The point Campbell is making is that evolution does not apply to the origin of life, but only to what happened after the first living cell began to replicate. The idea that Campbell is in need of a lecture about biology is nonsense.
It is also clear from Campbell's book that evolution only applies to animals and the bodies of human beings. It does not apply to the souls of human beings, which were created by God. This is generally overlooked because there is a lack of understanding of a method of inquiry called existentialism or metaphysics. Free will, God, the human soul are existential concepts. They are not mentioned by Campbell because his book is about science, not existentialism. To deny that the subject matter of evolution is the bodies of human beings is to make a statement about existentialism.
This point is also overlooked because many popular accounts of evolution don't say it. Francis Ayala, for example, in Darwin's Gift: to Science and Religion, says that the human soul is a religious concept. Religious concepts are matters of faith and revelation and can't be proven. In my review of this book, which was published by Sight Magazine [...], I prove that human beings have souls.
It is true that Campbell doesn't mention the arguments against evolution set forth in Godless, such as the irreducible complexity of molecular machinery and the complexity of the human eye. The reason for this, I suggest, is that everybody already knows these argument. Another reason is that advocates of intelligent design use these arguments to promote intelligent design which is more existentialism than science. It is perfectly okay to spend time figuring out whether the big bang was caused by an angel or by God, but it is not science.