Why So Many Gods?

by Tim Baker

Written in a teen-magazine style, this educational resource helps teens understand over 100 world religions, worldviews, cults, and occult practices from a Christian viewpoint.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Reference, Education, Spirituality, Theology

315 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I learned nothing new from this book. Anything that varies from the Christian worldview is labeled a "cult" and all other religions are labeled as "wrong". Not too surprising, really, but not at all educational either. I gathered rather early in the book that the authors really knew next to nothing about any religion other than their own. This is useless for comparing differing faiths.

[Becky Rosenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible guide to various religions. According to this book every religion that isn't mainstream Christianity is a cult. You'll learn nothing from this one except that the authors are uneducated in any religion except their own.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has fantastic graphic design. Every page is a different color and designed differently.

That being said, the reason why I like this book so much is because it is so hilariously biased towards the christian world view. There is even a warning before the "satanism" page that you need to pray before you read the page on Satanism. Do not take this book seriously under any circumstances. Except hilarity.

[Wes Bishop]

Ignorant book. Typical neo-con narrow minded logic and ignorance of theology.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives a decent overview of many religions and cults but it is written in a style that is insulting to my intelligence. The author threw in words like "dude" for no other reason than to try make the book marketable to teenagers. This informality makes it hard to view it as a trustworthy reference.

Tim Baker obviously has a pathetic knowledge of any religion besides Christianity. It's refutation ("What's the trick?") of naturalism is pathetic. In response to the naturalistic idea that every action human beings perform is controlled by chemical reactions and thus we have no free will Mr. Baker says that if everything is directed then there must be a God to direct it. This is nothing short of pathetic.

Much of the book is characterized by this kind of stupidity and I do not recommend it as a reference book.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are looking for a concise overview of a lot of world religions, worldviews, the occult and practices, and cults. It is very simple and easy to understand. This is all from the standpoint of a Christian perspective, and seems to be written for a teenage/young adult audience. If you are looking for something in depth you may look elsewhere. (The section on Magic: The Gathering is totally lame.)

[zimmytheflygirl ✈ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book if you just want an overview of religions, organizations, and cults in the world. I am sure many of the negative reviews that are left for this book are those who are NOT Christians. I would find offence if they attached my organization or cult. But sometimes truth hurts but still does not change that is it the truth.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good general introduction to various world religions if you are looking for the real bare bones. I downside was that it looks at them from a Christian perspective so that the view is very tainted. But a good quickie intro for sure.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting although a tad bit biased in my opinion.

[Krysti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great quick-reference tool.

[Kyle York · Rating 1 out of 5]

In middle school, this book taught me all about other religions in the world, while making kind of pathetic attempts at dissing them (small sections labeled "the trick" with gotchas aimed at the other religions that were shallow, Twitter-esque, and based on very obviously fallacious reasoning; the goal of discrediting entire religions in a couple sentences is an overambitious goal, to say the least). It was one of the things that kind of pushed me away from Christianity for a while until I was brought back through people like Paul Tillich, so I think that in terms of what it was trying to do (support Christianity) it really failed. There's good Christian apologetics out there, this is not among them. Good graphic design though.

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is very closed minded. I wanted a brief overview of a lot of different religions, which is provided, but it was very slanted and obviously written towards children and to make them scared to understand other religions besides Christianity. I was hoping for something my kids could read but it won’t be this.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book one star because I have yet to figure out if I can give it half a star. While the book does explore quite a few religions any book that labels Magic the Gathering a religion (And doesnt even proved accurate information on the game) deserves such a lowly ranking. This book also proves that one should be wary about purchasing books from a 'christian' book store.

I mean, if the writers and editors of this book screwed up the research on a mainstream popular card game how do I know the information that provide for obsure religions is accurate?

I keep this book on my shelf for the sole purpose of showing people to be careful what you read.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very rudimentary rundown of the beliefs of various world religions. Written from a Christian perspective, it does do it's best to present the beliefs of other religions fairly. It is arranged graphically similar to a textbook in some ways, but one that is trying to hard to seem cool with different boxes of information and eye catching colors, and gives examples of notable people who practice the religion. The fact that it includes Magic the Gathering as a religion does bring up some issues with how they are defining religion.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could have rated Why So Many Gods a zero, I would have.

Why So Many Gods, instead of living up to its title, wasted time attempting to confirm that Christianity is the only religion while debasing other religions.

Had the authors left out their negative opinions of other religions and had been honest about why the book was written, I believe I could have enjoyed Why So Many Gods.

Why So Many Gods was a book used to recruit readers to Christianity.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

thi s was a gret book it just has excepts that tell adout every religion in the world. It is very interesting to leran how my religion and other religons started.Its a good read if your in to knowing about all the religons in the world.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though it was written from a Christian perspective because it did break down each religion into bite size pieces and explained the high points that the religions followed and how those beliefs are different from the Christian religion.

[Nicollette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very bias.
I wish I never picked with book up. It doesn't not tell the true meanings behind the God(s) of other culture.
I advice if you want to learn about other religions aside from Christianity, leave this book untouched.

[Bridget Vian · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should be mentioned on the cover that this book is Christian based. Do not read if you are looking for something open minded. It labels every religion except Catholic as wrong or ignorant. Clearly the writers have a different agenda instead of wishing to educate people.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book thinking it would expand my knowledge on other worldviews and religions, but alas it is simply a Christian book attempting to explain why every belief system except theirs is wrong.

[Erin]

The most horribly inaccurate and biased books I have ever seen. It appealed to me because it appeared to give an overview of all religions. This book is full of biases on so many levels and out right inaccurate information. When I realized how slanted it was I wanted to burn it.

[Hannah MacLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book to get the basics of all major and dozens of minor religions. Incredibly helpful.

[Ghodse PH]

dfe

[Doodle]

I think it's awesome so far. The only problem I have is keeping others noses out of my book.

[Danielle]

Although I do find this book to be very informative, I wish there was less bias. I think one's religious choice should be a personal one.