The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life

"This is shameless propaganda. I could hardly believe it when I got into this book. It promises to be a serious comparison between the views of Freud and Lewis, but behold: It is a poorly concealed advertisement for Christianity.

There are unsubstantiated opinions or untruths in the book, e.g. that 'the Gospels are historical documents' and, perversely, that 'He appeared in the writings of Roman and Jewish historians and therefore was more than a myth'. Shocking - since there was absolutely no mention of him by any contemporary Roman historians, and the only reference to him in Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian writing for the Romans, has been exposed for what it is: A much later insertion by a Christian monk transcribing Josephus. How can an academic be this insincere about sources and arguments? Well, the whole point is that Freud's views, based on science and fact, are counterbalanced by opinions of faith made to look as facts by the author. This reminds me terribly of the Dark Ages, when reason and argument was abolished, but it is awful that it should be packaged as a serious or even philosophical.

Perhaps it illustrates the problems of American academics: The bias, the political correctness, and especially, the aim for personal happiness at any cost.

And that is the only true argument of the book: That you should believe in Jesus to make yourself feel good. Freud is constantly put down because his arguments and conclusions have negative or problematic implications and makes life difficult. Also, the author gives the impression that Freud did not really believe in his own atheism, which is an extreme opinion considering all the passages he wrote which made him one of the most rational and well-spoken non-believers ever.

Actually, the author is not doing Christians a favour by consistently presenting Christianity as a blind belief one resorts to simply in order to avoid personal unhappiness. And that, by accident, may be the only merit of this book."
~ Written on 2005-10-23

"This book promises a balanced and even discussion based on the views of Freud and Lewis. What it actually delivers is an interesting double biography with very little to do with "The Question of God".

About two thirds of the book are dedicated to Lewis, who is a model Christian converted from atheism and released from its depressing world view, the rest takes Freud who (based on the evidence in the book) is a severely depressed, coke addicted, atheist who blames his depression on his world view. Can you see where this is heading? Freud is often mis-interpreted or just plain ignored. I'd put a lot of money on the author having a devout faith in god.

The basic pretext of the book is that people who have a faith in God are generally happier as opposed to atheists. This is possibly true, but what does that say about the existence of God? Actually nothing, just because one path is easier to take than the other doesn't meant its correct one to.

I could go on for days because this book annoyed me so much and I'm a Christian."
~ Written on 2005-04-19