The Book of Gods

I bought this book to help open my child's horizon to the world of non-Christian religions. I'm agnostic, but my son's dad (my ex) has been trying to indoctrinate him with Christianity and has been quite successful to the point that my son says he's Christian. This feels like a serious stance for an 8 year old to take. I had hoped to find a book that was impartial, but explained religions in a fun, personal way. This book ALMOST achieves that goal. Unfortunately, it also comes across as condescending toward people who are religious. I don't want my kid to feel ashamed of his viewpoints, only see and maybe feel a little curiosity towards the viewpoints of others. I still gave it to him because I don't think he'll pick up the condescending undertones, and we can talk about it together after he reads it.To put it another way, this would be a great book for kids who are agnostic or atheist, maybe ages 6-12 (depending on how precocious).

I wanted a way to prep my kid with information before a trip to church with his baby sitter. This was a wonderful primer on the different world religions and very engaging. My 6 year old was able to retain a lot of it and now asks all his friends, when he hears they go to church, which god they believe in. I love that it has helped him understand that there is more out there than the few faiths of the people he knows well.

Published by an atheist company, it’s more than 50% questioning and thinking instead of informative. Agnostic myself, I can appreciate the approach but my 6 year old is interested in other cultures and religions, not considering his place in the universe. I wish the section on different religious beliefs was longer and informative. We read the Hindu section and felt that it was so light on information that we had to follow up with google. I was hoping for a kid friendly approach to academically learning about other religions and this was not it.

This book has been perfect in teaching my inquisitive second graders about religion! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

First, a large number of these pages are either blank, have one sentence on it, or have a plain open square with blank lines like a super basic open ended draw and write sheet, which is a disappointing waste of paper and money. There we had an accompanying statement all pertaining to creating your own God. A small few draw and write’s were accompanied by a prompt, and only maybe two of those activities were even mildly thought-provoking. Strangely, the book is very small, may be 8 x 5 inches. Pages one through 31 are a chapter discussing religion in general from a secular perspective. The information contained in the text is fine, though written at a 4th grade level. It might not see much, but any teachers out there you’ll understand, I would prefer a six grade reading level to get a little bit more depth of understanding for elementary students. Even from my secular perspective, I feel that they spent more time convincing children of the ridiculousness of the religions and gods they were about to present then they actually did teaching them about the belief systems. Strangely, they also included within the descriptions themselves statements that implied or directly stated the invalidity of the belief presented. They weren’t exactly disrespectful but certainly not respectful, again, this is from my secular perspective. You can teach about a religious Believe from the third person. We are all used to those sorts of descriptions when discussing beliefs commonly referred to as ancient mythology. We don’t need multiple disclaimers and verbal eye rolls to ensure that our children do not start to believe beliefs that are different than our own.In addition to the above, the physical book almost looks like it is a bootleg copy. The cover picture is askew and does not reach the edges appropriately. The printing on the inside is strangely small for the already small pages, as in the page number is almost an inch above the bottom of the page and the titles are easily as far in on the top. I will continue to try to upload a picture of these things, but the app is having trouble uploading the photo. The accompanying book, The book of religions, which I purchased at the same time, has all of the same problems.Also odd, the writers are drawn on the cover of the book of religions in a way that implies they are “gods” as well. (They are not on the book of gods cover) I don’t know what to say about that but it makes me chuckle... and wonder about their personalities.All in all, there’s barely any book. I am severely unimpressed. I’m going to look into returning these items.

This is a great book for early elementary ages. It takes the issue of religion and why people believe in gods and puts it on a level easy for a child to understand. It also talks a little about religious discrimination and why it happens and why it's not OK. My kids and I have had some great conversations sparked by this book lately! We're reading The Belief Book next.My only minor complaint is that the Kindle version seems to be formatted weirdly. Some of the pages overlapped and pictures blotted out a few sentences.

These books are a fun concept for young minds around the concepts of religious belief and faith. My own children had some questions I didn’t know how to answer in a way that was age appropriate, specifically around the concept of death and the afterlife. This book helped immensely with that subject. Not just laying out a simple to understand explanation, but allowing the audience to use their imagination to come up with their own ideas. All questions asked and activities engaged in were well received and talked about long after the book closed. Highly recommended for parents dealing with heavy questions from your little ones.

This is largely a good book on gods and their function in religion. Unfortunately, the author frequently addresses items from a strictly Abrahamic perspective, with just a passing acknowledgement of other view points, returning to the Abrahamic as dominant. This is understandable from the point of view that most readers will likely also share or encounter this viewpoint, however, he also attempts to push an atheist perspective as the correct and desirable objective that should be proselytized. Occasionally, these two objectives cause the author to spout “truisms” that are readily apparent as basic logical fallacies when considered from other religious perspectives.

NOT a book about religion. Author is an atheist and pushes this agenda.