God Collar [Paperback]

Marcus Brigstocke has commented on religion before. A few years back his stand-up routine on "The Now Show" asking the followers of the three Abrahamic faiths "Not to kill us all...please" was as funny as it was thought provoking, and was one of a number of catalysts for me personally to become an Atheist (we don't have a special name for the conversion process, maybe we should)
It's hard for none -believers to form "groups" or "committees" because nothing unites us other than our lack of faith. But for me personally, Marcus is about as close as it comes.
This book (which is loosely based on his Edingurgh Festival show of the same name - but with much more content)explains why he has no faith in terms that would feel probably familiar to many who claim to have faith.
He explains why God (I'll use a capital "G" - though I may stop doing so in the future..it's habit) is not for him, and how terrifying a literal biblical (or quran based, or tora based) god would be.
He explains why, if the Bible were to be taken literally, he would not know of one person who would qualify for eternal life at God's side. Certainly not Mother Teresa et al. Brigstocke rails at the hypocracy of "revisionism" and "believing the bits you like and ignoring the bits you don't" of each holy book - and altering those bits around as the social zeitgeist demands it. It was less than 100 years ago in most of the world when the Bible was used as a solid argument that god was FOR slavery, even now hundreds of thousands of African children are born condemned to a life (mostly without parents) and an early AIDS stricken death because the Bible condemns barrier contraception.
There are passages where Brigstocke enters into dialogue with a biblical version of god and explans his problems and tries harder than most to rationlize a good reason why these holy canons "are what they are". The fact that he fails is more down to the twisted logic and duplicitous nature of the books rather than his own effort in trying to make sense of them.
Of course we are only human, as ours is "not to understand". There is no book that will "convert" the faithful, none will ever be written.
By definition faith does not require a logical basis for belief - if it did it wouldn't be faith - ergo - there is no point really railing against it.
So this book is "preaching to the unconverted" or at best those who are questioning their belief with an open mind.
As such, it's a book that is both serious and funny in equal measure. There will be reviews here that detest this book for it's topic and tone, and that's a good thing.
Just becasue you can't win an argument against faith, it doesn't mean you should stop challenging it. Faith unchallenged becomes a terrifying prospect - a potential "big brother" world with self appointed Demigogs ruling over us as if they were the proxy of a higher power, perverting the world to their own will. There are places in the world where this still goes on today, books like this form a small part of a "barrier of logic" that might just prevent a sectarian and religion based holocaust... but probably won't.
To go back to Marcus "Now Show".."To the Abrahamic faiths...Please don't kill us all"

I really like Marcus Brigstocke. So many times, listening to The Now Show has been made bearable by Brigstocke's five minutes of comedic rantings.

However, this book was a chore to get through. It's unclear what Brigstocke was really aiming for with this meandering set of thoughts. There's no clearly discernible theme to each chapter, and the tone lurches from light whimsy to dry thoughts.

For example, one chapter, titled "Where to look for God...", discusses Brigstocke's efforts to hunt for God. No, not in any metaphorical sense, he's actually physically looking for God. On eBay, amongst other places. This allows him to shoehorn a clumsy couple of pages about the operation of the Royal Mail - amusing material, but otherwise irrelevant to a book ostensibly about religion and faith. There's another couple of pages about how Brigstocke likes to imagine iPhone users are "pleasuring gerbils" - a surreal image that pleases him sufficiently that we are presented with it on several occasions through the rest of the book.

By contrast, another chapter, "God Delusion - the modern atheist" is almost devoid of humour altogether. This section deals with Brigstocke's disappointment with the atheist movement - a group that he is often lumped in with, seemingly much to his frustration. All of which seems odd, given how many of his own observations about the unjustness and seeming irrationality of the Abrahamic God in the Koran, Torah and Bible, are remarkably familiar from other works by contemporary atheists. In an almost astonishing piece of irony, Brigstocke states that he finds Dawkins's 'The God Delusion' to be incredibly smug, an effect "enhanced by the fact that... I had heard Professor Dawkins speak" and that "Once you have that clipped, humourless and unrelentingly posh tone in your head, it's very hard not to read the book in the same voice." He does have the good grace to concede that some of his readers may struggle with the same problem - but I was disappointed by the lack of any critique beyond perceived "smugness".

The same chapter goes on to comment on 'The Four Horsemen', a filmed conversation between Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, and comments that several of the participants were drinking alcohol, before launching into a frankly puzzling passage about the similarities between drinking alcohol and participating in religion. It's a lighthearted observation, but one which completely overlooks the somewhat glaring point that there is no debate about whether or not alcohol exists.

In any case, lurches in tone and style aside, the fundamental problem that I had with the book was that it reads like a long, transcribed comedy routine. Given its roots in Brigstocke's Edinburgh show, this is unsurprising. However, there are points where Brigstocke's delivery style does not lend itself well to written prose. At times, he is wont to provide examples that prove a point. In his stand-up delivery, it undoubtedly works well to go off on flights of fancy providing four or five examples - in his prose, it serves to bring a developing argument to a shuddering halt.

There are moments of genuine entertainment in the book - particularly toward the end where Brigstocke introduces some personal anecdotes about his family, and his friend James to whom the book is dedicated. I got the impression that the book would have been much more entertaining if Brigstocke had told more such stories, which explain his interest in, and fascination with, the world of religion and faith... rather than trying quite so hard to be both funny and profound.

I thought I was agnostic but now i'm not so sure thanks to Marcus and his musings (or should that be amusings?). Loved this book, kept annoying my husband by reading him quotes every now and then but I wanted to share the book with him.