Jason is tired of the Catholic religion, which is always forced upon him by his parents and his teen church group. One day, when getting beat up by a guy much smaller than he is by the water tower, he has a religious moment of realization. The water tower provides life to the town, so therefore, the water tower is God. Jason, along with his gastropod-collecting best friend, found the religion of Chutengodianism. Originally founded as a joke, the Church of the Ten-Legged One (the water tower) grows in size and the teens become more serious about their faith. They start to do stupid, dangerous things in the name of their religion…
This book was
basically a satire of the Catholic church and how it’s more of an institution
than a community of people with similar beliefs. It also raises questions about
the nature of religion and atheism.
Jason’s
Chutengodianism religion started as a joke, but Jason’s best friend starts to
actually believe in the religion—he even writes an entire Bible, but he almost
gets himself killed. The other two followers just join the church because they
are bored and they just want the benefits. Also, they do stupid things in the
name of Chutengodianism, and one of those two people almost gets killed.
Jason uses
Chutengodianism to figure out his own feelings about God. In the end, he
decides he’s an atheist. It was hard for him to admit that to his parents
because they are both religious fanatics. As a punishment for founding
Chutengodianism, his father had him stay at home and read about the Catholic
religion all day and then write book reports on the books he read. In the end,
the books didn’t convert Jason, and his father had to realize that Jason has to
make his own decisions about religion. I can empathize with Jason. When I
admitted to my parents that I was an atheist, they seemed to trivialize my
decision. They didn’t make me read books about Christianity, but they would try
to embarrass me at family functions and gatherings by announcing that I’m an
atheist when it’s nobody’s business. They will say the occasional snide remark,
but they let me believe what I want to believe.
When Jason
founds Chutengodianism, he sees how a religion develops (supposedly). Someone
claims that they have heard God or have had a divine experience, and then it
escalates from there. The core message of the church is twisted and people use
the religion as an excuse to do stupid or harmful things. Jason sees this
corruption and decides that he doesn’t want to be a part of it. It’s deeper
than that though, Jason genuinely doesn’t feel the presence of God. That’s the
reason I became an atheist—I just don’t feel God in me, and I feel kind of
silly trying to talk to God because I know he’s not there (for me, but I can’t
speak for other people). Even if I had a relationship with God though, I don’t
think I would belong to a church, because I don’t think a church is necessary
to believe in God—the world is your church. Jason seemed to believe that a
church is necessary to believe in God though, and that’s one message of the
book I didn’t agree with.
Overall, I loved
Godless. I thought it was hilarious!
I recommend this to teens that are exploring atheism, but I don’t recommend
that this be taught in schools. It could offend some religious teens and
parents. I give this book four out of five stars because of its originality,
humor, and style.
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