The Gospel According to Acharya S
The Gospel According to Acharya Smakes a clear distinction between true spirituality and what is usually called religion.  The jealous, egotistical, ever-praise-hungry Judeo-Christian God is shown to be an extension of human (male) ego, fostering arrogance in his believers who claim that their own religion is the only true one, all others being false and evil.  Acharya castigates patriarchal belief systems as the ultimate source of sexism, citing centuries of abuse of women on religious grounds.She also demonstrates the highly derivative nature of religious concepts generally assumed to be unique; amusingly debunks the game of bible-based prophecy; discusses the primordial cannibalism underlying communion rites; and demonstrates the cultic nature of so-called mainstream religions.  Her book plainly makes the point that religious sects demanding "tolerance" and "respect" from the rest of the world are frequently unworthy of either.This book endorses the creative variety of spiritual practices around the world, stating that "Those who narrow down their consciousness to reject the wisdom and perception of all other cultures in favor of their own egotistical and ethnocentric 'religious' beliefs are often mean-spirited and poorly educated yet very conceited."  Actually, "Humankind needs to drop all such ego identifications as nationalism, racism and religionism, when they become divisive."There is a broad, idealistically beautiful vision embodied in this "Gospel": a vision of a world truly at peace, people truly in harmony with nature, and an end to the religious strife and violence that have stained the last two thousand years with horrifying amounts of innocent blood.  It is a vision that gives hope for freedom from the emotional shackles of religions, and the dawning of a more rational future.--Barbara G. Walker,The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets