Amazon Official Website Of Author Al Stefanelli Createspace Direct Smashwords Digital Category:  Religion Publisher: UAF Publications ISBN-10:  0615453589 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 290 Copyright: Mar 26, 2011 ISBN-13: 9780615453583 It is said our species is separate from all others by our ability to reason. Then why are there so many unreasonable people in the world who stubbornly cling to outdated, irrelevant, disproven and often dangerous superstitious beleifs? For the last several thousand years the world was controlled by powerful and corrupt religions. Anyone who questioned their doctrine, dogma or superstition was routinely dispatched with extreme prejudice. But the tides are turning. Organized religion is losing it's credibility to the groundbreaking discoveries made by the scientific community which is continually providing empirical evidence for what was once held sacred. With the advent of the World Wide Web and through the tireless efforts of civil rights organizations and advocates of reason, our species advances further into the post-modern world. This is positive growth, but the growing pains are giving the earth and many of it's inhabitants some very ugly battle scars. The steady and dramatic rise of dangerous, militant, fundamentally extremist terror cults are filling our streets with blood and infecting the minds our youth with poison. Al Stefanelli offers insight as to why this will get a lot worse and how important it is to the survival of our species that we do not give up and go quietly into that good night. Other topics in this book include how the fundamental extremists in the United States are affecting the quality and content of public education, race relations, the first amendment violations being committed by politicians from the office of the President all the way down to local town councils and the growing problem of sectarianism within the United States Armed Forces. Al Stefanelli also examines how the memetics of religious belief can cause othewise intelligent, well adjusted and sane people people to hold beliefs and act out in ways that can only be described as delusional, sometimes bordering on psychotic. You will also enjoy Al's "Greatest Hits." A large collection of the most requested articles and commentaries, refreshed and updated.

From Chandler McGrew
Al Stefanelli is an old friend, and by that I mean that we have battled one another often in the past over politics, culture, ethics, and yes, religion. When I was first introduced to Al (virtually, that is, since we met online) he was religious. More than just religious, he was a seminary-educated pastor of a very literalist church. There-in, I believe, lay the problem for Al. I have never asked, but I have suspected for quite some time that, had Al been, say, a Universalist minister, he might not be where he is today.

When Al speaks eloquently of the difference between “people of faith” and “religionists,” you sense some of that in his grudging acceptance of the former and his virulent antipathy to those of the latter persuasion. Although I would love to take credit for Al’s shift from fundamentalist minister to Atheist Spokesperson Extraordinaire (and I did spend days and months debating the side of unbelief with him during his period of transition), it was Al’s innate sense that something did not quite jibe between what he had been told and the world around him that led him to where he is today. Unlike other fundamentalists I’ve debated over the years, Al always refused to continue to argue a point he knew had been refuted in front of him. And as the evidence against his beliefs rose and his dogma dwindled he did not walk away to pray for understanding. He simply shook his head and tossed aside superstition as though it had been a shirt he had just discovered was far too worn to consider wearing again.

Al’s conversion was not without personal consequences, but those are not for me to repeat. Simply understand that when Al writes he writes from the heart as well as the head. He’s paid his dues.
There have been numerous tracts written by atheists over the past decades and more every day now as many of us infidels come out of the closet. But Al Stefanelli writes with knowledge and humor that many of those other unbelievers cannot match. Enjoy.

From William Hopper
The internet brought us an unprecedented opportunity to find the truth behind the religious narratives that governed us for so long. The ease of research on the web has led many people to question the fairy tales they were taught as children. As a result, ever more people are looking to explain the mysteries of the universe in logical, scientifically verifiable terms. They won’t be fooled again.

Still, religions have held sway for thousands of years and are not giving up without a fight.. Although thinking, scientific minds pioneered the web, the religious powers-that-be have realized that the battlefield for the minds and pocketbooks of their sheep is no longer their pews, but on the websites and chat rooms of a free domain. So, like rats on the Mayflower, they’ve followed the scientists online in the hope of taking back the hearts (and wallets) of the laity from the cusp of independent thought.

The result has been an unprecedented battle of ideas. The religious― armed with their folktales and fear mongering― hit the web hard.  What they expected was the chance to use this new frontier to expand and secure their hold over the populace.  What they found were people like Al Stefanelli

A Voice of Reason in an Unreasonable World is a war chronicle.  Since the rise of religion on the web, Al Stefanelli has been there to counter the bullshit and hyperbole that has become the trademark of online religions.  With this (his first book) Al shows us the arguments, flaws, and social controls he’s confronted since stepping up to meet the challenge of religious con artists and fanatics.  As founder and president of United Atheist Front, he’s never shied away from the personal attacks, fatwas, and misinformation that they’ve thrown at him. Instead he’s fought it, tooth-and-nail, to provide a coherent, logical response to the howling of the “True Believers.” The result is a book that strips bare the folly of religious zealots, and shows clearly and concisely why atheism is on the rise.

A Voice of Reason in an Unreasonable World is more than just the abstract philosophy of rational atheism.  It’s the cold, hard reality of this new battlefield, presented by a man who’s lived his life in its trenches.