Abraham Father of Atheism

An extended diatribe against organized religions as well as atheism.

In its attempt to highlight the arrogance and entitlement of the three Abrahamic religions, Musa’s nonfiction debut takes as its argumentative starting point the rather idiosyncratic assertion that the Old Testament prophet Abraham was “the first atheist in mankind’s recorded history”—a rather strange claim for a figure said to have had numerous one-on-one conversations with God. Musa’s book follows this muddled beginning with a passionate assault mainly on those whom the author sees as the corrupt, power-hungry, hypocritical men who control the three major organized religions. Musa seems to conceive a kind of essential faithfulness that has nothing to do with formalized creeds: “The end of faith is not a priority,” he insists, “the real priority is to destroy the ego of the broods of vipers from all categories, including arrogant biological atheists, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc.” Under the heading of “biological atheists,” he includes such figures as physicist Stephen Weinberg, ethologist and biologist Richard Dawkins, and the late writer Christopher Hitchens (who’s described, in one of the book’s occasional language slip-ups, as a “renounced,” rather than “renowned,” atheist). Musa appears to find these atheists to be every bit as insulting and doctrinaire as their religious counterparts. His contention that if one sets compassion aside, no holy book will make one moral is undoubtedly correct. However, some of the book’s more unusual ideas will leave both religious and atheist readers wondering whose side he’s on. Overall, he seems to advocate a purely personal faith system—a direct and relatively duty-free connection with God: “Be confident in the knowledge that just as you feel proud of El—the new/old name by which you will call the Creator—El is also proud of you,” Musa writes. “What you need to do is be strong and face Satan’s temptations courageously.”

An often cutting work that calls down a plague on the houses of all domineering belief systems.