The Religion War

This a sequel to the author's 2001 novel  God's Debris . In that work, which I considered profound and made my hair stand on end on several occasions, a package delivery man happens to encounter the smartest man in the world and finds his own view of the universe and his place in it up-ended, and his destiny to be something he'd never imagined. I believe that it's only because Scott Adams is also the creator of Dilbert that he is not appreciated as one of the most original and insightful thinkers of our time. His blog has been consistently right about culture and politics in the U.S. while all of the double-domed mainstream pundits have fallen on their faces.Forty years have passed since the events in God's Debris. The erstwhile delivery man has become the Avatar, thinking at a higher level and perceiving patterns which elude his contemporaries. These talents have made him one of the wealthiest people on Earth, but he remains unknown, dresses shabbily, wearing a red plaid blanket around his shoulders. The world has changed. A leader, al-Zee, arising in the Palestinian territories, has achieved his goal of eliminating Israel and consolidated the Islamic lands into a new Great Caliphate. Sitting on a large fraction of the world's oil supply, he funds “lone wolf”, modest scale terror attacks throughout the Dar al-Harb, always deniable and never so large as to invite reprisal. With the advent of model airplanes and satellite guidance able to deliver explosives to a target with precision over a long range, nobody can feel immune from the reach of the Caliphate.In 2040, General Horatio Cruz came to power as Secretary of War of the Christian Alliance, with all of the forces of NATO at his command. The political structures of the western nations remained in place, but they had delegated their defence to Cruz, rendering him effectively a dictator in the military sphere. Cruz was not a man given to compromise. Faced with an opponent he evaluated as two billion people willing to die in a final war of conquest, he viewed the coming conflict not as one of preserving territory or self-defence, but of extermination—of one side or the other. There were dark rumours that al-Zee had in place his own plan of retaliation, with sleeper cells and weapons of mass destruction ready should a frontal assault begin.The Avatar sees the patterns emerging, and sets out to avert the approaching cataclysm. He knows that bad ideas can only be opposed by better ones, but bad ideas first must be subverted by sowing doubt among those in thrall to them. Using his preternatural powers of persuasion, he gains access to the principals of the conflict and begins his work. But that may not be enough.“There are two overwhelming forces in the world. One is chaos; the other is order. God—the original singular speck—is forming again. He's gathering together his bits—we call it gravity. And in the process he is becoming self-aware to defeat chaos, to defeat evil if you will, to battle the devil. But something has gone terribly wrong.”Sometimes, when your computer is in a loop, the only thing you can do is reboot it: forcefully get it out of the destructive loop back to a starting point from which it can resume making progress. But how do you reboot a global technological civilisation on the brink of war? The Avatar must find the reboot button as time is running out.Thirty years later, a delivery man rings the door. An old man with a shabby blanket answers and invites him inside.There are eight questions to ponder at the end which expand upon the shiver-up-your-spine themes raised in the novel. Bear in mind, when pondering how prophetic this novel is of current and near-future events, that it was published fifteen years ago.

Book exactly as described. I’m a happy camper.

This is surprisingly entertaining, with a Ghandi-like character who has an uncanny ability to see patterns in human behavior and to talk his way into and out of any situation. His mission is to prevent the Christian vs Muslim apocalypse, and no weapon can stop him. Adams shares his insights on hypnosis and persuasion to explain the Avatar’s abilities, and leads the reader through his travels and to death’s very door. Will he find the One who can change the minds of the whole world?

Like many others, I loved the first book. Refreshingly devoid of extraneous detail and lacking a central narrative drive, the ideas presented really sink in, causing the reader to engage with the text and think. In that way, it is more than a “novel,” and I’m sure it’s part of the reason why Scott Adams chose to label it as “A thought experiment wrapped in a story.”It is also why this “sequel” has disappointed me so much. I expected another sparse narrative with even more interesting ideas to mull through. Instead, most of the ideas are either repeats of the ones mentioned in God’s Debris or strange ideas with such laughable premises as to be dismissed before I could even consider them.**Minor spoilers ahead**Case in point:“Every computer has a reboot button. Of all the things humans have built, computers are the most like us. And so it follows that somewhere there is a human reboot button, one person whose opinions can reset the opinions of all humanity.”Somewhere along the line, The Avatar, the most aware being on Earth, forgot the basic rules of deductive reasoning. Both of the premises he bases this argument on are false. Not every computer does have a reboot button, and considering that we can now grow clones and organs from stem cells, assuming a synthetic construct is the creation most similar to human beings is absurd.The arguments proposed by God’s Debris were simple, elegant, and most importantly, they were believable, because they accounted for the current science and explained away any obvious counter-claims. But “God’s Debris,” this is not.Instead, Adams chose to write a fast-moving narrative replete with explosions, nerve gas, gun violence, unbelievably stereotypical characters, and a disdain for religion that offended even me, an atheist. I felt like I was reading the next frenetic bowel movement from James Patterson, not something witty, cohesive, and mind-expanding.The characters were the worst. Aside from The Avatar himself, who comes across at different times as smug, ruthless, amiable, clueless, and naive, every other character is a flat cartoon. I don’t mind cartoons in a comic strip, but when they appear representative of current heads of state, and when the stakes include global annihilation, I expect a little more thought to go into them.The characters also seem lazily constructed. The two religious leaders, both of whom are Grand Master-level chess champions, are fooled repeatedly by basic principles of suggestion, and one even has his confidence shaken by calling up Mensa and asking the opinions of “smart people.”Everyone else seemed defined by one single ideal, and instead of making the one character who has to make a difficult choice compelling, Adams instead chose to make Waters a clinical sociopath, entirely devoid of human emotion, so his choices were always based entirely on logic and completely unsurprising and lame.Add to that a picture-perfect example of a Deus Ex Machina, and you have The Religion War, a book that should never have been. The author is an intelligent, creative author, and his comics are enlightening and entertaining. Additionally, “God’s Debris” is one of those books that makes so much sense that readers want to experience it multiple times just to try to wrap their heads around it.This book is neither intelligent nor enjoyable, and unfortunately, the best thing I can say about it is that it only takes about 3-4 hours to read.Two Stars - mechanically sound, but dispenses with everything that made “God’s Debris” great.

In my opinion, Scott Adams books never fail to provoke thought. This book is no exception. Written in conjunction with God’s Debris, The Religion War masterfully serves up an entertaining peek into a realistic future. A must read.

Mr. Adams swings for the fences in this sequel to 'God's Debris.' Mr. Adams has not only hit another home run, but he has ripped the cover right off the ball. What an entertaining story!This story is so good it has enabled me to solve the mystery of life. That's right! Though my conclusions are different compared to Mr. Adams' suppositions, thanks to 'The Religion War' and 'God's Debris' (+ Mr. Prager), I have figured out the one thing God cannot do by himself - and it's the reason why we are here.Mr. Adams has written this book so it can be read without reading 'God's Debris,' but the story will not have as much of an impact if you skip reading it. I cannot guarantee you will have the same level of epiphany that I have had, however, you owe it to yourself to read both books in the series. Marvelous!

Per the title. And perhaps with a bit of Hermann Hesse's "Demian" thrown in.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Reminded me of when I first read A E Van Vogt, who introduced me to General Semantics.

Excellent. Even better than the Dilbert books!

Excellent

Great book.

Be sure to read God's Debris first... and then Religion War... back to back in short order. Connect the dots. You'll enjoy the puzzle and thank Scott later.