Title: The Godmen
Author: Luke Johnson
Publisher: Leadstart publishing
Genre: Religion and Spirituality
First Publication: 2021
Language: English
Book Summary: The Godmen by Luke Johnson
Who are the godmen? How do they become who they are? How much power do they really have? And what can they do with it? These are some of the most interesting questions that this book endeavours to answer in detail.
With the popularity of the internet, the amount of information and jargon available online about godmen has increased rapidly; but most of it tends to be over complicated and superficial. This book, however, brings out and exposes the real truths of godmen in a comprehensible way. It penetrates at the heart of their godly work – to reveal how they are able to heal people miraculously with the “power of God” or through any other form of spirit. And challenges the exorcists who claim to have extraordinary spiritual powers that root out evil spirits.
The Godmen is a unique piece of work for anyone who wishes to know more about religion, faith, and its effects and consequences. It has an appealing revelation that could spawn controversy in the world of investigative journalism and media. But one which can also be a useful tool for tackling spiritual abuse worldwide.
Book Review: The Godmen by Luke Johnson
Promise people their desirable things and they will buy your non-sense, believe that theory, and spend a day screeching their hearts out in a hall with cheap chairs and saying the therapy changing their lives. That really applies to any belief that has no basis in fact or science. To put it simply: for the majority of humanity, deeply ingrained beliefs are not the result of logical ratiocination but rather due to ‘genetic predispositions, parental predilections, sibling influences, peer pressures, educational experiences, and life impressions’. The growth of superstitious beliefs can lead to terrifying exorcism that grow and grow, leaving a broad trail of torture, execution, mass hysteria and paranoia.
This book, The Godmen, is a commendable journal of scientific, pragmatic investigation into seemingly mysterious events and phenomena by an eminent IT technician and the art lover Luke Johnson. It’s a no-nonsense book on the author’s eminently successful efforts at debunking frauds and dispelling spiritual mumbo-jumbo and fills a breath of fresh air in a world filled with superstition and blind faith.
Through ‘The Godmen’, author Luke Johnson takes on a number of worthy targets, including: believers in the paranormal and extra-sensory perception, near-death experiences and those who channel past lives, exorcism, black-magic, and other superstitions. With this mindset, Luke approaches and dissects some of the myths of our time, with a main focus on exorcism and superstitions, and he does it very convincingly.
Luke Johnson, through a variety of examples, shows the carnage that can take place when fake facts, uncritical blind emotional thinking takes over. We are more easily manipulated, more liable to fall under the sway of unscrupulous authoritarians that take advantage of a credulous populace. None of us is impervious to bias and dogma, but we can continually try to check these basic human impulses by working to hone our critical thinking, by learning how to think and analyze the strength of evidence, by striving to keep our minds open to new information. Inflexibility of mind and blindly rejecting (new) information because it doesn’t fit our preconceived notions and narratives is pernicious, closed-system ideological thinking is a great danger to our society and culture.
In The Godmen, Luke Johnson has covered so much ground, looking in turn at every aspect of belief, psychology, biology, ethics, technology and social structure, with examples. The book left me with the feeling that science is a very fragile field, at the mercy of much bigger forces in society that might topple or corrupt it. The book is extremely informative, but most of all it works as a warning.
Luke Johnson writes in a way that is easily understood, while not becoming overly simplistic. He does not use jargon and, not surprisingly, presents evidence in a logical manner. He provides helpful analogies and treats his audience as bright and capable of understanding. His writing style is clear, lively, but a bit undisciplined at times. Nonetheless, the book addresses important questions in a fast-paced, entertaining manner. As a whole, this book represents the defense of scientific thinking and skepticism against pseudoscience and superstition. I give it a strong recommendation.
