I struggled with this book. I think it would appeal to the more widely academic than me. Interesting treatment of religion and admittedly not come across this before.

This is a book with an agenda. The ultimate conclusion being that God is a wholly human construct. Azlan's writing and research however are deep and succinct, and he gives a compelling case for why this is so. Azlan writes wonderful prose, and really weaves a tale that immersive, despite it's serious subject matter. He approaches the subject with a balanced eye and applies flawless logic to everything he writes. This is a must-read for anyone interested in theology.

This seemed like a promising read, and at first it was. But as I went through it, I gradually lost interest. I understand that the author was not trying to prove the existence (or not) of God. He said faith is a choice, and that to believe either requires faith. That was the only point I could connect with in the book. I lost interest quite early and did not, unfortunately, finish reading.

A very engaging and insightful 'biography' into a fascinating subject to which all can relate regardless of background. Azlan's work in this realm is to be thoroughly recommended to anyone with a questioning mind. Extremely well researched and referenced, the biography works from the dawn of human time to the current moment as seeks to answer the question: why do we believe?

Just the sort of book I was looking for and hoping it might be. A book that is not too "obscure" and that provides a reasonably easy read, whilst pulling together many of the threads that (partially) explain man's attitude to the things that he does not understand thus calling those things god-given. Having decided there is such a thing called god or "the gods", man goes on to give them all so many capabilities and skills that he would like to aspire to. For me, the fascinating thing that any book on god/gods fails to address is why so many people cling to their beliefs and are convinced that their belief is the true and, for the most part, the only way to god.

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting one and thank the author for the efforts he put in to writing it.

I had high hopes for this book. Buoyed by the success of writers like Yuval Noah Harari and Naomi Klein, I had my fingers crossed that this would be an accessible, fascinating piece of non-fiction that would not preach (excuse the pun) but instead engage and, ina colloquial style, convey complex ideas in straightforward language.

And for the vast bulk of this book, that is exactly what happens.

Reza, a God scholar whose works have already appeared on the New York Times Bestseller lists, takes us on an investigation and examination of how human kind has understood the divine from our early ancestors - Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens - through to the emergence of the prevalence of monotheism (religions that worship only one god rather than a multitude) and the institutionalisation of key religions.

I found the discussion of burial rites in our early ancestors - an indication of their understanding of a 'soul' and 'the other side' - as well as their ringfencing of places of worship completely fascinating. Reza's writing is engaging and there are plenty of examples to flesh out his ideas.

This continues through his examination of divine 'families' such as in Greek and Roman religions, before moving on to the emergence of religions with a single God, such as Akhanaten in Egypt, Judaism and the role of Constantine in Christianity.

And it is in these later chapters that the coherence of the book starts to come apart. Sweeping generalisations become more obvious - there is no mention of any schisms or divides within Islam and Christianity - and the marginalisation of Eastern religions in places such as India, China and Japan is clear with these almost entirely overlooked.

The book also ends suddenly in the 12th century at the 170 page mark, with no clear explanation as to why the story stops here (which, of course, it doesn't). In a nutshell, this book gets off to a good start but gets increasingly disappointing, which is a shame.

God: A Human History was a good read with a nice and positive conclusion, but unfortunately it didn't go into much detail and thus it left me a bit unsatisfied. I liked particularly the first part, as there were things I didn't know much about, but the second part I felt it was way too rushed. If you are looking for a brief introduction, this book might be more appropriate for you.

Interesting subject/concepts so good one to read...

A well written and descriptive exploration into humanity’s struggle to make sense of god, of otherworldliness, of a divinity that is meant to connect with us on all levels.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but it is in general a well written and interesting exploration of the idea of God as created by humans. Aslan’s book is based around the idea that the human race have fashioned our idea of God in our image, not the other way round. She explores the way ancient humans may have come to believe in god figures and how these primitive beliefs evolved into more organised religions. She considers the differences and similarities between major world religions and discusses potential links and shared histories, as well as uncovering the often political reasoning behind some major religious changes in history. For most of the book, her writing was objective and her ideas well communicated, but there were times in the conclusion where I felt she was assuming the reader is religious. Maybe that’s fair enough as a lot of her audience may well be (the book is called God, after all!), but I didn’t think it was necessary given the sociological tilt of the book as a whole. But this is not intended to put anyone off - it is just one small part of a book that is fascinating and thought provoking.

This is an interesting and perhaps too often over-looked topic – our inherent humanization of God and its impact. The book takes very much a scholarly approach so readers should be aware of that. Aslan guides us through the history of the emergence of religion, and our representations of God throughout the ages. The book is well written and approachable for the non expert.
However, as a professional scientist, I found it very difficult reading due to the nature of the content. When it comes to explaining the hows and whys of the emergency of religion in human history, unfortunately there is unavoidably an enormous reliance on interpretation – the interpretation of the use of artefacts, and associated human behaviours. The book in riddled with ‘lets say...’ and ‘perhaps...’ Now, I’m not saying all is guesswork, but interpretation is not entirely objective, so its no surprise that often times the experts do not agree.
So, whilst as a non-expert, I now know much more than I did about the birth of religions in human culture, it is difficult to separate truth from fiction. However, this is a well-written and very accessible account.
Many thanks to Random House for giving me a review copy.

Wow, I can't believe how much I learnt in what is essentially a compact and to the point history of religion. The writing was enjoyable and easy to follow and definitely broadened my perspectives.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for a review copy.

This was ok, I am not a big non fiction reader but this makes you think and kept me wanting to read more, interesting to say the least and would recommend if you want something to make you think.

This is an incredibly interesting history of religion, rituals and worship. I always felt like I didn’t really know how I felt about religion and if I actually believed in anything. This book at least has helped me to understand why I may feel unsure and is a fascinating insight into where religion found roots and how we have been worshipping for centuries.

Very interesting analysis, although clearly biased towards the western tradition. I would also have liked more coverage of the last 1000 years - say some more on the reformation.

This was a very interesting read for the first half of the book and I found it thought provoking. As a kindle book it was not feasible to try to go to the cross references in the second half of the book when reading the first part. I was fascinated by the amount of research done by the author to produce this historical piece of work. I would highly recommend it as a research reference book but would also add the suggestion that this is best read as a paper copy to go to the cross references at the correct point, or a hyper link from each of the cross references to the second half.

Got to 10%, gave up. I’ve studied anthropology so am used to the approach but just wasn’t enjoying this. Sounded fascinating and will be a different way of looking at the subject for some.

For those of us who have struggled to find logic in religion, who have become confused over the massive difference between the God of the OT and the NT God and have wondered why a deity so all powerful suffers from some very human traits; we now have a well researched very plausible explanation. God made man in His image, really? Or did man make god in his image? This book looks at the ancient myths and how many religions encompass them. It probes and sees the diversity within them, from their roots to their modern forms and finally comes up with a conclusion. Thought provoking, logical and a ‘must read’ for those with questions not answered by conventional religious teachings.

A very well researched fascinating book about the authors thoughts on religion. He looks at the history of religion and what people believe in. This is not a book for everyone but it is still an interesting read.

Although comparable in scope to Karen Armstrong’s A History of God, this is more of an anthropological and sociological approach to how religion arose. We created God in our image, Aslan argues. Using ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ as representatives of primitive humans, he explores what seems to have been intuitive: the idea that the soul survives after death; the notion of a three-tiered universe (heaven, Earth, and an underworld); and animism, or the conviction that all things have a spirit. Cave paintings bore witness to belief in a world beyond this one.

Aslan surveys various theories of the origin of religion – dreams, wonder at nature, wish fulfillment (Freud), or social cohesion (Durkheim) – and traces human development through agriculture, the domestication of animals, the production of epic sacred texts, and the gradual shift from many gods to a High God to the one god of monotheism. From here he tracks the rise of trinitarian thinking (including the various heresies surrounding it) and takes a sidetrack to discuss Islam, especially the Sufi tradition he’s familiar with.

This is a surprisingly short book; rather than just setting out evidence and letting readers draw their own conclusions, it adopts a firm perspective: all this God-talk should lead us back to pantheism, a return to that primitive animism. “Do not fear God. You are God” are the last words before the extremely lengthy bibliography and notes (nearly 50% of the Kindle book). I only skimmed this because I was getting bogged down in somewhat familiar detail, but I think people fairly new to the content would find this a useful introduction. It’s certainly interesting to get the perspective of a Sufi from Iran who now lives in L.A.