Citing historical records, both ancient and contemporary, and chapter and verse - from the Bible, the Torah and Talmud, and the Koran - the author documents the ravages of religious intolerance over the past two and a half millennia, where "truth" is exclusive to only the faithful. He makes a convincing case for the three religions' obsession with purity, their contempt for - and antipathy to - reason and intelligence, individual freedom, desire and the human body, and therefore sexuality and pleasure, and their contempt for women in general. In their place, all three, in varying ways and to varying degrees, require obedience and submission, extolling the "next life" to the detriment of the here and now, preaching chastity, virginity, and blind faith. Onfray goes back to the origins of the religions' holy works and shows how they have been dissected and altered, censored and rewritten to suit each doctrine and convince its faithful that they are the word of God, not man. - Inside cover.