The first scholarly article I found didn’t actually have an abstract. It is by Stephen Prothero and is titled American Jesus. Instead of an abstract it has a quite long introduction, so instead of posting the abstract and translating it into a more everyday type of writing I was going to just summarize the first couple pages of the intro. This source basically sounds a lot like one of the non-scholarly ones I gathered the other day. It discusses what religion defines America and talks about how even though presidents such as Bush have claimed that America is under “Judeo-Christian-Islamic God”. This is directly in conflict however with how every year around this type of year many if not most Americans begin to set up lights and mangers and other decorations in their yards to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. That statement from Bush also contradicts the “In God we Trust” on the back of all our bills, and swearing on the bible when we are in court. This all starts to suggest that when you think about it our nations religious independence is actually just one of the larger false beliefs propagated in order to promote a more stable society, in this case a more stable America.

The other source that I have found on google scholar also doesn’t contain an abstract. This source is similar to the one above it in the way that it is discussing the false beliefs of religion, but I plan to make up for that by going back and getting a better source than the one I found the other day, that sort of contradicts all of these other articles I have found. Also I think that I might refine my question so that it has a direct focus on religion as all the better sources that I am finding is dealing with that. Perhaps, why so many false beliefs are allowed to propagate within religions and if they can be stopped. Instead of the more vague question just wondering how any false beliefs can be allowed to continue to propagate. So with all that in mind, my second google scholar source is Christopher Higgin’s  book, “God is Not Great”. I don’t know if I will have time to read all of it, as it is almost 300 pages, but I am sure just from the index alone that I will be able to read a couple of chapters and find some great quotes and information to bring to my essay. This book is definitely better than the two sources that I already have on false religious beliefs because both of the other articles focus mainly on Christianity, where this book delves into all the big faiths. This book asks the big question, “Does religion make people behave better?”. And then it goes farther and asks if religion is child abuse and asserts that religion itself is an original sin. This source is sure to give me a look at many false beliefs that have propagated both through religion and about religion, and I think it will be very useful in my essay.