10 Books that Screwed Up the World

I've just begun reading an interesting book called 10 Books that Screwed Up the World: and 5 Others That Didn't Help by Benjamin Wiker. I've only just begun, but I know I'm going to like it from the Introduction which is titled "Ideas Have Consequences." Indeed they do! People of faith know that ideas have consequences. Sinful thoughts often lead to sinful behavior, but, even when they don't, they can be sinful in themselves. Adultery isn't the only sin against the 6th commandment. Looking in lust at others (a sin of the mind) is also gravely wrong. One may not steal, but coveting, an act conceived in the mind and chosen with the will, is also sinful. (N.B. Coveting is the sin underlying class envy, certainly a common sin in our age.)

Wiker says ideas released in print, "can be, and have been, as dangerous and harmful as deadly diseases...[and] If we take a good, hard, sober look at the awful effects of such deadly ideas we can come to only one conclusion: there are books that really have screwed up the world." To emphasize his point he quotes Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish essayist: