The first book in the RAW Reading List was about Economics and Politics. The second is about Religion. More precisely, it is against Religion, especially Christianity. To quote: “I condemn Christianity; I bring against the Christian church the most terrible of all the accusations that an accuser has ever had in his mouth. It is, to me, the greatest of all imaginable corruptions; it seeks to work the ultimate corruption, the worst possible corruption. The Christian church has left nothing untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthlessness, and every truth into a lie, and every integrity into baseness of soul.”

Atheism has become more popular recently, with the advent of the 'New Atheists' but most of them condemne the idea of God and say that Christian morality (whilst they might deny that it originmates in Christianity and would definitely say that it hasn't often been applied by Christianity) is a good thing. Not so Nietzsche. To Nietzsche, Christian morality was the worst part of Christianity. Christian morality is based on Pity, Nietsche said and “Pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights on the side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many failures of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect.”

And so we see the reason for its inclusion in the RAW Reading List. This book, like much of Nietzsche, challenges much we take for granted about the society we live in. It is disturbing to read in exactly the way a good philosophical diatribe should be, because it makes you wonder about the truth or otherwise of things you had taken for granted. And that's disturbing. Really, really disturbing. Which is exactly why you should read it.