"Godless" is about a kid named Jason who gets sick of his parents' religion, and so makes up his own god to worship. He gets a few kids together and they decide to worship the water tower in their town. They create positions for their new "church", writing a history and getting overall pretty obsessed with the idea of this tower as a god. Jason couldn't understand why this caused so much upset, churches split all the time. Every religion splits, everyone gets upset, and the water tower religion was no exception. This is a story of human rejection of religion as soon as it's benefits run out.
I enjoyed this book. It was amusing and enlightening at the same time, the reasoning for a ridiculous concept well thought out. I thought it would be difficult to get through, but it was a real page turner! The characters are entertaining and well rounded, and the writing is excellent. It might be considered controversial, especially to devoutly religious people, but it is a good read nonetheless. I recommend this book to people of all ages.
Content Warnings:
-possible religious triggers
-mild violence/fighting

great teen book

Jason Bock has had enough with his parents' stupid Catholic religion. But, he decides, why be an atheist when you can be a prophet? Jason recruits his best friend Shin, the awkward snail-lover; the local bully, Henry; and Magda and Dan, a few kids from several other churches, and starts to worship in his own way. And what better idol than the Ten-Legged God, the town's water tower? It seems perfect - that is, until Henry starts to make up his own commandments, and Dan gets in trouble, and Shin... just gets really weird. It isn't long before Jason realizes that he may not be able to control God after all.

"Godless" takes a typical coming-of-age problem - the loss of faith - and takes a novel approach to it. The book actually takes the typical history of most religions (including radicals, apostates, and schisms) and scales it down to an appropriate size without making anything seem forced or left out. The characters, however, are a little flat. Some character traits almost feel like they were added just for the sake of making the characters appear more normal, but don't do anything to actually influence the plot. Henry, for instance, is revealed to be a huge sci-fi lover, but that never surfaces again. Jason has a strong attraction towards Magda, but he never does anything about it except for draw a few lewd pictures. Simply put, you could swap some of these traits out, change them, or take them away completely, and it wouldn't change the story's progression at all.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
- Some lewd images
- Mild swearing
- Dangerous situations
- Insults towards religion

The book "Godless" is about a boy that is not satisfied with his Catholic religion, so he created his own. Jason created the religion of the Ten Legged God, or Chutengodism. He got a couple members to join with him. The members were Henry, Dan, Shin, Magda, and of course Jason. One night the kids decided to climb on top of the tower with the help of Henry Stagg. Dan, Shin, Magda, Jason, and Henry managed to get up to the top. Shin couldn't conquer his fear of heights though, so he went home. The members that got to the top decided to take a dip in the tower and go swimming. When Jason jumped into the tank he knocked the flashlight into the water. It was completely dark. The kids finally managed to find the ladder to get out of the tank. That's when Henry slipped. He fell onto the catwalk, and was hurt bad. The rest of the kids were into a lot of trouble, and they blamed Jason.Towards the end of the book, Jason realized that it's up to everyone to decide what they believe in, and you can't force anyone to truly accept a religion.


The book "Godless" was great. I really enjoyed the point of the book. It proved that you need to make your own decisions when it comes to faith. You can force beliefs, but it won't ever be the same. Another part of the story that I liked was that Shin said "You have to believe in something to understand it." There is a crazy amount of atheists that are atheist, because they don't understand Christianity or any other religion. I would definitely recommend this book to someone that needs to open up their perspective on others or even religion. The age group that would probably enjoy reading this book the most would be teenagers. That's when you can really decide what you believe in, if you believe in anything. This book was very good!

Summary:
Jason Bock’s father is very religious and pushes his son to be active in his religion. However, Jason hates going to church, and doesn’t even know what he believes in anymore. Consequently, he decides to start his own religion, claiming the town’s water tower is god. He recruits some surprising people to his religion, and it grows quicker than he can control. While Jason is the leader, other members of the group have their own ideas about how the religion should be shaped. After the “Chutengodians” try to hold a ceremony on top of the water tower, things go horribly wrong and Jason realizes it’s a lot harder to control a religion than it is to start one. This story explores questions of faith and how religion should be practiced.

Personal Reaction:
While this story’s religion is founded as a rebellious joke, a lot of legitimate results are raised about religion and its influence over people’s lives. First, Jason’s desire to start a religion largely stems from his fascination with being in power. This is frequently seen in his interactions with others, as he tends to size others up and compare them with himself. Even when he’s being bullied, he explains, “I respect power. Even in the hands of such as Henry Stagg” (6). He mirrors Milton’s idea in Paradise Lost, where Satan explains, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” He seems to appeal to his recruits by offering them titles, or positions of power within the church. The novel is interesting because it considers how faulty organized religion can become when authority lies within a person, who (as Jason points out) can easily follows the whims of politics, and relies on lies to persuade members. My favorite part of this book is how it ultimately concludes you can’t fully understand that which you don’t believe. This is an interesting concept because it ends up promoting religious tolerance, despite Jason’s previous feelings, since it explains faith is required to understand something. This story may be uncomfortable to read, especially for those who practice organized religion, but it poses some interesting questions. Personally, there were parts that made me comfortable, but some parts were very funny, and the novel was well-written.

Content warnings:
Blasphemy. (The text refers to specific elements of organized religion and applies it to this new, intentionally ridiculous religion.)
Mild profanity. (There are a few swear words throughout the book.)
A girl and a few boys strip down to their underwear and swim together.
Trespassing. (The characters frequent the water tower, even though that’s illegal.)
Vandalism/damaging property. (Somebody spray paints on the water tower, the lock is cut off, and people swim around in the water tower, which taints it and costs thousands of dollars to restore.)
Allusions to child abuse. (Henry’s father used to abuse him. This is mentioned as more of a side note. It isn’t a significant theme in the text.)
Frightening injury. (Henry is hospitalized after suffering a severe fall from a level of the water tower.)

This book is amazing. It raised questions that many young adults are facing and asking themselves. It deals heavily about religion and the importance of relationships. I would recommend this book to older young adults as they might be able to understand the concept better.

This book would be controversial to teach in classrooms because of the religious overtones. This can upset students, parents, and teachers. There are many lessons to be learned in this book.

WARNINGS:
D: 0
L: 0
S: 1 Thought/Partial Nudity
V: 0
R: 1 Topics of Religion

Godless by Pete Hautman is a discussion of worship, an exploration of faith, and an eye into the powers of belief over agency. The novel follows a Catholic-grown teenager in a small town who sees his father’s God as an erratic idol. With equal erraticism, he begins a religion of his own. Praising a local water tower, Jason Bock and his friends (and some not) put themselves in harm’s way on multiple occasions in the name of faith. A key conflict in the novel is Jason’s relationship with his father, which is strained by their conflicting religious outlooks. Mr. Bock seems totally disinterested in trying to understand a set of values and beliefs other than his own, and feeling unseen hugely factors into Jason’s motivation to begin his own, apparently equally meaningless, religion. Hautman uses life-threatening incidents to explain Mr. Bock’s gradual perspective shift. He recognizes how Jason truly feels about the religion, and that his incoherently dangerous actions are reflective of valid opinions. This novel expresses important lessons about faith and valuable discomfort. In difficult situations, one can either adapt to bear the challenges, or alter their circumstances. Godless illustrates the process of learning to balance self-preservation, pride, and endurance in order to stay true to a person’s identity while still making the best of their circumstances.

I was so excited when I saw this book on the shelf at the book store. A young adult book dealing with a teen who is questioning his parents religion and saying he has atheist/agnostic viewpoints? Absolutely! As an adult atheist, I strongly believe that teens who are questioning religion need to see themselves represented in literature and those who aren't need to read things that sharpen their critical thinking skills.

The book centers around Jason Bock. He is dissatisfied with his parents religion and confrontational in his TPO (teen power organization) youth group. One night, on a whim he says he worships the ten-legged god and not the catholic one. This develops into a religion surrounding the town's water tower. Jason does this because he believes that worship of the water tower is as arbitrary as any religious worship. Several of Jason's friends also join (one for fairly feminist reasons - women can't be Catholic priests).

Possible spoiler alert. I'm going to keep things pretty general so it won't reveal too much.

Jason's friends take on different aspects of religious belief in their worship of the water tower. The level of belief varies from participation for the sake of participation to extreme belief (in a danger to self and others kind of way). There is even a spin-off version of the religion, where the kids refer to themselves as protestants. Jason really struggles with how much the "religion" he started as a joke has gotten away from him and is now out of his control. He also has a hard time with how belief in his religion has harmed his friends.

Jason's relationship with his dad rings true for how an outspoken, non-believer teen would experience home life. Jason's dad forces him to participate in church activities, and as a part of a punishment, Jason needs to write book reports on religious themed books. Jason's dad seems to accept his disbelief in the catholic church towards the end, but does state that "maybe someday" Jason will find religion. The book ends with Jason envying his dad and friends beliefs. He states that he might someday find a religion he can believe in, and until then the water tower is good enough.

I'm really not sure how I feel about what Jason said at the end of the book. It really felt like he was searching for the "right religion." While, I respect the realistic portrayal of the relationship with Jason and religion. As a teen, I too went through a period of envy toward those who had simple religious belief, because not believing so dramatically altered the world view I was raised with. However, since this is fiction, I would have preferred for the book to end with agnostic/atheist and NOT searching for a god is OK. Kids who are questioning need to know that it is OK not to believe.

So overall mixed feelings, but I do like that the book exists and won an award.

Teenagers and adults some people read and then some people don’t read but for the people that do read i would suggest they read the book Godless and the Author of the book was Pete Hautman, In the book it talks about these kids Henry Stagg, Shin but his real name is Peter Stephen Schinner Jason a lot goes on in the story and the kid in the story named Jason Bock was tired of his parents boring and old religion stuff they tell him and get him too read. So what Jason does is that he gets his friends and they make a new god in their small boring town at the water tower the people that he gets too help Shin and Magda Price and lastly Henry Stagg.
Jason is having a little trouble keeping the faith in the group and religion strong in everyone, Shin his friend is obsessed in creating the bible for the group. This new religion that they create begins too eat at the kids and they are starting too break apart from each other. Jason then eventually makes Henry the head priest of the religion and of all of the ceremonies, I really liked this book godless I thought it was a little funny that they started too create their own religion I think If I had too suggest this too someone too read if they were bored or really in general i would suggest it too Teenagers who are in high school and Adults because I believe that everyone would like this book
If there was a group like this I would probably join a group like this and in someway i do believe that I know some people like the people in this book In this book some of the people in the book do get arrested because someone spray paints the water tower and the kid gets grounded for it

A kid who worships a water tower, how could I not want to read this and see into his wonderful mind. Personally I would recommend this to the people who are super religious and make almost anything anybody does sinful, but I doubt they would read this. So I would recommend it to the people searching for a religion and those who are curious about the world of religion.
I would love to use this in a freshman high school class, but I bet some parents and adults would complain. Technically public school teachers cannot bring up topics of religion so this would add to its difficulty to teach. I would have my students analyze the basics of religion, what makes a religion, religion? I would then have them look at the similarities to religions, what stories seem to carry over in different formats. Finally, I would have them look into the purpose of religion or lack thereof and write a paper on that.
Warnings: Blasphemy, maybe 2 swearwords.

This was an honest and irreverent tale of an agnostic kid who decides to start his own religion for kicks. What I really liked about it was that the followers he recruits are all in the joke cult for different reasons (just like real religion) and all practice differently (just like real religion) and some would rather split into their own sect than follow rules the founder sets (just like . . . well, you know). What's also WONDERFUL about this book is that the cult members--"Chutengodians," who worship the town's water tower as a god--do some stupid and dangerous things as a show of their faith, and in most books a preachy author would use this pattern of "kid doubts faith, kid gets in HUGE trouble or gets hurt due to events following directly from his lack of faith, kid returns to established faith and finds happiness." But in THIS book, that does not happen (thank the Ten-legged One). Despite not having any actual belief that the water tower is God, the main character, Jason Bock, manages to have "religious experiences" in association with his Chutengodian adventures, and admits that they were wonderful and will be remembered his whole life. Some of his followers, he finds, are doing it to prove they're rebels. Some are doing it because everyone's doing it. Some are doing it to impress someone else. And some . . . as Jason finds out all too bizarrely . . . actually believe the craziness, even with full evidence in front of them that they made it up themselves. The narration is borderline blasphemous at times without being nasty (like when Jason tells his dad that Catholicism is just as made up as Chutengodianism, or his suggestion that transsubstantiation can be described thus: "the host the priest places on your tongue is actually a sliver of Jesus meat"). I'd also like to say Mr. Hautman gets brownie points for making his main character decidedly overweight without making it this big point or sticking in dumb self-improvement messages where he loses weight as a symbol of bettering himself. It always annoys me when the fat kid is either the comic relief, the obvious target of bullying, or a symbol of something to get past. It's nice to just see a fat kid once in a while and have nothing made of it except he's a fat kid.

Read for my young adult literature class.