9 Books Censored or Destroyed for Challenging Religion

3. Muhammad is a Fraud – Al-Razi’s Refutation (10th c.)

The Persian philosopher Abu Bakr al-Razi was revered for his contributions to science and medicine. Then he called Muhammad a fraud and all religion a hoax — and the applause stopped.

In a scathing critique called On the Refutation of Revealed Religions, al-Razi dismantled the whole idea of prophecy, brick by brick, arguing among other things that it makes no sense for Allah to give prophetic knowledge to a few rather than to everyone at once.

Moses talks to a bush, Muhammad talks to Gabriel, and Jesus basically talks to himself. It’s an odd way for a deity to get things done, said al-Razi, but it makes perfect sense as a way for ambitious humans with a healthy prophet motive.

Many of the 200 other books he wrote have survived. But the stinging critiques of religion were preserved only in the angry responses of his critics.