Are there any atheists here who have read Cat's Cradle?

[Full Frontal]

If so, what did you think? Did it really go over your head like Vonnegut said it would?

[AdMech]

In his writings, Kurt Vonnegut often and casually refers to himself as an atheist. In a sermon I gave here a few months ago, I quoted the physicist Freeman Dyson as saying there are, in fact, two kinds of atheists: “ordinary atheists who do not believe in God and passionate atheists who consider God to be their personal enemy.” Vonnegut was clearly in the first category. He had no ax to grind with God.
http://www.allsoulsuuindy.org/ser20070422.htm
Vonnegut described himself variously as a skeptic,[44] freethinker,[45] humanist,[45] Unitarian Universalist,[46] agnostic,[44] and atheist.[47] He disbelieved in the supernatural,[44] considered religious doctrine to be "so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash," and believed people were motivated by loneliness to join religions.[48]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

[Son of Liberty]

no, I thought it was kinda boring. In fact, I've been pretty disappointed in Vonnegut since Slaughter House 5, which I loved. His other shit, meh ~ I don't like fiction, much, so don't read into this comment too deeply, you'll be wasting your time.

[Dionysus]

I liked Cats Cradle. It didn't make a massive impression on me but I thought it was his best book that I have read so far, which isn't saying much.

[PirateJoe]

Great book. Though I think the tone of the book casts bokonoism half in jest or as a parody (of the most enlightening kind) of most religion. In that case I don't think anyone would propose it as a serious rebuttal to atheism. Even in the context of the parody it doesn't really work.

[AdMech]

I forgot to mention what I thought. I thought it was great; my favorite Vonnegut story, and I like most of his stuff. I liked to stop and seriously consider the tenets of Bokononism using the logic and worldview I adhere to.

I decided the book could be seen as a defense of a certain sort of hedonism - not as in wild Bacchanalian abandon, but as in the philosophical doctrine holding happiness as the highest good. It can also be seen as support or critique of the notion that untruths really are harmless (foma).

[Sopio]

I have not read Cat's Cradle but I would like to express my intense dislike for Kurt Vonnegut's work in general. I guess I still have to read this one before I can feel free of obligation to ever pick up another one of his books again.