Another Five Star Review!

Sorry, but when you self-publish a book you have no one to promote it but yourself. The difficulty is in getting people to take a good look at it. In my case, those who have read it promote it, so I merely share what they write. Here's the most recent review written by Paul Harrison:

Many other reviewers do a good job at explaining the book's contents, and I agree that reformatted, it would be more pleasing to the eye and easy to digest.

But if you're looking for information, it isn't lacking. The reason the print is so crammed and there are so many references is because John has experience in academic settings where research must be accounted for and careful argumentation means more than mere emotional rhetoric. This isn't a light book you would enjoy reading a couple of sittings and then pondering, but a book that bombards you with information and argument that you have to stop and think about, almost as if you were reading a reference book.

Truly, the only valid critique of a book like this from those who disagree with the arguments is to make a point by point rebuttal showing that John's arguments don't stand up. This should be easy for any Christian apologist to do, yet it is never done. Instead, sweeping generalization and characterizations are made of his motives. Even if you believed John was an immoral, bitter, raving cry baby who abandoned God because he was immature, you would still have his arguments to deal with.

There is nothing new in this book that hasn't been pointed out for decades in various places, it is just a very compact and concise anthology of the best of these arguments, always added to the personal experience of the author. Just as Christians have a life-changing existential experience and believe the Gospel is intellectually valid, so a mixture of existential experience and intellect causes deconversion.

This book can be seen as "an attack on Christianity" in a sense that former Christians are believed to be bitterly getting back at what disillusioned them, but ultimately, skeptics write books like this to help disillusioned Christians understand that they are not crazy or alone and help them adjust to life without a belief system that can shown to be false intellectualy and experientially. This is no different that Christian apologists "attacking Islam" or "attacking Mormonism" by using deconversion stories from former Muslims and Mormons showing why nothing worked existentially along with arguemnts againt the validity of those worldviews. Christians believe they are doing it in love to rescue people out of harmful and false belief systems. A book like this is no different.

If you read Christian apologetics, you owe it to yourself to have an anthology of the best arguments against Christian apologetics in your library.

2 comments:

Why I Don't Believe said...

Paul Harrison wrote..

This is no different that Christian apologists "attacking Islam" or "attacking Mormonism" by using deconversion stories from former Muslims and Mormons showing why nothing worked existentially along with arguemnts againt the validity of those worldviews.

Aint that the truth?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I had two experiences that rocked my Xian worldview. One was, when as a 'strong' Pentecostal, I was arguing with Mormons and found a lot of their premises were almost identical to mine (except they used talked about Heavenly Father and Joseph Smith).

The second was when I was talking to a 'backslidden' Muslim fundamentalist in Singapore. The stories she told and the baggage she carried was almost identical to ex-fundy Xians. It was like a slap in the face for me. "Only the names had been changed..." And I was still a believer when I met her...I wasnt looking for ammo against Xianity at all. She just walked up and served it to me.

So why should it be any surprise hat ex-fundy's have books, websites, support groups...just like others who have left many other "-isms"?

Why I Don't Believe said...

Sorry, that last paragraph should have read...

So why should it be any surprise THAT ex-fundy's have books, websites, support groups...just like others who have left other "-isms"?