rhutchin

Send me a free book (or email me a pdf) and I will read it and tell you what I think.

John W. Loftus

I'm sorry to hear you might not be able to afford this inexpensive book. Perhaps someone will loan you a copy, or you can get it at your local library. But I am not at liberty to send anyone the pdf.

I wish you well and I hope the best for you. One must first make sure there is food on the table, I suppose.

mountainman

Which one of your authors deals with the contributions of Eusebius of Caesarea to the "Christian Delusion"?

Sea

I've posted my review of The Christian Delusion on Theologyweb after my usual fashion. I would be happy to post a copy here if cross-posting is more in line with FRDB culture than sending people to another forum.

And, sorry, the morality chapter didn't do much for me (positively or negatively) so I didn't mention it.

rhutchin

Money is not the issue. With many good books out there to read, it's a matter of priority. I was just offering you the opportunity to get someone other than the choir to read the book. A commitment from you (for a meager cost) gets a commitment from me (in allocating valuable time).

James Brown

I'm pretty sure John Loftus writes books to provide additional income; it helps put food on the family table. A book is much more than a commodity that ought to be obtained at the lowest price available. A book is like a postage stamp--a physical representation of a service. When I read a book, I am asking an author to inform and/or entertain me. Just like I would never ask a barber to cut my hair for free--even if I promised to provide him with a critical evaluation of his skill--I prefer to reward authors for their service by giving them money.

Like my uncle said, "Everyone wants to be paid top dollar for their own goods and services, but we want the rest of the world to live out of a tip jar."

Steven Carr

I can't see anything wrong with you also posting your review here.

Of course,I am not a moderator.

The book might take a while to cross the Atlantic before I can read it.

rhutchin

It is also common for authors to send out copies of the book to the choir to obtain favorable reviews that would then generate interest in the book and thereby increase sales. While most seek favorable reviews, Loftus seems to want reviews from the other side as he writes, "The official website where we will attempt to answer criticisms as they appear can be found here:" His need is to generate interest from those who would likely have no interest in his book.

Sea

I'll go ahead since it's not an obvious faux pas to a forum regular.

----repost of my own review follows----



Since I found Loftus' prior book Why I Became An Atheist so impressive in terms of writing earnestly for a Christian audience (review here), I picked up his new volume without hesitation.

The Christian Delusion (Prometheus Books, 2010) is a collection of fifteen essays, an introduction, and a forward by ten contributors. I was already partly acquainted with the work of Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, Robert Price, and Paul Tobin. Considered as a whole, this collection is like giving ten strong-willed individuals a square (or three) of cloth to decorate, then sewing the whole thing together into a quilt. Inconsistent, but interesting!

A handful of the essays are responses to specific, pro-Christian writings most readers will not have read. It felt like walking into the middle of a long debate, listening to one speaker, then leaving before hearing the other guy represent himself. "The Outsider Test For Faith Revisited" by Loftus, "Yahweh Is A Moral Monster" by Avalos, "Jesus: Myth and Method" by Price, and "Atheism Was Not The Cause For The Holocaust" by Avalos are in this category. Even so, all of the contributors spent sufficient time orienting readers of The Christian Delusion to the nature of the discussion.

Another area of variance had to do with the audience of each essay. Unlike Loftus' own earlier book, The Christian Delusion is not — on the whole or even in most of its parts — written for a Christian audience. The very first essay, Eller's "The Cultures of Christianities," starts with "every argument in support of religion has been shown to be inconclusive or demonstrably false" (p25). Jason Long's "The Malleability Of The Human Mind" is essentially a rant about the amazing adaptability and tenacity of religious thinking. He really should have named it "Why Skepticism Fails" as a humorous contrast to The Christian Delusion's official subtitle "Why Faith Fails." Now there are a couple of sections well-suited for a Christian audience, e.g. "What We've Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate" by Loftus and "Why The Resurrection Is Unbelievable" by Carrier. More on those in a bit.

Unless you've committed to doing so, I recommend against reading The Christian Delusion front to back. Instead, start with the essays which sound most intriguing. My top four personal recommendations:

#1. The Introduction.

Loftus not only summarizes the fifteen upcoming essays so you can better determine which to read next, but actually has three additional pages of excellent criticism on the way Christian apologetics makes stuff up and changes Christianity in response to skepticism. I wouldn't mind reading an entire Loftus book on this historical process alone.

#2. "Why The Resurrection Is Unbelievable" by Richard Carrier

A succinct and relentless attack on the way apologists have tried to justify resurrection belief by historical method alone. (Apparently faith is out of style.)

#3. "What We've Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate" by John Loftus

Many Christians are already very self-conscious about the problem of division among believers who are supposedly guided by a book of divine wisdom and the direction of the Holy Spirit. Loftus points out some negative consequence of this "Problem of Miscommunication."

#4. "The Cosmology Of The Bible" by Edward Babinski

Not an especially useful tool for arguing about the truth of Christianity, but a fascinating look at the comparative cosmology of Israel and nearby cultures.

There's probably a few things for everyone in The Christian Delusion. My recommendations may have more to do with my personal interests than the general merit of all the essays. It's worth at least a look in your local bookshop.

Deus Ex

Why should he bother? I am sure that you have determined that the book is wrong about almost everything it contains before you ever even crack it open.