Mikal

I am half way through it, pretty interesting and helpful.

What do you think of it, any major problems with it?

I was surprised at the way he covered the PoE. He just briefly goes over the basics and leaves it. He says something like there are much stronger/better evidence.

-Mike

Jobar

Hello Mikal, and welcome.

The Case Against God is a very well known work around here, though I confess I personally haven't read it; the consensus seems to be that it is a truly excellent introduction to atheism, although some of the arguments presented are not as strong or detailed as they might be.

I'm going to move your thread to our General Religion forum; the mods there may decide to move it to the Media forum, but I think GRD is more appropriate myself. Jobar, moderator.

Feather

I'm just about halfway through it also.

The author has presented some interesting arguments. I find some of them lacking, however and in particular the ones where he resorts to Ayn Randisms.

Taken all together it's very good reading, however.

Shake

I've got it, but haven't read it yet. I plan to start as soon as I finish this book about Lincoln that I've just started.

HaysooChreesto!

As a quick aside, the quotes of Ayn Rand that Smith uses are appropriate. I understand that one may not like Ayn Rand, but why does that mean that everything she ever said is wrong? The equation 2+2=4 is correct no matter who states it. No?

AdamWho

I have the book and have read it a couple of times. It is good for the beginner but if you thoughtfully apply yourself to the upper forums you will see a lots more detailed arguments.

Feather

I wasn't referring to the quotes. I was referring to the "isms" (e.g. "concept integration," a short couple of sentences on how concepts are formed, &c.) that are taken from the Objectivist philosophy.

You are correct regarding the quotes: if the quote is of a correct idea it doesn't matter who said or wrote it.

Oolon Colluphid

I've got it, but haven't read it yet. I plan to start as soon as I finish the books about parasitism, hominid evolution, animal behaviour, animal physiology, Dawkins’s Devil’s Chaplain, two new collections of ghost stories and The Return of the King that I've just started.

DT

Taffy Lewis

Though it's been a few years since I read Smith's book I do remember a couple of contradictions, one of which is fatal to his basic argument against theism and one which is merely amusing.

On page 50, he says:

And :

Yet later in the book while discussing one version of the cosmological argument he says:

Saying infinite attributes make no sense and then arguing that the universe could have an infinite past is clearly contradictory.

The other contradiction Smith makes involves the title of the book--- "Atheism : The Case Against God". Early in the book, Smith goes to great lengths to argue that "atheism" is best defined as merely lack of belief in a god. Yet the subtitle reads "the case against God". The only way to avoid a contradiction is to say that fundamentally atheism is merely lack of belief in a god but it also includes those who claim God does not exist (and of course Smith includes as atheists those who claim God does not exist). But he has made it very clear that when he says "atheism" he means mere lack of belief in a god. This isn't a very important contradiction but it is amusing that a contradiction appears in the very title of the book.

Obey_Matthew_6_6

I finally found a copy just recently, but haven't started reading it yet. Right now I'm reading Rob Boston's "Close Encounters with the Religious Right", which is a decent read, but lacking in the proofreading department.

It's a shame I had to fly out to the atheist stronghold of the U.S. (Washington State) just to find these books. The mega-bookstore at the local mega-mall has three LONG rows of religion, and maybe one 3-foot shelf of non-xian philosophy. Funny thing - only ONE of those three rows was actually labelled "Christian Fiction".