The End Of Infidelity

Last year, John Loftus and some colleagues published a book titled The End Of Christianity (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2011). The back cover and inside endorsements describe the book as "the sharpest set of intellectual criticisms [of Christianity] found under the cover of a single volume", "tremendously useful", "superb", and "exceedingly well-researched". One endorser claims, "This book should win the game: Christianity, it's strike three and you are out!" Another tells us, "No collection better demonstrates how taking Christianity seriously reveals its all-too-human origin." We're told that "Loftus and his friends annihilate the Christian Goliath".

Steve Hays and I have written an e-book in response, which you can read here, titled The End Of Infidelity. We'd like to thank Peter Pike for editing it. We wouldn't have been able to release it so soon, and it wouldn't be so readable, without Peter's help.

Those of you who haven't read Loftus' book can find an overview of it here. You might want to read each chapter summary on the page I just linked before reading each of our chapter responses.

Steve and I most likely will have more to say about Loftus' book, especially if we get a response from the authors.

Incompetent book blurbs

I am not a biblical scholar and am simply not equipped to challenge on historical grounds the reconstruction of the social and political forces which led to the Hebrew canon we recognize today.

http://randalrauser.com/2011/07/one-word-in-many-many-words-a-review-of-thom-stark’s-“human-faces”-part-2/

Should Christianity end? I think not. But unthinking Christianity definitely should. For that reason I am grateful to the authors of this outstanding collection of essays.

https://sites.google.com/site/theendofchristianity/home/blurbs

If Randal Rauser isn’t qualified to evaluate Thom Stark’s attack on Scripture, how is Rauser qualified to endorse The End of Christianity’s attack on Scripture? 

"Commitment Page"

There are a myriad number of dead religions that we don't bother with because they are dead. We simply say we don't believe them, and yet somehow that is supposed to be a belief? How can the statement, "I don't believe you," be considered a belief? In what sense?

 

A religion by definition must be about supernatural beings and/or forces. Atheism therefore is not a belief nor a religion. I really don't know how much plainer I can get.

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/07/once-again-atheism-is-not-belief-nor.html

It’s striking to compare this disclaimer with the conclusion to The End of Christianity. That book has a “Commitment Page” (435).

COMMITMENT PAGE

Date__________

 

I __________, having read this book and/or the series as a whole, do hereby state for the record that I no longer believe. I am a non-believer. As a result, I commit myself to doing some or all of the following actions for the cause of unbelief:

 

I will tell people in my life at the appropriate moments that I no longer believe. I will set specific dates by which I plan on accomplishing this goal with specific people. We need more and more people to do this. There is power in numbers.

 

I will tell others about this book and/or this series of books. Christians won’t be convinced with sound bites. We must create within them enough doubt that they will want to read entire books like these rather than avoiding them.

 

I will get involved to help end Christianity in the following way(s):

 

I will seek out and become involved in a local freethought group.

 

I will get active in online forums and blogs.

 

I will donate money to good secular causes, or to humanitarian causes in the name of secularism.

 

I will get an education for the express purpose of making a difference on behalf of reason and science.

 

I will become politically active on behalf of the separation of church and state, or even run for an elected office.

On the face of it, it’s puzzling how one can be so committed to a nonbelief. How can a nonbelief become a cause to live for?

This “Commitment Page” bears a sneaking resemblance to the Convert’s Pledge Card that Billy Sunday used to employ. Also called the Decision Card, which the convert signs and dates. This often incorporated the Temperance Pledge.

Funny how a “nonbelief” parodies a full-fledged religious movement.