Who Says One Book Can't Change Your Beliefs?

Previously I had asked whether reading one book could change a person's beliefs (#10 in that link). Apparently it can (well two anyway):
Hey John, just wanted you to know that I threw 20 years of Fundamentalist Baptist Bible teachings away because of your books. Thank you! Your books introduced me to the truth that there were no answers and that Christianity was absurd to the core! I was just more embarrassed that I didn't see what you saw, but that's what happens when you go to Christian Schools, Churches, and Camps....you only get one side of the picture! --Tim Zajac on Facebook.
So long as Christian defenders remain silent about my books more believers will walk away from their faith. This is probably the reason why New Testament scholar Dr. Dale C. Allison Jr., wrote his Blurb about The Christian Delusion:
Forget Dawkins. If you are looking for a truly substantial, well-informed criticism of the Christian religion, this is your book. Defenders of the faith will do believer and unbeliever alike a disservice if they do not rise to the challenge and wrestle with the thought-provoking arguments of Loftus and company.

11 comments:

Leah said...

I wouldn't say reading Dawkins changed my beliefs, because he pretty much just reiterated conclusions that I had already come to on my own, but he did convince me that it was okay to call myself and atheist.

John said...

Well, they've definitely changed some of mine. I'm no longer a Calvinist. I'm still waiting for some of the "heavyweights" to respond to your books before I let go of God completely. I'm not qualified for such a task. I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes wondering if I'm a fool for still believing in God. You've definitely knocked me off the horse I was on.

Emory said...

TCD is the one book. I came to the conclusion that christianity was a bunch of baloney on my own after 40 wasted years. I was perfectly okay never reading another thing either for or against religion. But when the elders were trying to get me to come back to the fold, not with the most loving comments but with "You don't sound like you can defend your position very well. Why don't you just come back to the truth?" comments, that all changed. I ordered 3 books right away (one was WIBA) and then TCD when it became available. It is now my mission to de-convert as many friends and family as possible.

Tyson said...

The book that I felt implanted "truth" in my life was the God Delusion, by Dawkins of course. Now I'm reading the Greatest Show on Earth.
I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and left about 10 years ago. The God Delusion confirmed thoughts I had in my head going back when I was 13 yrs old but was too afraid to talk about them. First thing you're taught is to never question...doubting is the devil at work.
Anyways loving life now that I'm unshackled and am filling my head with the beauty of what science has allowed us to discover.

Unknown said...

Mr. Loftus if you are interested the people at triablogue have done a rather large response to your book the Christian Delusion. It is called the Infidel Delusion.

http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2010/07/infidel-delusion.html#comments

GearHedEd said...

Holy crap!

There are still Calvinists lurking around on planet Earth?

Anonymous said...

Icouldbe, I contacted the contributors to see if any of them would like to respond to this hatchet job of an online book.

Here are some of their comments:

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Count me out. It's an endless treadmill.
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I have looked over their objections, and they are pretty superficial.
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I tend to agree that it is a fruitless venture, but if I have time I may inspect their work and see if there is a worthwhile response from my perspective. If so, I might attempt something.
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It’s a treadmill because they don’t honestly care about what is real (which in their minds is a foregone conclusion)—just about winning arguments. I’d rather spend my energy writing for people who are engaged in some kind of growth process.
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The “criticisms” are rather inept – they quote “scholars” who still assume Moses wrote the Pentateuch! I find it impossible that anyone who is aware even a little of modern biblical studies would take such criticism seriously. If they do, well, then one needs a book to educate them.
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Still, two or three of us will respond within a few weeks to their ignorant criticisms of our chapters.

Most of us have better things to do than respond to such drivel. If these arguments are considered good ones then it goes to show you that when it comes to faith any argument will do.

Cheers.

Grouchodawg said...

I had been a life long Catholic and had been interested in early Christian history and started reading several of Bart Ehrman's books and started questioning the dogmas of Christianity. Reading Christopher Hitchens - God is not Great, How Religions Poisons Everything - tipped me away from Christianity and your book - The Christian Delusion completed it. I've also red Warraq's book about Islam and Gold' book about Judaism and it confirmed to me that those religions are bunk, too. I'm convinced that man made god in his own image.

said...

George Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God did it for me. I was on the path toward disbelief, but Smith's book put me on the express train.

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

"Who Says One Book Can't Change Your Beliefs?"


Or maybe one documentary...

Unknown said...

You know Cole, you don't HAVE to not believe in a god or gods. Just don't believe in gods that others put forward as the one true god. Don't believe in gods of revelation, gods that make demands of "lesser beings" to do their bidding, gods that act like a man would act. It's claims like these that cannot be verified that are the root of the problem with religion. The root which pits man against man in one more respect in life when we have a multitude of other ways to disagree and argue/fight over things.

Personally, I think there may be a god out there. I guess I can't let go of it yet myself. I just can't believe in any of the gods proposed so far. Not anymore. They're too local to the area of the planet that they spawned from. Their psychological aspects mirror that of man too readily, and to me read like they reflect the mind of man more than they do a god. Why no injunction against slavery for the Christian god as an example... EVERYONE agrees nowadays that slavery is a bad thing but some people's greed and selfish motivations override their good sense and they do it anyway. Why the schizophrenic rantings of gods messenger in Islam? He sounded like the peaceful kind of guy for a while and then started losing his mind and ranting about evil and wicked punishments for people who disagreed.

It's just too damn loony for me to believe in anymore.

The thing is, with atheism, for me personally, it means very simply that you're just not a believer in a theistic god or gods. It doesn't necessarily mean you don't believe in a god or gods.