Edited: Responding to the "Great Silence" On Amazon

The "Great Silence" edited his Amazon review. Now it begins with something false:

Edited to add : if you ever consider writing a review of one of Loftus' books, even a reasonable one like below, first read what Loftus and his cronies will regard as fair comment on such review. See the insecure smear "article" on Loftus' blog in response to this review. So, before you comment on anything Loftus writes, know that not all these paragons of rationality allow criticism or fair comment. I really have no idea why his publisher would allow him to conduct himself like this.

You know what? This is one thing that really grates on me. He is anonymous. Get it, anonymous. We don't know how old he is, where he lives, or if he's really a "he". I am a real person. This is my name. You can find out about me if you want to. But look at him, defending his honor and his name by smearing mine. This post below is the only thing I wrote about his review. It's still unchanged. How in the hell can I smear someone if he doesn't have a name? So tell you what, my faithful cronies, one and all, far and wide, vote his review down.. ;-) It's not true. It's the "Great Silence(r)" who wants to silence me from commenting on his review. It was that way from the start. I'm dogged by so many stupid people that sometimes it just makes me ill.

In an attempt to censor me from commenting on Amazon reviews, the "Great Silence" (an anonymous confessing Catholic) showed up. He(?) says it's unprofessional for me to comment on Amazon reviews of my books. Nice try but I'm not biting. Some people actually like discussing a book with the author, and I oblige them sometimes. It offers a chance to learn more by doing so, good or bad. It produces one or two more rounds of counter-argument and counter-counter-argument, which can better help people in their search for the truth. He prefers the professionalism of other authors who don't respond to reviews on Amazon. However, they could be seen in a different light than one of praiseworthy professionalism. They just might view themselves as too good to lower themselves to the rank-in-file commenters on Amazon. Who knows?


Then he offers a kind of slapstick review of my book, "How to Defend the Christian Faith" [Doesn't that stand-alone title just sound juicy?!]. First slap my face (Ouch, that hurts!), then slap me on the back (Ahhhh, that felt good). Let me respond to him here then.

You might want to read what he wrote first. See what you think.

The "Great Silence" slaps my face about things that are irrelevant to what most potential book buyers want to know. Typos? Just two? We've fixed them, stay tuned. He's uncomfortable with an occasional swear word. "Masturbatory" is now a swear word. Got it. Am I offensive? Well sometimes it's the best way to indicate how little I think of pseudo-intellectuals posing as truth seekers. In chapter three I argued that our brains lie to us. So later, when it came to a few particularly bad arguments, I remind readers of this fact. The "Great Silence" doesn't like me debating with other apologists like David Marshall. Got it. It doesn't dawn on him where I learned how to argue my case. I did it by arguing online with real opponents. David Marshall is one of them. The "Great Silence" says he's tired of this. Got it.

The "Great Silence" steers would-be Christian apologists away from my book. He says the bulk of my book is repetitive. It offers very little that's substantively new. It's not an important book either. He claims to have read all of my books, "except the rather tedious Outsider Test for Faithtome." [How does he know it's tedious if he didn't read it? Inquiring minds want to know!] In short, the "Great Silence" is a believer who doesn't show a scintilla of awareness that most potential buyers have not read any of my books. It would be nonsensical for him to warn new readers there is little new in this book when compared with my others, or that it's repetitive of my previous works, precisely because they hadn't read them. So what would he say to THEM about my new book? We can only be sure he'd mention the above irrelevancies. He's also not writing his review for people who already read my previous works, for then he'd be found recommending books to them that they've already read.

The "Great Silence" slaps me on the back though, which was a relief! He says I'm an important atheist thinker. He says anyone wanting to properly engage in apologetics needs to engage me. He says this new book of mine is "a solid counter-apologetic book." He also highly recommends my essays in my anthologies, and specifically mentions that my chapter in The Christian Delusionon animal suffering "is an absolute masterpiece." Then he points potential readers to my magnum opus, Why I Became an Atheist.This is all very welcomed!

The problem is that his high praise of my work might get lost in his irrelevant quibbles.

Nonetheless, even though he praises my work highly, he complains about finding traces of the "infamous Loftus ego" in this book. I'm not sure I have any higher ego than others but I'll still respond to that. Where does my ego come from? It comes from people like the "Great Silence" himself! Based on what he just wrote, any atheist intellectual could imagine being slapped on the back and hearing the words, "You are the shit!"

So thanks for inflating it.

Thank you, thank you very much!