My Books are Hogging Up Too Much Shelf Space at Barnes & Noble ;-)

Nate Christensen took this photo when visiting his local Barnes & Noble store. It's of the atheism bookshelf. I never expected this when I started writing and editing books, but it sure looks good to me. My magnum opus is on the left and my four anthologies in the middle. Every one of my books does something that few other atheist books have done before them (to my knowledge anyway). [See below for why I say this.] This isn't about me though. It's about arguing the Christian delusion into the ground. Most Christians are not paying attention but they should.


Why I Became an Atheist is a rare scholarly atheist book that presents a cumulative case against Christianity covering all of the major issues. It's one of a rare number of truly counter-apologetics works out there written by a single author. Most scholars only write on single topics since no one can be an expert on everything. Christians have been putting out these types of books for centuries, as far as I can tell. Few atheist scholars have done likewise. But I did, despite the fact that I'm not an expert on everything I write about, and have been nitpicked to death because of it, even by some atheists. Furthermore, none of the Christian apologetics books contain lengthy personal stories, despite the fact that arguments are accepted or rejected because of the influence of one's own personal life-story, to some degree. So in my book I challenge apologists to emulate my example by telling their personal stories in future apologetics books (and yes, we get it, you were all atheists before embracing Christianity--but then, believers are all practical atheists anyway).

The Outsider Test for Faith is the first book defending the need to look at faith from an outsider's perspective. Of it, Richard Carrier wrote:
Though this idea has been voiced before, Loftus is the first to name it, rigorize it, and give it an extensive philosophical defense; moreover, by doing so, he is the first to cause a concerted apologetic to arise attempting to dodge it, to which he could then respond. The end result is one of the most effective and powerful arguments for atheism there is. It is, in effect, a covering argument that subsumes all other arguments for atheism into a common framework.
My anthologies, starting with The Christian Delusion, are unique in that they contain fresh essays written by experts on a variety of important counter-apologetic topics. Almost all other atheist anthologies reprint previously published journal articles and/or selections from other books. What I have done is much harder than merely contacting journals to include essays in a book. I must come up with topics and find the experts who are available at the time to write on those topics. Then there are deadlines and the endless editing and the need to get blurbs, along with the usual stuff when dealing with a publisher. One book editor friend I know, who did an anthology like this, said he would never do it again. It's time intensive work, but the effort is worth it because our cause is just.

My book How To Defend the Christian Faith: Advice From an Atheist offers advice to Christian apologists on how to do apologetics correctly. My argument is that if they did it correctly they wouldn't be apologists at all, for not even the most educated or intelligent apologists can defend the indefensible. I doubt such a book has ever been written before, especially by someone who was trained as an apologist. It's like a tell-all book on how apologists operate!

My soon to be released book Unapologetic: Why Philosophy of Religion Must End, will present one of the first sustained cases, if not the first, for ending philosophy of religion in the secular universities of today. I go on to show how religion should be treated correctly, whether in the university setting or on the street.

I should mention the book God or Godless. It's a unique book too, but not because of anything specific I did. It was co-written with Randal Rauser. He was the mad genius mastermind of the book concept, so he gets the credit for it. The chapters are short and sweet, containing concise debates on some interesting topics not usually discussed in similar debate books. It's like a bathroom reader. Before wiping you'll have read something good! ;-) It's for people with a short attention span who need something new and easy to digest and/or for those with constipation. ;-)

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If there are comparable works let me know. I may be wrong. One thing's for sure is that on one Barnes & Noble bookshelf my books are hogging up too much shelf space! ;-)

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