What Apologetics And Counter-Apologetics Books Do I Recommend?

I was asked for books I might recommend that would fall into the category of "best arguments for God/Christianity" and "best arguments against Christianity." I was asked because "I know you read and analyze these books fairly often, so I want to see the best both sides have to offer." My response follows. You may be surprised by it!

My Response:

Which type of Christianity are we talking about, fundamentalist, conservative, progressive or liberal? Which god, Yahweh, or one according to Paul, Peter,  Aquinas, Anselm, Schleiermacher, Barth or Bultmann? Which  sect of Christianity, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Unitarian, or one of the many other Protestant sects? 

It's a bit of a strange question, for I am being forced to choose which god and which Christianity are the true ones, or I must agree to an abstracted philosophical version of Christianity that very few Christians all agree upon. I cannot do that since there is no such thing as mere Christianity. There are books written by fundamentalists that many Christians can agree on but they come away with a wide variety of god concepts and Christianities. Also, I find none of them are any good. Christians have yet to produce any relevant objective evidence, period! 

Then I was asked about Jordan Howard Sobel and Graham Oppy's books. So I referred the inquirer to my book, Unapologetic: Why Philosophy of Religion Must End. 

Now here might be a surprise. If readers want to know the best counter-apologetics books then they come from former Christian believers. The more educated they are the better they are at debunking their former faith (although there are exceptions). Dr. David Madison has compiled the most extensive list of them, which can be seen here. 

Too often budding atheist university students, and self-taught atheist intellectuals, want the respect of the Christian opposition. So they read what the opposition claims are the best counter-apologetic books, and those books are almost always written by atheist philosophers of religion. Not liberals anyway, or progressives who rip evangelicals a new one either.  Not what I've seen. 

This is because philosophy of religion is a game, a Christian game. They have fine-tuned their obfuscations and will make shit up to defend the indefensible. Play that game and you're doing theology. You end up helping their theology to evolve. The more egregious and obvious example is the evolving mind of Randal Rauser, as we've been addressing. 

I think young budding intelligent atheists should beware when leading Christian fundamentalist/evangelical apologists highly praise and recommend a book criticizing Christianity. Take William Lane Craig's recommendations. 

Craig on Jordan Howard Sobel's book:

This is an impressive book, a truly extraordinary achievement. I can think of no other treatment of theism, whether by theist or non-theist, comparable to it. Its combination of wide-ranging scope and penetrating analysis makes it a unique contribution to philosophical theology. The product of a lifetime of study, Logic and Theism is testimony to Howard Sobel’s remarkable mastery of his subject, for very few contemporary philosophers could have written so comprehensive and incisive a treatment. SOURCE.

Craig on Graham Oppy:

Already reeling from Howard Sobel's hard left hand in Logic and Theism, natural theology is now staggered by Graham Oppy's smashing right in Arguing about Gods...Oppy's book is not merely recommended but essential reading for anyone interested in natural theology today. No one can pretend to a successful theistic argument unless he has dealt with Oppy's criticisms first. SOURCE.

Craig tells us Sobel and Oppy produced the best critiques of his faith, so why should you adopt that same position because he says so? Sobel and Oppy are better thinkers and logicians than I am, by far. But their perspective is off. 

Do Sobel or Oppy focus much on the following five powerful reasons not to believe, which are not philosophical arguments per se, but evidential ones? The best arguments against the existence of God are based in objective evidence. So the best ones are 1) against faith, blind faith, the only kind that exists; [see Peter Boghossian, George Smith, Michael Shermer]; 2) against creation on behalf of evolution and its implications; 3) against the requisite amount of  free will we need to avoid the "sin" that damns us and the faith that saves us; 4) against believing in miracles, and 5) against God from horrendous suffering. SOURCE. 

Philosophy of religion that does not stress the need for sufficient objective evidence, and its lack, is an innocuous intellectual chess game, one that avoids the real substantive issues.

I don't recall Craig ever saying the same things about other devastating books by Richard Dawkins or Jerry Coyne in science, or Hector Avalos, Robert Price, Robert J. Miller, Richard C. Miller, or Bart Ehrman in biblical studies, or critics of the resurrection like Michael Alter, Matthew McCormick, Jonathan Pearce, nor any of my books  and anthologies. 

Here is a list of twelve books I highly recommend. Craig should recommend them too, if he's honest about his faith. No wonder he does his best to ignore almost all of them!

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