About book Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One Of America's Leading Atheists (2008)
This book needs to be understood within its context of which I am only aware of and perhaps feel lucky to have not experienced. It has therefore a purpose as it is a reaction to move away from a very specific american world-view on the topic of religion. Whether I felt convinced with his arguments is another question. I believe that there is more work that needs to be done to fully comprehend our view on belief and religion which are extremely complex notions intricately intertwined in our society and psyche. I felt that some of his argument and reasoning on morality and on the history of Christianity could have benefited from a more in-depth analysis. I have studied theology myself and am very familiar with the discrepancies when doing concordance of gospels sayings which raises awareness of the fallibility of these texts written generations after the events and containing multiple coping errors. Theologians are truly aware of all that. Also from a psychological point of view we know through witness testimony studies that our minds and memories can be misconstrued so easily. We need to face that we are not that good with narratives. I also believe that we should place ourselves on a continuum rather than extremes which history has repeatedly shown aches and pain to society. I totally agree with the author by saying it is important "to promote reason, science and human ethics over faith, superstition and orthodoxy". As for the rest I find his approach somewhat green. My question is why would I want to listen to a theologian telling me about quantum physics and the universe when I can read authors like Max Tegmark or Lawrence Krauss. On morality, I rather read Le Contrat Social de JJ Rousseau and so on. Still arguments from these can use for defence against the text of the bible which is easy to do as it is easy to criticise Roman and Greek thinking from texts left to us by Plato, Socrates and many others. With hindsight a lot is possible... I would raise caution to hindsight. There is a lot from an adult prospective we would not have liked to have do as a child. For me hindsight screams forgiveness, acceptance, clemency and mostly understanding. It is always easy to criticise the past but I believe that it should be remembered not forgotten or shunted as we certainly don't want to repeat some it but rise above it so to move forward as more mature human beings. I would have liked to read more of that. Godless is an interesting read for a couple reasons:First, it's written from a converted evangelical's point of view. Most books in this vein are written by lifelong atheists or the scientific elite. It's rare to find a true-believer that swung so far to the other side and rarer still to find such an examination of their evolution and reasoning.Second, Dan's is a very broad but rather shallow defense of atheism. He argues against religion on logical, moralistic, and literary/historical fronts without boring the reader or bludgeoning them with too much detail.Given those two traits, I would say this is a great starting point for those considering atheism and looking for an all-round primer wrapped in a decent conversion story. In it you can probably find the argument that resonates most with you and then pursue deeper, more intense examinations.This is definitely not a perfect book. Dan goes in to almost painful depth on his accomplishments both as a Christian and an atheist. Those entire sections read like laundry lists while adding little understanding. Also, since the defense is so broad I found myself suffering through some parts of little personal interest and wanting more on others.
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Personal story is interesting but looses me when he goes off into geekdom about ways to win debates
—nell14
Not exactly what I expected. But then again the author was preaching to the choir.
—Emily
An excellent read detailing Dan Barkers journey towards atheism.
—asano
