Concise Criticism of Christianity (new book)

[Vito Lear]

Proud to be published on the Secular Web. Now online and soon to be out in print too. Any thoughts about this new book?

Bad Faith: A Concise Criticism of Christianity » Internet Infidels

In this short online book, Vito Lear presents a primer that outlines questions, issues, and evidence illustrating that Christianity has failed to meet its burden to prove its extraordinary claim to have the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Lear’s concise inquiry focuses on three...

infidels.org

 

[Politesse]

Irony, perhaps?

 

[Janice Rael]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Christianity claims to have the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

This is an extraordinary claim, so

The claim that "Christianity claims to ..." is on its face demonstrably untenable. This is a theological debate to begin with, one that can never be decided, due to the broad, ever-changing spectrum of variety in Christian beliefs.

Therefore, none of the rest follows.

Each of your own subsequent claims regarding the nature of Christianity are premised on such particular matters that they can't really be said to adequately or accurately address the things you say they address. How can they? Christianity is not concrete; no religions are.

Christians could say, to almost any of your own line items, that they do not believe this, they do not read this, this is not their teaching or theology, they do not require evidence in order to have faith, they do not care about this, or any number of things that could demonstrate any line of your booklet as not applying to them, or, therefore, to Christianity.

I'm not trying to be rude, Vito. But you went first, and you made an extraordinary claim, followed by a list of many more of your own claims and the claims of the authors you referenced. Your initial ideas are strawmen, or can be construed as such, since they do not necessarily apply to each aspect of Christianity. They can't; it's not possible.

 

[Gospel]

Janice's critique of the book generalizing Christianity is valid. While the book focuses on critiquing the most prominent forms of the religion, its weaknesses lie in its tone and the use of strawman arguments, as Janice noted.

The fundamental premise of the Old Testament is that God made greed, lust, and other sins inherent in human nature and then blamed us for them. Reportedly, God sent a snake to tempt Eve to eat an apple, and since she fell for this entrapment scheme, her children were doomed to suffer the consequences of 'knowledge' and 'free will.'"

While some Christian interpretations emphasize a literal reading of Genesis, many modern theologies interpret it metaphorically, focusing on themes like human nature, free will, and moral choice, rather than as an entrapment scheme by God. As such the above can arguably be considered a strawman.

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

While I agree with every single word here, the tone is not just critical but aggressively dismissive, making it harder for believers or more neutral readers to engage with the argument.

But the brains he gave us require evidence for faith, and our only evidence started as decades of oral legend, then Gospels and Epistles full of hearsay and contradictions, then twenty centuries of argument, schism, persecution, corruption, and sectarian war. This is our instruction manual for life?

This is sarcastic and dismissive, implying Christian scripture is unworthy of serious consideration. The shift from critique to derision weakens the argument, making it less persuasive to differing views.

While I found all these examples both entertaining and pleasant to read, they become problematic if the book isn't intended for an already agreeing audience.

Edit: I forgot to mention that despite my nitpicks, the book is overall fantastic and informative.