The Christian Delusion: Why Faith FailsJohn W. Loftus In this anthology of recent criticisms aimed at the reasonableness of Christian belief, a former evangelical minister and apologist, author of the critically acclaimed Why I Became an Atheist, has assembled fifteen outstanding articles by leading skeptics, expanding on themes introduced in his first book. Central is a defense of his "outsider test of faith," arguing that believers should test their faith with the same skeptical standards they use to evaluate the other faiths they reject, as if they were outsiders. Experts in medicine, psychology, and anthropology join Loftus to show why, when this test is applied to Christianity, it becomes very difficult to rationally defend. Collectively, these articles reveal that popular Christian beliefs tend to rely on ignorance of the facts. Drawing together experts in diverse fields, including Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, David Eller, and Robert Price, this book deals a powerful blow against Christian faith. |
Contents
Foreword | 9 |
Introduction | 15 |
The Cultures of Christianities | 25 |
Christian Belief through the Lens of Cognitive Science | 47 |
The Malleability of the Human Mind | 65 |
The Outsider Test for Faith Revisited | 81 |
The Cosmology of the Bible | 109 |
The Bible and Modern Scholarship | 148 |
The Darwinian Problem of Evil | 237 |
Jesus Myth and Method | 273 |
Why the Resurrection Is Unbelievable | 291 |
At Best Jesus Was a Failed Apocalyptic Prophet | 316 |
Christianity Does Not Provide the Basis for Morality | 347 |
Atheism Was Not the Cause of the Holocaust | 368 |
Christianity Was Not Responsible for Modern Science | 396 |
Contributors | 421 |
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