PDF 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian 50 Series Guy P Harrison 9781616147273 Books

Product details Series 50 Series Paperback 350 pages Publisher Prometheus Books; First Printing (Numerals Begin with 1) edition (March 19, 2013) Language English ISBN-10 161614727X

50 Simple Questions for Every Christian 50 Series Guy P Harrison 9781616147273 Books Reviews

• This book tells nothing but the author oppion of the way he see it. There no references given that one can do any research on.
  I regret ever buying this book, and will burn it as I would not want to pass along things that are not true.
• This was a very well written and interesting book. The 50 questions were well selected. The discussion of each question was of appropriate depth although there was not a great deal of originality. Most of the novelty came from the author's personal anecdotes which not only highlight his interesting career but lend an immediacy to the questions. Harrison's writing is accessible to the layperson but is adequately documented for those wanting to check sources for some of the claims made.
  
  At the same time I thought the book somewhat disingenuous. Despite repeated statements about being respectful and to not condescend I don't think the author pulled that off. The book reads more like a prosecutor's opening statement than a respectful conversation. I couldn't shake the impression that Harrison not only does not share the Christian's faith he has very little regard for it.
  
  Thus, the book will probably not reach its intended audience. I think a better strategy would have been to say that he is aware the book will ruffle feathers and to beg the reader's indulgence. The gulf between believer and non-believer is probably too wide to bridge in one book. Still, the questions raised are important and the book does an excellent job of staking out the atheist position and it can be recommended from that standpoint.
  
  The edition is formatted almost perfectly with everything being linked including the index.
• I am so thankful that Mr. Harrison wrote this book. I would love to send it to every "Christian" that I know. BUT, I know that it would just (at least in most cases) be dismissed as a work of "The Devil". Even the temptation to read it could be considered "The Devil" tempting them.
  
  I believe that I was born with extra skeptic genes because I always had questions for my Sunday School and Bible Study teachers (varying degrees of Evangelicals) that were of a "heretical" nature (to put it mildly). I was not trying to be argumentative; but many, many biblical things just did not make sense to me. Although my mother taught me to question things, I learned very young that the Bible was a special exception for my questioning nature. I had no one who was "safe" to talk to or to whom I could direct questions. I wish there had been a book of this kind that I could have read as a child or young adult - but back then I might have just dismissed it because I was still to deeply involved with/by the head games of Evangelical Christian teachings!
  
  I became a "born again Christian" (an inevitable result, I am sure, or wanting to belong and share experiences with the only social group in my life) but I really had to try very hard to believe that I actually did believe because there were always those questions - those nagging unanswered questions - or at least unanswerable questions - for which the "you have to believe by faith" approach slowly proved to be of absolutely help for me because even praying for that faith was not helpful.
  
  I struggled for many years before I finally gave myself permission to not believe and to accept that my questions were reasonable and logical to ask. By then my well-meaning born-again Christian Mother was dead. How I wish I had had the courage to speak up before her untimely death. I had been brow-beaten by her for many years about "never having had a personal relationship with Christ" or else, she said, I could not act (or believe) as I did (what ever that meant - since I did not discuss religion on any level with her as an adult). I always defended myself because, after all, I HAD been "born again" and it surely seemed as though (back then) that I was experiencing something!
  
  I still struggle over issues like whether we humans have souls and if there is a continuance of existence for us on any level after our earthly death. Nowadays I do feel pangs about that - and really do wonder "is this all there is?". I still struggle over "personal experiences" in my own life that caused me to believe in the possibility of ghosts (not recently), and perhaps (a really big perhaps) reincarnation. (I am and always have been skeptical of "psychics", etc.) AND, I continue to struggle with the issue of whether or not there is/was one single controlling intelligent force that "created" everything. I cannot prove that there is or is not one single force - or maybe a committee (which could go a long way to explain some things), and likewise, I cannot prove or disprove the "Big Bang Theory". One of my childhood questions was, "If God made everything, who made God?". In the case of the "Big Bag Theory", where did all that stuff come from that banged so big.
  
  So, I am still assailed by many unanswered and maybe unanswerable questions - or at least theories that I am unable to wrap my finite mind around. But this I DO KNOW - AND KNOW FOR SURE - that I am a much happier person "not knowing" or pretending to "know" any god or his/her relatives or spiritual messenger/s.
• This is the best book I have read giving the atheistic view of religion. I can't imagine any Christian having a better, more lucid, response to those 50 questions than the author provided. It reinforced many of my reasons for leaving Christianity and choosing the skeptic's path. I'm amazed at how much more clearly I've learned to evaluate claims, religious and otherwise, since I've jettisoned my faith system. When you have religious faith (in my case, a Catholic perspective on reality), you really are susceptible to believing in other fantastic and unlikely claims. I finally feel like an adult, with confidence in my ability to evaluate information. I would recommend this book to anyone, religious or not, who wants to understand how atheists evaluate religious ideas and dogmas. Guy Harrison does it with a gentle and respectful approach. I wish I'd had this book 20 years ago when I tried to explain my loss of faith to family and friends. Thanks, Guy!
• Excellent book, but it does have some wording that might be taken as condescending to "true believers." However, they are the very ones who should read it. Biblical contradictions are exposed, as is the humanity of atheists. Commonsense thinking about the religious versus nonreligious, about religion and science, and vital questions about Christianity or any religion versus the myriad other religions that are out there and have been long before the Judeo-Christian god finally arrived on the scene. As a college instructor of Anthropology, that is important for me to get across to my students, especially those who think everything began with the Judeo-Christian god. Humanity was around long before that and they all had their own ideas of the supernatural, spirituality, and religion.