"Best Books" (or most popular)
on Atheism vs. Christian Theism
CHALLENGE BEGAN 1/1/2010 -- QUIT BY JUNE 2010 (sorry!) These are all books that I currently own, but haven't read thoroughly yet. This list is in preparation for: Evaluation of the "New Atheism": Atheist Arguments and Christian Responses -- another "unfinished" project that will be written when I complete this list of books covering the "new atheism" and the best Christian theist responses. This is a rather "loose" schedule (2 weeks between each set of atheism vs. Christian theism books) which should give me plenty of time to read (and evaluate) these books. NOTE: turns out I did not have time to finish this list. Unfortunately, I abandoned my reading schedule in June 2010 due to a full-time job received in March. Someday I hope to complete this list, and the "evaluation of the 'new atheism' " article above. Many of these "older" books I was already very familiar with in the past, and have perused them at libraries, and now own many of them due to excellent used online booksellers like www.AbeBooks.com I do this as an amateur Catholic apologist who has studied his faith very seriously the past 20+ years (I am 44). I am not trained in philosophy so I may have trouble understanding the more complex books in the later sections. We'll see what happens....Pray for me...or not... Faith-O-Meter at start:
Began 1/1/2010.
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) and the audiobook read by Dawkins and Lalla Ward (his present wife). Finished 1/15/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the book / audiobook: text Began 1/15/2010.
Dawkin's God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath (Wiley-Blackwell, 2004) Finished 1/30/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the books: text Began 2/1/2010. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris (Vintage Books, 2006, 2008)
and audiobook Finished 2/15/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the books / audiobooks: text Began 2/15/2010. The Dawkins Letters: Challenging Atheist Myths by David Robertson (Christian Focus, 2007) Finished 3/1/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the books: text Began 3/1/2010. God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger (Prometheus Books, 2008, 2007) Finished 3/15/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the books: text Began 3/15/2010. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig (Crossway Books, 2008, 3rd edition) Finished 4/1/2010. Faith-O-Meter:
Comments on the books: text This is the end of the "new atheism" books and a selection of the popular "Christian response" books. The list below these start to get harder, more philosophical, more difficult to assess and comprehend, but I will give them a try.... PhilVaz is taking two months off due to work....I will resume the "Debunking Christianity" challenge 6/1/2010. Dates have been adjusted forward two months. Hopefully I will have some commentary on the books I have read above....and continue with the much more difficult books below..... PhilVaz took the rest of the year off concentrating on his work. He will have to resume this "challenge" when he can. Next.... Begin by 6/1/2010 The Existence of God by Wallace I. Matson (Cornell Univ Press, 1965) Next.... Begin by 6/15/2010 Scaling the Secular City by J. P. Moreland (Baker Books, 1987) Next.... Begin by 7/1/2010 The Atheist Debater's Handbook by B. C. Johnson (Prometheus Books, 1983) Next.... Begin by 7/15/2010 The Gods of Atheism by Vincent Miceli, S.J. (Crown Pub, 1971) Next.... Begin by 8/1/2010 Atheism: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin (Temple Univ Press, 1990) This is the end of the atheism vs. theism books. Now we move to specific defense / rejection of Christian theism and apologetics. Next.... Begin by 8/15/2010 Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis Next.... Begin by 9/1/2010 C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion by John Beversluis (Eerdmans Publishing, 1985) Next.... Begin by 9/15/2010 Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli (Intervarsity, 1994) Next.... Begin by 10/1/2010 Why I am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (Touchstone, 1957) Next.... Begin by 10/15/2010 Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith by Scott Hahn (Doubleday, 2007) Next.... Begin by 11/1/2010 The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin (Temple Univ Press, 1991) Next.... Begin by 11/15/2010 The Son Rises by William Lane Craig (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001, orig Moody, 1981) Next.... Begin by 12/1/2010 Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology by Gerd Ludemann (Fortress, 1995) Next.... Begin by 12/15/2010 What's So Great About Christianity? (Regnery Publishing, 2007) Finally ending with.... by 1/1/2011 The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails edited by John Loftus (Prometheus, 2010) |
“I have a challenge for Christians. It’s a challenge few will take up, but let me offer it anyway, even though many expert Christian apologists have done it without a loss of faith. Other Christian thinkers struggle with their faith because they have done what I'm about to ask Christians to do. Still others....end up rejecting our former faith.
Do this. I’ll call this the Debunking Christianity challenge....read up on all of the top Christian apologetics books and then
[decide] in fairness to read all of the top skeptical books....Come on…what are you afraid of? If your faith can withstand our arguments then you will be a better informed Christian with a much stronger faith. If your faith cannot withstand our arguments then your faith wasn’t worth having in the first place. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!”
(John Loftus, Debunking Christianity blog,
1/2/2010)
