h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wanted to start a separate thread for this question, so if the other one takes off and develops into serious discussion, I won't be responsible for its derailment into topic drift.

Poking through some convos on the FFFF forum, I stumbled across a link to the "testimony" of a former Christian who rejected the faith. She'd made reference to a book which piqued my interest, "Farewell to God" by Charles Templeton, once right-hand man to possibly the biggest proselytizer in the US, Billy Graham.

I've heard it's by no means a comprehensive study of atheism, but rather breaks down the Bible and exposes its most fundamental lies and inaccuracies. I was interested in perhaps reading the book, in hopes of it helping me to better organize my arguments against when dealing with those who criticize my lack of religious faith.

I'd like to be able to argue logically and factually, as opposed to on the same level as most of the folks I'm dealing with. Their argument is usually along the lines of "but you just have to believe, and God will show himself to you". I need a hands-on way to argue that this is comepletely irrational.

Has anyone else read this book, and if so, what did you think of it? Is it worth my time? Should I borrow it from the library, wait for a really cheap used copy, or is it worth investing about $10 in and keeping on the bookshelf for future reference?

This sounds interesting. There was also a recent documentary over here (in fact, I think it was shown on Xmas day, bizarrely) in which a young British evangelist researched the background to the way the bible was written and discovered it is a patchwork from several sources - so maybe not the authoritative word of god after all. You should also check out the Sceptic's Annotated Bible (or is it 'Skeptic's'?) online. They have the Qu'uran and Book of Mormon too.

But, but, but...British state Christianity is different. The Anglican church has had a long history of not taking the Bible literally. Researcher Recumbantman's hero, George Berkeley A3472986 was hardly a 'Bible Believing Christian' but found it convenient to be in the church (he was Bishop of Dublin!). In recent years, David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham - 3rd highest post in the church - courted controversy in the late 80's by questioning the literality of the resurrection. And the recently retired Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, is a thouroughly sound bloke who has written several books which espouse views not inconsistent with atheist humanism. (eg 'Godless Morality')

So...I'm not sure there's much mileage in exposing the obvious pottiness of the Bible. It seems like shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe the really tricky question is why so many otherwise perfectly sensible people can't seem to shake off the idea of God.

Isn't it strange, by the way...America is a predominantly Christian society with a constitutional separation of church and state. Britain is a largely secular society with an established church. Go figure! (And in Germany, you register your faith with the government and part of your taxes go to your church. And in France, all religions are banned from schools, as is the wearing of crucifixes or hijab. And headscarves and skullcaps are banned from all government buildings in Turkey.)

>Isn't it strange, by the way...America is a predominantly Christian society with a constitutional separation of church and state. Britain is a largely secular society with an established church.<

That is kind of strange. It does seem that while Britain has an established church, religion and religious "morality" come to play in political decisions and social programs a lot less frequently. Here, where we're supposed to have that separation of church and state, those so-called christians certainly do have a lot of influence on society and government in the long run.

If I'm going to get any mileage out of sources that expose the pottiness of the bible, it's going to be because of the people who are actually part of my life now who do take that book as quite literally the "word of god". I was hoping that reading some materials by other folks who'd left the christian faith, and being able to take a more scholarly approach to back up my arguments, would make me less like the people I'm arguing against in that at least *I* did some research that supports my beliefs (or lack thereof, depending on your prespective).

>Maybe the really tricky question is why so many otherwise perfectly sensible people can't seem to shake off the idea of God.<

*That* is the million-dollar question. It's a source of great sadness to me to see people that I care about, otherwise reasonable, sensible, and downright good people who can't let go of that crutch.