Precept Press

The Ultimate Truth-Seeker Challenge.

John W. Loftus. Atheist philosopher.

I have a challenge for Christians. It’s a challenge few will take up… even though many expert Christian apologists have done it without a loss of faith. Other Christian thinkers… end up rejecting [their] 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…

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!

So says John W. Loftus, author of the highly regarded tome “Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity“; the forthcoming “The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails“; and the popular blog “Debunking Christianity“.

One particular incarnation of this challenge is detailed on Luke Muehlhauser‘s delightfully intellectual blog, Common Sense Atheism. He recommends a reading list comprising 1, 183 pages of sceptical literature and 1, 104 pages of apologetic literature spread across the following books:

1. C. Stephan Layman - Letters to Doubting Thomas (240 pages). Presented as a series of letters between a Christian and an atheist, this book presents a case for God not based on the usual arguments but on why God is the ‘best explanation’ for the way things are. A careful and respectable case for God’s existence.
2. Guy P. Harrison - 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (354 pages). Each brief chapter explains one of the 50 most common reasons people give for believing in a god, and summarizes why skeptics are not persuaded by that reason.
3. William Lane Craig - Reasonable Faith (416 pages). A leading Christian philosopher’s defense of theism and Christian doctrine, with all the standard philosophical and historical arguments.
4. Paul Copan & others - Contending with Christianity’s Critics (304 pages). Eighteen major apologists respond to the New Atheists and other contemporary critics of Christianity.
5. John Loftus & others - The Christian Delusion (385 pages).¹ Michael Martin writes: “Using sociological, biblical, scientific, historical, philosophical, theological and ethical criticisms, this book completely destroys Christianity.”
6. Richard Swinburne - Is There a God? (144 pages). Many philosophers think Richard Swinburne has given the best evidential case for God ever conceived. This slim and attractive book is Swinburne’s own attempt to make his arguments accessible to the layman.
7. Richard Carrier - Sense and Goodness Without God (444 pages). A comprehensive case not just for atheism but for a full, enriching, purposeful, and moral naturalistic worldview.

John’s original challenge is framed as a “challenge for Christians”, but I’ve decided to test my atheism against the philosophical and scientific ideas of these leading authors.

In keeping with twenty-one other fellow Guinea Pigs, I will keep a blog of my thoughts after each book. There will be a link to this area of PreceptPress on Luke’s blog, so I imagine there will be a few trained philosophers perusing my musings. Apologies to you, in advance, for my layman-ism; I am but a mere lawyer. I trust that forgiveness is not a solely Christian pursuit.

Part one, Letters to a Doubting Thomas, has already been ordered from Amazon. Let’s see where this journey takes me.