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The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails

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This newly published book is an anthology containing 15 chapters written by 9 scholars, most of which were at one time conservative Christians. It surveys the problems with Christianity from a number of different angles--sociological, psychological, scientific, historical, and biblical. It is the probably the single best volume available today to debunk evangelical Christianity. It brings together a variety of arguments into one work, that prior to its publication, would have required one to sift through dozens of books to find them. While there are some areas that still could be covered, for example, the immoral and illogical nature of the atonement (a topic near to my heart), nevertheless, it covers most of the bases.

Chapter One is written by anthropologist David Eller and discusses how Christianity is a phenomena that can be understood purely on cultural and sociological grounds.

Chapter Two is by psychologist Valerie Tarico who examines the concept of belief (or faith) as it is presently understood by neurologists and shows that it is rarely based on evidence or arguments.

Chapter Three is by pharmacist Jason Long who deals with how religious ideas develop in people and how they hold on to them regardless of the evidence.

Chapter Four is by former Pastor and Christian apologist John Loftus who explains his Outsider Test for Faith. He invites people to "step outside" of their belief system and evaluate their religion in the same way they would evaluate a religion that they do not hold.

Chapter Five is by librarian Ed Babinski who has studied Young Earth Creationism extensively. He clearly presents the pre-scientific understanding of the cosmos as held by biblical writers and shows that it is impossible to reconcile that understanding with what is currently known in science.

Chapter Six is by author (The Rejection of Pascal's Wager: A Skeptic's Guide to the Bible and the Historical Jesus ) Paul Tobin who shows that the historical criticism of the Bible reveals that it contains errors, inconsistencies, myths, legends, and forgeries.

Chapter Seven has John Loftus returning to demonstrate how the Bible fails to communicate clearly. He shows how interpretational conflicts over the meaning of Scripture has led to millions of deaths as well as untold suffering through the ages. He argues that one would expect an omniscient God to be able to communicate his will in a much better fashion.

Chapter Eight is by biblical scholar Hector Avalos and discusses why the God of the Old Testament is a cruel and monstrous tyrant in spite of Christian apologists attempt to justify him.

Chapter Nine is my favorite chapter in the book. In it John Loftus returns to lay out the problem of animal suffering and examine 8 different ways Christians have tried to reconcile that suffering with a good God. He shows convincingly that each Christian answer fails and that there is no reconciliation possible.

Chapter Ten is by NT scholar Robert Price who, in his own unique and sarcastic way, demolishes the attempts by evangelicals to wiggle out of the implications of biblical criticism.

Chapter Eleven is by historian Richard Carrier who applies the Outsider Test of Faith to the "historical evidence" put forward by Christian apologists for the resurrection. He demonstrates conclusively that if one treats the NT as historians treat every other ancient document, the teaching that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead is untenable.

Chapter Twelve brings John Loftus back again to show that Jesus of Nazareth is but one in a long list of failed apocalyptic prophets. He demonstrates that Jesus taught the world would end in the lifetime of the disciples and that all of the first century believers including Paul thought Jesus would return at any moment. He goes on to show how Christians have had to rethink their eschatological ideas in light of the failure of Jesus to return.

Chapter Thirteen is a repeat performance by David Eller in which he explodes a commonly held myth that morality must be based on a divine being. He proves that morality is merely an expression of one's culture.

Chapter Fourteen has Hector Avalos returning to deal with the argument put forward by Christians that the holocaust and the other atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler were a result of Darwinian or atheistic ideology. He shows that instead Hitler's motivating factors were actually the example of the Roman Catholic Church and the teaching of Martin Luther about the Jews.

Chapter Fifteen is another essay by Richard Carrier in which he shows the absurdity of the Christian claim that modern science is based upon the precepts of the Christian worldview.

Once again, this is an excellent volume and I highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to examine the evidence and think seriously about the Christian faith. I am sure many Christians will be afraid to read it or even advised by their leaders not to read it. But as Socrates is reported to have said: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

I purchased this book expecting it to be a review of material I had already become familiar with through authors like Bart Ehrman and Dan Barker. While there is some overlap, there is a wealth of additional material here that goes beyond the usual points raised in the critical examination of christianity. The inclusion of substantial content from the perspectives of psychology, anthropology and ancient history makes this book more than just a polemic; it's a nice anthology that provides the buyer with a broad range of discourse that has very uncomfortable implications for theism. All of the authors provide thorough references for their contributions, which is a plus for the intended audience of this book, i.e., any critical reader who is loath to take a statement or an assertion "on faith", regardless of which side (or the middle) of the fence you sit. Another plus for this book is the fact that the authors take time to examine various lines of apologetics with respect to several of the chapter topics and why they believe they are philosophically untenable, historically implausible or distort scientific fact.

It's easy to find books that bash religion (or atheism, for that matter) on superficial levels, and while some parts of this book have an aggressive tone, none of the authors resorts to trite or ad hominem arguments to make their points-they rely on depth of scholarship which makes this a highly readable, if sometimes complex, addition to the increasing body of works critical of christianity and religion in general.

My only complaint is there wasn't a hardback version. If there is a book that warrents a hardback edition, it it this one. That is really my only criticism. I too am a former Christian. In fact, I came from the same religious fellowship as John Loftus. I like his writings because he tends to approach topics from the same point of view I do. His book 'Why I Became an Atheist' was thorough and handled some issues that other writers from more mainline evnagelical writers tend to overlook. I always love the work of Richard Carrier and Robert Price. The chapter on the resurrection by Carrier was strong as usual. It was like a small preview of his own upcoming book on the historicity of Jesus which I know will be awesome. Babinski's chapter on Biblical comsmology was very informative. The more I learn about other ancient religions I see parallels in creation, not only from Genesis but all over the Old Testament. In this chapter Babinski lays out not only the references to the non-biblical texts but also lists the ones found in the Bible; dealing with everything from the creation stories to the flat earth, etc. This proves to me that any claim to inspiration by an all knowing god is foolishness. Why would god describe in his guide book to a lost humanity a false picture? He being all knowing, he should have seen that one day mankind would find out the truth concerning the spherical nature of the earth. I let me guess; he's testing us. Right! I hope this book will be read by many and highly circulated. I bought three just so I could loan them out to those lost in the darkness of confusion.

I don't think any atheists believe any one book will destroy a global religion in like a year. Atheists know it will be a process. I think anti-theists can be proud of their accomplishments however. They've already dropped enough hammerblows on religion to the point where only a very small % of Christians would seriously try to say the Bible is literally true. Christianity has just become meaningless in Europe and it's well on it's way in the US. Christianity is so bankrupt in the US that books are written by insiders yearly decrying the pathetic state of Christianity in the US. Joel Osteen is the "leader" of the US church and I don't think he has even read the Bible. "Christless Christianity", "Christianity-lite", the prosperity gospel, biblical illiteracy rule the US church. The dirty little secret of American Christianity is that true Christianity is losing. It's dying. And it's thanks to books like this we can look forward to a future of an irrelevant church. That alone is read this book. Anyone who has questions or doubts owes it to themselves to read this book. This book is a fantastic tome that starts with the cognitive gaps that allow religion to build in the first place, and then drops atom bombs on the Christian faith. Many will seriously doubt and even lose their faith as a result of this book. About as savage attack on Christianity to be found by people who can do the best job at, former believers..

...on balance the tepid essays are more memorable for being forgettable than the good ones are for being good.

There are some real stand-outs, and I thought Hector Avalos and Richard Carrier in particular brought their "A" game. Loftus's piece on animal suffering was quite good and provided a useful and interesting perspective that I have not seen commonly addressed. But the "Outsider Test of Faith" (OTF) device that Loftus touts--some might say flogs--is not as interesting as he seems to think it is. Certainly it is not revolutionary. As a technique within a list of ways to approach religion skeptically, sure, it has plenty of merit, but as an overarching framing device that actually benefits from defense--I don't see the extraordinary value.

For those unfamiliar with the "OTF," it basically comes down to recognizing that there are things in one's own belief system that we would be skeptical of in another person's belief system. Sort of "remove the talking snake from thine own eye before trying to remove the talking elephant from my eye," or vice versa. As a heuristic for skeptical thinking about religion, there is something there to recommend, but it's just not made of substantial enough material to act as a main pillar in an argument, as Loftus seems to think it should.

Starting with much of the same material presented in "Delusion," a skillful editor with a free hand might have woven together quite a powerful book, but it would have been shorter, more to-the-point, and more abounding in personal touches. Some contributors, notably Robert Price, managed to adopt the style and tone that I thought would have been beneficial across all the book's content. Price is masterly in his use of pop culture references and playful turns of phrase, and other chapters suffered, in their stodginess, by comparison. I understand that the point of representing different voices is to present differing perspectives, and find that laudable to a point. Who doesn't love a good mix tape on a long car ride? But the unevenness of tone and quality is probably the book's most substantial flaw. It doesn't help that perhaps the book's weakest chapter is its first chapter. David Eller's sociological discussion didn't exactly start off the book with sparks a-flying. Just trading places with the second chapter, a very engaging and well-written piece by Valerie Tarico, would have helped matters in terms of pulling the reader in and getting her excited by the material that was to come.

Despite the sections I found tiresome, this is not an awful book. I am just left with the same question that I often came away with after reading similar efforts: Who was this for? The non-Christian will either be convinced of most of this stuff already (or indifferent to it); the devout but clueless believer will never engage with these arguments at all; and the professional Christian apologist will already have concocted three dozen excuses and work-arounds for the uncomfortable material. The audience it MIGHT have been for,the casual or cultural believer who enjoys thinking about metaphysics, could have been better and more easily swayed by a less scholarly (but no less rigorous) approach that contained more of the humanity that Price and Tarico brought to their respective pieces.

This book covers a ton of ground to the point where it is hard to do a solid review. This books consists of a bunch of articles by experts that discuss things that Christianity is "delusional" about. It is both expertly researched and fun to read. My favorite chapters are Bob Price's and David Eller's. However, they are all fun to read. IMO, it puts quite the beating on generally held Christian beliefs and is a solid recommendation for anyone who wants a book on the subject. This book is what the God Delusion should have been.

"What do I believe?" and "Why do I believe it?" are questions that can pursue a person for a lifetime. "The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails" (422 pages, Prometheus Books, March 31, 2010), edited by John W. Loftus, can lead to answers.

The authors are under no delusion that ordinary believers from childhood can be rescued. Faiths shield members from what is truth in the actual world. Elders, including loving parents, are constantly indoctrinating.

The title "The Christian Delusion" follows the bestseller, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Loftus and company's scope is narrower than Dawkins's, but no less atheist. They say "faith fails," yet they have no illusions that the arguments and evidence they present will spell the end of Christianity or religion. They also know that in any universally practical sense, atheism fails. In opening chapter 1, David Eller says: "One of the great mysteries is why, despite the best arguments against it, religion survives."

Dan Barker in the foreword says that in Europe "today most people are totally secular and the beautiful churches stand empty." (One could add: On whose backs did those stone edifices rise? In what hovels did they live?) Barker sees hope that for some thoughtful and lucky individuals there will be escape.

Barker, a former pastor, is given as copresident of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a group of atheists, who in December 2008 erected next to a nativity scene, an antireligious sign -- this reviewer remembers -- that quotes Robert G. Ingersoll: "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

In chapter 1 Dr. Eller speaks of "Christianities," another way of saying that within a country or continent, and across the globe, Christianity has taken many forms, borrowing from, and giving to, the many cultures in which it was planted. One responds: But of course. What else to expect? Eller emphasizes that culture insulates members from outside influences.

How can intelligent persons spend a long lifetime beclouded in a belief system that has been wrong from the start? This gets to the nature of belief itself. In chapter 2 Valerie Tarico explains that religious belief and experiences are now themselves a subject of scientific study. She comprehensively discusses how we acquire and hold on to our personal, social, and religious beliefs, and concludes that as believers "We are capable of sustaining elaborate systems of false belief and transmitting them to our children. We are capable of feeling so certain about our false beliefs that we are willing to kill or die for them." As by going to war, one would add. Dr. Tarico gives hope. Her conviction is: "Simply that supernatural explanations for religious experience are becoming unnecessary" and thoughtful believers can become aware.

In chapter 3 Jason Long begins by saying that "It is nothing short of an incomprehensible tragedy that anyone in this age of reason would have to write a book debunking a collection of ridiculous fantasies from an era of rampant superstition." (Editor Loftus notes that Long here is briefly summarizing the first pages of Long's "The Religious Condition: Answering and Explaining Christian Reasoning.") Dr. Long asserts that religious believers are the victims of society's psychological indoctrination. Unless some setback, such as loss of a job or a spouse or other loved one, causes the believer to question the efficacy and accuracy of his basic beliefs. Long says, "If the doubter wants to hear arguments from those with contrasting beliefs, where does he turn? To his atheist family members? To his atheist friends? To an atheist church? These probably don't exist." Eventually some doubters become glad to have had such troubles and to have lived long enough to see their own light. A difficult path, Long says, because "People who do not believe in God are the least trusted minority in America." Further, "Human beings are surprisingly gullible creatures. The ability to think skeptically is not innate; it requires practice."

John Loftus argues in chapter 4 that "the best way to test one's adopted religious faith is from the perspective of an outsider with the same level of skepticism used to evaluate other religious faiths." Christians understandably will view Islam with skepticism, as understandably will Muslims the Christian faith. Hence the difficulty but also the need of reaching an outsider's perspective in viewing one's own faith.

Loftus's part 2 is "Why the Bible Is Not God's Word." The only alternative is that the Bible is man's word. The assertions are by no means new. One religion finds that its own purportedly divinely written books are not held holy by others. "The Christian Delusion" compiles the evidence. In chapter 5 Edward T. Babinski reviews the cosmological accounts and phraseologies that predated Genesis's account of the universe's formation and accounts of floods and other natural calamities.

In chapter 6 Paul Tobin brings modern scholarship to bear on the Bible, as to inconsistencies, contrary archeological findings, "fairy tales," failed prophecies, and many forgeries. Tobin concludes: "The Bible is filled with so many diametrically opposite viewpoints that if they were present in a human being we would probably label that person bipolar or, even worse, schizophrenic."

In chapter 7 Loftus exhaustively delineates the barbarisms and moral problems in the Bible: inferiority of women and homosexuals, divine genocide (in the flood), apostates condemned to death, slavery accepted, polygamy, holy war, and slaughter are a few.

Part 4 of "The Christian Delusion" addresses "Why Jesus Is Not the Risen Son of God." Robert M. Price, in chapter 10, immediately points out that many "scholars have argued that the Gospels are myths about Jesus, not historical records." Dr. Price positions himself primarily against two apologists, Paul Rhodes Eddy and Greg Boyd. He argues against their book, "The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus." He says his discussion focuses on them but applies to evangelical apologists in general.

In chapter 11 Richard Carrier discusses that if the resurrection of Jesus is unbelievable, then so is Christianity. Dr. Carrier concludes: "That Jesus rose from the dead is an extraordinary claim, which requires extraordinary evidence. We have none." He also says: "The evidence strongly supports the conclusion that there are no angels, transmutations, flying or teleporting holy men, or gods of any kind, much less a god routinely engaged in producing miraculous wonders of the sort the Bible depicts throughout." And "that people simply don't rise from the dead because we can plainly see no god is doing anything like that."

Part 5 supports why society does not depend on Christian faith. In chapter 13 Dr. Eller, returning, says that his discussions establish that "Christianity is not the only basis for morality, since religion of any kind is not required for morality nor is humanity even required."

Chapter 14, by Dr. Avalos, also returning, discusses why atheism was not the cause of the holocaust.

The book closes with chapter 15, another discussion by Dr. Carrier, supporting that Christianity was not responsible for modern science. He concludes that "this new idea that Christianity was not only responsible but necessary for the rise of modern science is certainly delusional." He traces science's beginnings to evidence in antiquity.

The Christian Delusion is the answer to most of those little holes left over after The God Delusion. Red Herring topics that frequently come up in debates, like the claim that Hitler was an atheist, or that Christianity is the basis of our morals (both false, by the way) are answered firmly and confidently. Instead of writing the whole book himself, Loftus chose to make The Christian Delusion a compilation of essays, each covering a specific subject. This was a very intelligent decision for two reasons: first, it allows for an A-list authors that would sell out any Atheist convention, including: Richard Carrier, David Eller, Robert M. Price, Hector Avalos, Edward Babinski, Paul Tobin, Valerie Tarico, Jason Long, and, of course, John Loftus (there is also a forward by FFrF's Dan Barker). Second, the mutli-author technique allows each contributor to stay focused in their specific field of interest. The common apologist defense of questioning the qualification of any critical writer is thereby diffused. And credentials really are a moot point with this book; of the 10 authors, 6 of them have PhDs in their field and several of them are former Christians that turned to atheism after years of study.

The book is divided into 5 sections, each containing 2-4 articles. Some of the writing does get a bit dry at times (they are, after all, tackling some pretty challenging subjects), but the layout of the book easily allows the reader the opportunity to take one subject at a time.

1. Why Faith Fails - This section is probably one of the most needed in the world of Atheist/Christian dialogue. Instead of just pointing out perceived flaws in religious belief, these articles seek to understand and explain religious experiences through the social sciences. The articles explain how religion mixes into (and often gets confused with) the culture around it, how cognitive experiences, like a Transcendence hallucination, can easily can get confused with a supernatural experience (often called a "born again" experience), and how the human mind itself is wired to trick us and that without an emotionally detached method of looking at the world, like science, we would all be nothing but bias machines.

2. Why the Bible is Not God's Word - Critique of the Christian Bible occasionally takes too much of a center stage in Atheist writing. Responsible analysis of any ancient document takes a lot of patience and the discipline, not surprisingly, tends to to lose some people (either Christian or Atheist). I enjoy it, personally, but only because I genuinely find the subject matter interesting. I wouldn't actually use Biblical Criticism to argue an Atheist standpoint. Conversations that focus on Biblical critique can get messy and lead down alley ways that would require a find their way out. Loftus, though, cleverly keeps the focus of the 3 articles in this section very focused and to the point. Instead of pointing out every possible contradiction or mistranslation, the writers stay on task and make it quite clear that the Bible could not possibly be a reliable source of knowledge about a supreme being. I believe that this section would prove very beneficial to any Christian that believes the Bible to be "revealed knowledge".

3. Why the Christian God is Not Perfectly Good - Hector Avalos kicks off this section by refuting a past article by Paul Copan called "Is Yaheh a Moral Monster?" Hector concludes that he is. He does this by showing that Hebrew law code was not superior to that of the surrounding tribes and that biblical morals are unclear at best. John Loftus finishes it up with an article that points out how animal suffering in the world cannot be part of an omniscient god's plan.

4. Why Jesus is Not the Risen Son of God - Robert M Price examines (and refutes) Paul Eddy and Greg Boyd's apologetic book, "The Jesus Legend", which attempts to argue for an historical Jesus. Then Richard Carrier tells us "Why the Resurrection is Unbelievable" with enough clarity to make anyone ashamed to have ever bought into the idea to begin with. John Loftus then gives us a best case scenario for who a man named Jesus at the center of a 1st century religious movement could have been. Hint, the answer has more to do with social rebellion than it does saving souls.

5. Why Society Does Not Depend on Christian Faith - The topic of this section is a big one lately, when every religious zealot with a television camera pointed at them has been making the astounding claim that Christianity is the glue that holds society together. Aside from this being a bigoted and xenophobic viewpoint to make, it's also false. David Eller shows that not only is Christianity not a necessary basis for morality but, no religion is. In "Atheism was Not The Cause of the Holocaust", Hector Avalos shows that not only was Hitler not an atheist, but that he had expressed that he expected to be rewarded in heaven! This will be a very handy article to pass on the persistent trolls that still like to claim, despite loads of contradictory (and easily available) evidence, that Hitler was an atheist. Richard Carrier then closes the book by completely blowing apart the bogus assumption that Christianity was (somehow?!) responsible for modern science.

The Christian Delusion is, all in all, a very well thought out book. It covers most of the arguments one might run up against when conversing with apologists that aren't covered by the more broad "The God Delusion". While none of the articles will be the final word (the subject of each article could very easily fill a book of their own), all the authors have meticulously sourced their articles to make any further research easy. And, let's face it, at this point, anyone still adhering to any form of literal Christianity just isn't paying attention.

I grew up with a Mid-westerner's questions about the Christianity that surrounded the places of my youth. Based on the way my God-fearing, but non-religious, family taught me and the way neighbors talked and acted, I imagined that no one had come up with much skepticism about bible things. I was too lazy and uninterested to study the bible and locate the unbelievable magic and contradictions I figured were there.

But as I approached secular middle-age, I begin to wonder what measurable good people like Billy Graham had done with their religion. I became well aware of the trouble Christianity, and other faiths, had caused throughout history. And, of course, I begin to see what terrible things can occur here in the 21st Century in the name of religion, even though the Christians seem to have settled down to be little more than pests.

I read people like Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and came away thinking that they had a pretty good handle on religion, but somehow failed to address all those decades of suspicions I had suppressed in order to, sort of, fit in with the military and professional groups of my adulthood. John Loftus, however, in this book, "The Christian Delusion" has opened new horizons for me. Especially, by giving Dinesh D'Souza his deserved comeuppance, Loftus and his companion authors have shown me where the foundations of common sense atheism lie.

Bravo to Loftus and his contributors! I think that it's high time we "get over" religion and I imagine this book could be of great use to others like me who have too long allowed the superstitious and ignorant to prevail.

Other reviewers have said it far better than I. This is a very diverse and well-written collection of essays exposing the fallacies of faith-based "reasoning". It belongs on every skeptic's bookshelf. Highly recommended.