Customer Reviews

Does God Believe in Atheists

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My thirty-something old son gave me this book because he "believes" considerably more enthusiastically than I do. In fact, as a scientist (Fellow of the American Physical Society) I had come to a view very much characterized as "athiest" by Mr. Blanchard. I found the book, while tedius at times, to be the most thoroughly well reasoned arguments I have ever encountered on behalf of theism. His discussion of cosmology, which I know a bit about as a result of my profesion, convinced me that Blanchard does very good homework. His attack on Darwin has me looking for other books to read. Yes it is true that Blanchard is not a pluralist and treats many other religions unsympathetically, but he does it with the basically logical position that "you either have trust in, and a personal relationship with, an omnipotent God or you don't." Although I attend church with my wife, I haven't been provoked into thinking about these profoundly personal issues so thoroughly since I was in college. I am buying the book for a younger friend of mine presently threatened seriously by cancer. One of Blanchard's quotes hit home. He tells of an athiest who was asked by a family member to join in a visit to someone dying. "The athiest had nothing to say." Its a point.

In this book, Blanchard gives a fascinating tour of his view of the origins and history of atheistic thought in areas of philosophy, science, religion, etc., at the same time exposing their major weaknesses. He then leads the reader to the evangelical Christian view of theism, including major arguments for and against it.

I found this book a most refreshing and interesting read, despite the difficulty of many of the subjects covered. It is rare to find philosophical arguments put forth in an easy-to-comprehend manner, and Blanchard did it brilliantly. His excellent coverage of technical and scientific issues were also easily grasped and understood by a layman.

The approach of the book requires that the reader read it like a novel -- from start to finish. And the best thing is that it was so engaging that it did read like a novel (for me at least)! It was quite hard to put it down. Since this book is not meant as a pure reference book (IMO) where you jump to a particular topic and draw conclusions from there (unless you've already read the whole book previously), one can safely ignore the reviews from those who haven't read it from start to finish.

The only flaw in this diamond is that a number of the author's arguments presented are not watertight or conclusive. Many of the arguments are based on probability and likelihood (which he readily admits), which are not enough convince the dedicated atheist, although enough to sway a sufficiently reasonable and open-minded person. Perhaps I'm being too nitpicky by giving only 4 stars :)

That said, I find that this is still an excellent book, made even better by its readability. Any one interested in Christian apologetics MUST read this.

Not by definition, but the bigger question is whether there are any true atheists. John Blanchard goes through the entire atheist perspective from ancient Greek philosophers, to European thought leaders like Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and then existentialists like Sartre and Camus. He shows that although these people have a basically atheistic worldview, they all have some sort of basic beliefs that cannot be "proven" by the rational thought process that they so deify. Blanchard shows that the atheistic position is basically untenable, and contradictory. If there is no external point of reference, how can anyone make sense of what is real and what is not real with just their observations and cogitations. And of course there is the famous conundrum that to be a true atheist you must be sure and know that nowhere, at no place, at no time, has there ever been, exists, or will be any God. But to know that, he'd have to have infinite knowledge, which would mean he is a god!

Although I don't think this book will appeal to any atheists, I do challenge any openminded atheist to read through this book and convince himself that he could possibly know that there is no God.

For a Christian, this book is excellent in that it introduces you to all of the different thinkings of the world, and how people have tried to philosophize a reality without God. By the time you are done with this book, you will never again think that evolution or creation by random chance (for example) has even one leg to stand on. A long read, but very helpful, especially since we have been exposed to many atheistic philosophies without knowing what they were based on.

This book should be the foundation of your apologetics library. While there are other acceptable books in this catagory, Blanchard covers a very full range of topics. He successfully:

- covers a broad base of essential topics and an understandable discussion around them.

- is very readable and engaging. Even though this topic could get technical Blanchard has controlled that while giving us wonderful content.

- brings to the surface the critical points that we should understand while we talk with others.

All books like this one will have a host of "haters" so it's tough to know the good from the not so good. This is the place to start. Even though this book is over 600 pages long, it's easy to read from cover to cover (I don't find it easy to do that often). You will refer back to this one.

Waldean Wall
[...]

Summed up in one sentence, THIS BOOK EXPLORES THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS THAT ATHEISTS HAVE TO ANSWER.

The book is extremely informative--Yes, much is simplified (thankfully, since already it is a 600+ page book), but it is enough to exploit difficult questions that atheists have to answer. It gets to the core arguments quickly and effectively.

This is a great comprehensive book on looking at different philosophies and religions coming from a Christian perspective. I give it three stars because Blanchard does remove his biases out very well at times. I would give it five stars as a reference book, becuase he does hit almost on everything and is very well referenced.

After doing some research that and finding some rather weak arguments against atheism, I found a website that advertised books they claimed avoided the dumbing down of Christianity. I'm pleased to say the company (and the author) delivered.

This book covers atheism on both a scientific and philosophical ends. The first half covers most of the school's of thought that one would expect to hear about in a college philosophy class. The lamblast against secular-humanism was probably one of the best I've read. He also refuted moral relativism and such with some of the common theistic rebuttals. There was also a nice history-of-thinking lesson. Probably one of the best points he made was where he showed how even the most strident skeptics aren't content to live with moral relativity while still standing on soapboxes about God's non-existence.

The scientific half was mind-blowing though. From his book, I wouldn't call him a full-fledged young earth creationist, but believe it or not he still makes a strong anti-evolution argument in his "impossible things for breakfast" chapter which alone should be enough to get some head-scratching. However his section on the existence of matter brings out arguments I hadn't seen yet. His argument is that certain critical-for-life aspects of physics could not have just `happened' and neither we nor the universe would be here had other forces been slightly weaker or stronger.

The book avoids any mention of Christ until the last chapter, but it's here that the author concludes his book with a lengthy and well thought out exhortation for salvation. Something I wish more skeptics would seriously consider.

However, I will agree with the author just below me. If you're an honest skeptic (unlike many of those who reviewed this book but evidently don't like to read) and you're researching Christian theism, this may not be the best book for you. There are probably dozen other books out there that might be a better defense/explanation of Christianity as opposed to an argument against atheism if that makes any sense.

I'd recommend this book for any Christian though. Although it might be a rough start if you've never read any apologetics, I'd say it's a must if Apologetics is something you're serious about.

This book was helpful to me during a time of questioning in sort of reminding me, a lifelong Christian, why I believe what I believe: for reasons philosophical, ethical, and scientific, and furthermore, the alternatives are all philosophical dead ends if not also simply demonstrably false. The author does a good job in surveying various philosophical outlooks and how they deal with (or simply dismiss _a priori_ by fiat) the question of God. The conclusions he comes to seem quite clear and natural, although of course there is no arguing with the person who simply decides not to believe in God.

In the section where he discusses other religions, his tone turns unfortunately dismissive and belittling. I agree with his conclusions, but it may be that this book is a bit too ambitious for its own good; dealing seriously and thoroughly with the beliefs of various religions takes more space than is allotted for it in this already wordy volume, and the brevity of his treatment of the subject is a bit glaring. Although I seriously call into question another reviewer's contention that Blanchard's definition of God would leave most "mainstream Christians" out of the loop (does mainstream now mean "too conventional to care what the Bible says"? If so, then paint me "fundamentalist", and I'll let you follow the crowd), I think Blanchard's tack of fixing the label "atheist" on everyone who disagrees with him is a bit harsh, and not a good way to win people over to your point of view.

Overall, though, Blanchard does a very commendable job of bringing discussions of various topics to bear upon the strong and diverse evidence of the reality of the God of the Bible. A funny thing about this book is that sizable swathes of it could simply be titled "John Blanchard vs. Richard Dawkins," as the latter is quoted very liberally here. A debate between the two might be interesting, although it might be said that Dawkins wouldn't even be willing to take seriously the ideas discussed in this book. Does kind of tell you who is *really* small minded after all.

By the way, if you'd prefer the point of view of someone who hasn't actually read the book, please proceed to the review below this one... tell a little lie indeed...

I found this to be an excellent overview of the subject. Remember (other reviewers) that it is more in depth than most overviews of the subject, but it is by no means exhaustive. I have found in my study of the topic (really any topic) that no single book can cover everything at complete length. This book however, covers most of the main issues related to the topic in enough detail to raise questions and peak further interest in the mind of truly open-minded, rational thinkers. I found most of the argumentation sound and without problems with regard to the rules of logic and reasoning. Use it as a starting point for further study.

Like other reviewers, I think this is a must for all Christians. When I was finished reading it my faith was definitely strengthened. I have also used the arguments and information in this book springboards into discussing the subject with other intelligent, logical, rationally thinking atheists, with good results.

Not since the Wizard of Oz has the ruling and dominant Western mindset been so thoroughly revealed for what it really is...a sham. Blanchard researched this book so thoroughly that it can be said that no stone has been left unturned. The scope and comprehensive nature of the book make it sufficient in itself to address any number of atheistic arguments...a must have for the Christian student in a seculart university who finds himself besieged with antisupernatural arguments which are, in fact weak and without basis. Get it, read it and be enlightened.