Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist [Hardcover]

Dan Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006

Tells Dan Barker's dramatic story of conversion from fundamentalist minister to atheist, after 19 years of preaching the Gospel. Presents arguments for atheism and godless morality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Losing Faith in Faith was helpful to me in my own break from the manacles of religious tyranny. Dan's book makes for both good sense and good humor. --Steve Benson, editorial cartoonist, Arizona Republic

Barker is compelling, humourous, and rational. His arguments are clear and thought-provoking. --Andrew Fandre, Huntsville Times

This book profoundly affected me. It's funny, and poignant, and most importantly, true! You must read this book. --Julia Sweeney, comedian, actress, "Saturday Night Live" alumna

Barker is compelling, humourous, and rational. His arguments are clear and thought-provoking. --Andrew Fandre, Huntsville Times

This book profoundly affected me. It's funny, and poignant, and most importantly, true! You must read this book. --Julia Sweeney, comedian, actress, "Saturday Night Live" alumna

From the Publisher

A challenge to believers; an arsenal for skeptics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187773313X
• ISBN-13: 978-1877733130
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (235 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

456 of 496 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful refute of Christianity. Score one for Skepticism. March 3, 2000

By "neeterskeeter27"

Format:Paperback

There is one word that can sum up the effect of this book for me: "powerful". Most of the books I have read about religion have been pro-religion and this is very different from the old "We need religion to fill the spiritual side of ourselves" claims they always make about it. These books produced a response from my heart, but this book produced a response from my mind. It makes the claim that there is no more evidence of God than there is of Zeus, or any other god that humans have created for their stability throughout history, and it is very effective in proving this claim. It is about time someone cries out for the intellectual awakening of people instead of one more emotional one.

Dan Barker was an evangelical minister and missionary who did everything from writing songs and skits for children to working with youth groups to preaching street sermons to adults. However, somewhere in the course of this career he began to be aware of the fact that his religious beliefs were in serious conflict from his intellectual knowledge about our scientific world.

This book brought many negative aspects of Christianity to light that had been completely ignored, conveinently explained away, or totally unknown to me in my super-religious past. I never realized the Bible was so anti-family and that the various qualities we attribute to God are so self-contradicting. It also further examined some parts of the Bible I had already wondered about, such as its blatant sexism and racism, and its inaccuracy in accordance to history, although I had been told by every preacher out there that it was correct.

If you are from a Christian religious background I can only imagine the response my little book review is illiciting, and I totally expect to receive self-righteous hate mail under the guise of loving Christianity. However, I completely understand, for if I had read a book review like this during my very devoutly religious stage, I would have felt the same way. All I can ask you to do is read the book for yourself. If you read it and disagree with my conclusions, that's great and there is no harm done. I think that if anyone can truthfully answer to themselves the questions that this book raises about religion and can still say that it is in accordance with what they feel is moral and intellectual, their faith will only be strenghtened. But if you have ever been able to sing along with good old Alanis "In the name of the father, the skeptic, and the son, I have one more stupid question..."- in other words, if you have had some doubts about religion that you would like to explore but have never known a way to do this, you will really appreciate this book. All I can say is that it totally changed my perception of religion and I was as strong a believer as anyone out there, having been in church since I was an infant and continuing it in my youth by going on many mission trips to foreign countries. I was not an atheist who picked up this book so that I could prove I was still right; I was actually a pretty strong Christian who was beginning to have some doubts, and when this book was offered to me by someone I had serious pre-conceived judgements about it and even started reading it with the desire to prove the guy totally wrong. I was sure everything he would say would be like "I don't believe in God because I want to do what I want and no one can tell me what to do." However, this book appealed to my mind as well as my sense of moral rightness, and although I started page one with a preconception that it was totally offbase, I finished it with a strong "Amen, Amen. Finally a book about religion makes totally sense!"

98 of 104 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the X-tian July 21, 2000

By Gilker Kimmel

Format:Paperback

Looking at some of the other reviews, it's obvious that this book polarizes readers, being rated either very highly or very poorly. I'm not surprised. The high ratings are to be expected - there's a real shortage of good quality material for former Christians. That, too, is understandable since America frowns so mightily on unbelievers. That brings us to the negative reviews, frowning mightily.

Personally, I appreciate Barker very deeply. I came to the same conclusions via a slightly different path. I was also a devout Christian, though never a preacher. I was Washed in the Blood of the Lamb at 16, Sanctified and Born Again. I had a personal friend in Jesus. I also had a thirst for understanding, so I studied the Bible for years and took everything to the Lord in prayer. I studied and prayed until one day I realized that I didn't believe anymore.

No tragedy; no rebellion; just realization.

It was only after I came to grips with this change in worldview that I came to understand just how much Christianity warps a person's thinking, denigrating reason and elevating faith. It's been a long climb up from the muck, but it's great to be clean now. Christians reading that will be as outraged by the thought as they would be by reading Barker's book. Former Christians know precisely what I'm talking about.

This is an excellent book for recovering Christian.

131 of 141 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Mr. Barker! November 23, 2000

By Anna

Format:Paperback

I, too, have spent years in an Assembly of God Church. I started out in a Church of Christ, which taught me to hate the Charismatics (who were deceived by Satan), who in turn, taught me to hate the New Agers (who were deceived by Satan), who in turn, taught me that everybody is on their own spiritual path, and we are all brothers.

I was watching "Prince of Eygpt" with my 4 year old niece recently. There was a roomful of Christians present. The movie was on the Passover scene where the firstborn of Eygpt were dying, and my niece suddenly looked up and said, "This story isn't true. God wouldn't create people and then kill them." It stunned the adult Christians in the room. One of them said, "But, honey, you don't know the Bible yet." She said, "I know that God isn't mean."

That, in a nutshell, is where my spiritual journey has finally taken me--through the years of dogmas and theatrics of Christianity and back out again. I learned to think for myself, and I discovered what my 4 year old niece knows instinctively, without any Bible telling her differently. God isn't mean.

I no longer see through the eyes of "Christianity" in terms of "good" or "bad"--"lost or unlost." That, to me, is one of the most damning things about Christianity--it divides mankind from his brother.

I struggle with what I know is my approaching "emancipation" from the Church. I love my friends, and I know that when that day comes, I'll never be a part of it again, and it makes me sad. In many ways, it served my needs, (until it didn't anymore). But I also know what Mr. Barker came to know---that once you come to this truth, there is no going home again. You can never turn back. Once you know--You "know." It's not something you can change.

Mr. Barker's book encouraged me in so many ways and assured me that I will meet other people who are free thinkers and will again feel the bonds of fellowship that I have known in the church. And because there are people who exist without the "divisions" of Christianity in their hearts & in their minds, I will not have to be afraid of being "rejected" or cast from the fold if my belief system does not correspond to their own.

This is a well-written book. Walking away from a belief system that has been ingrained in you from birth is not an easy thing to do. I remember when I finally realized that the end was coming, I lay in bed night after night and was literally numb. Fundamentalist Christians may think this is a "light" thing or some kind of serious "deception," but it is neither. It's like a light finally shining on darkness and a terrible fear of moving away from that darkness because it's all you have ever known. It's a soul-tearing, gut-wrenching, coming apart at the seams kind of realization, but when it's all over, there is peace.

I believe in a better God today and in a better world. I believe that every man is truly my "brother." I only wish that every man believed that of me.