Product Description

Autobiographical story of journeying from fundamentalist/evangelical minister to atheist. Includes criticism of religion, fallacies and harm of Christianity, and invocation of freethought, reason and humanism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #502510 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Review
"A capable and searching defense of humanism by one who has lived on both sides of the street." -- The Human Quest, Sept.-Oct. 1993

"A substantial and timely addition to the freethought literature." -- The Truth Seeker, Vo. 120, No. 3, 1993

"An excellent, entertaining and highly readable book which can be used to easily demolish the 'strongest' arguments of unreasoning Christians . . . a remarkable debating aid." -- Norm Allen, Atheists of Florida, May 1993

"Barker is compelling, humorous, and rational. His arguments are clear and thought-provoking." -- Andrew Fandre, Huntsville Times, October 24, 1993

"Barker writes well. He seems to reason well . . . and has worked out a ready response to the most common Christian objections to atheism." -- Gordon Stein, Ph.D, The American Rationalist, Vol. 37, No. 5, 1993

"Few other books offer such an insightful and conclusive indictment of religion . . . immensely readable and intellectually stimulating." -- Atheists United, November 1993

From the Publisher
A challenge to believers; an arsenal for skeptics.

From the Back Cover
Losing Faith In Faith records Dan Barker's dramatic journey form devout soul-winner to one of America's most prominent freethinkers. After 19 years of preaching following his "calling" at age 15--including work as a missionary, ordained minister, associate pastor, touring evangelist, Christian songwriter and performer--Dan Barker "lost faith in faith." Today Barker, Public Relations Director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., frequently represents freethought on the talkshow circuit and at personal appearances around the country. In Losing Faith In Faith, Barker explains why he left the ministry. He also offers a definitive, compelling analysis of why he rejects belief in a god and the claims of religion. He explores the fallacies, inconsistencies, and harm of Christian doctrine and theistic dogma. In its place, he issues an appealing and compassionate invocation of freethought, reason, and humanism. Losing Faith in Faith is both a challenge to believers and an arsenal for skeptics.

Customer Reviews

Thank you, Dan
I want to publicly thank Dan Barker. I met Dan in his teens. I remember riding in the back of a station wagon with him through Mexico while we both did evangelistic work. Dan always amazed me. The breadth of his learning and thinking was quite humbling to one who only had an IQ of 140. Dan also had a tremendously funny, but quiet sense of humor, such as making funny about the parts of a tree ("I bet that guy was a real sap").

After Dan had changed his faith from the G-d of the Bible to the god of self, I would chat with him on the phone about his new belief system. As usual, Dan would be way ahead of me in the debate atmosphere. While I was still on point one, he had zoomed ahead to point twenty and I never could think as nimbly as he could, and as a result I never gave a very good response to Dan's genius. Later, I would kick myself for not making such-and-such a response to his line of reasoning.

Dan in more recent years has also strengthened my own Biblical faith. Dan's arguments against certain alleged contradictions in the Biblical record caused me to investigate his claims. I found most of them wanting.

But Dan didn't err based on his previous theological and Biblical training at Azusa University, but on his reliance on the historical teachings of the church. A deeper look by Dan would have found that the Christian prejudices against a Jewish world view of Scripture had led him down the primrose path of repeating the same errors of anti-Semitism that the church has been promulgating for two millenia.

As a result of confronting many of the arguments that Dan presents in his book, I was able to look closer at my own understanding of the teachings of Holy Writ, and I found that as I uncovered the correct answers to Dan's "proofs," that my faith was growing in a way that led me to the Jewish Messianic movement where the Messiah and the Bible are viewed through different lenses. I learned that Dan's "proofs" were no proofs at all, since he was just fighting the old shiboleths of the church rather than the truth when interpreting a Jewish Book with Jewish reasoning.

I would challenge Dan and his disciples to reexamine his arguments from the point of view of the very authors of the Scriptures, both the Tenach (Old Testament) and the Brit Chadashah (New Testament), most of whom were Jewish. They might find that 2 + 2 still equals 4, and that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah after all.

The Bottom Line
I was very interested in this book as I was raised a minister's daughter in a small conservative church myself. I find Barker's writing both Christian and Atheistic to be well written and compelling.
Actually, for every rebuttal of Christianity there is an apologist that can make an excellent case, in which there is an atheist with a yes, but... rebuttal. Each camp has compelling points of view, it is then up to the reader to determine which evidence is more compelling, as well as what "works" in the "down and dirty" pathways of life.
I do find the extreme right "fundamentalist" way of thinking to be self-serving and arrogant. I can understand how one can become disillusioned in the pitfalls of religion, and lose their faith. I don't understand how someone can meet the person of Jesus Christ, experience a life of peace and contentment, be confident in who they are, be carefree, love others regardless of their way of life, and still turn away. I suspect Mr. Barker IS a casualty of religion, as well as a mid-life crisis.

Very Misleading
It is shameful how the church fails to abide their God; and it is more shameful how unbelievers made use of these things to conclude God is not real; and it is despictable for an believer to loose their faith in these intrigues -- a shallow belief cannot factor out a God.

The fall of a faithful is 'always' the best tool to disprove God, because people favor controversies.

"Murmurs spread like fire and engulf the unwise, ashes fall and blind those who do not seek".

The weakness of men is not the weakness of God, the failure of the people is not the failure of God and the sinfulness of the church is not God's will. God and religion is not the same, and religion must not be used to refute His existence.