Publisher's Synopsis
Written by a former Christian fundamentalist, this book thoroughly and succinctly examines the basic premises and core teachings of the Christian faith and refutes the most common arguments that Christian apologists use to justify belief in these teachings. Unlike many other works of ex-fundamentalists who have rejected their former faith, this book focuses on the reasons that the basic teachings of Christianity are false and do not warrant belief by anybody, rather than on the author's own negative experiences with Christianity, though these are discussed as well. The book systematically demonstrates the untenability of specific teachings concerning God, salvation, and the world contained in the Bible and mainstream Christian traditions, showing not only that these teachings are false, but that they are also fundamentally cruel, antihuman, and psychologically harmful. The author contends that the teachings of Jesus, the apostles, and the most prominent defenders of the faith are the primary reason that these negative features of Christianity exist, not any supposed distortions introduced by later theologians and opportunistic Christians. The book also includes refutations of the most common apologetic arguments in defense of Christianity, including those based on alleged fulfilled prophecies, the supposed inerrancy of the Bible, the miracles attributed to Jesus, the Shroud of Turin, the virgin birth, the historicity of Jesus, the Trilemma, Christianity's supposed positive influence on Western Civilization and the world in general, the martyrdom of many of Jesus' early followers, the power of faith, and near-death experiences. It also addresses apologetic arguments for theistic belief in general, including the ontological argument, the argument from design, the moral argument, and Pascal's Wager.
