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Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
After 19 years as an evangelical preacher, missionary, and Christian songwriter, Dan Barker 'threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there.' Barker, who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (America's largest organization of atheists and agnostics), describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from fundamentalism to freethought. The four sections in Godless--Rejecting God, Why I Am An Atheist, What's Wrong With Christianity, and Life is Good!--include chapters on bible problems, the historicity of Jesus, morality, the Kalam Cosmological argument, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more. Barker relates the positive benefits from trusting in reason and human kindness instead of living in fear of false judgment and moral condemnation. Godless expands the story told in Dan's 1992 book, Losing Faith in Faith--the two books overlap about 20%--but a lot has happened in 16 years, and Dan updates the story with four new chapters, including 'The New Call' (lessons from the debate circuit), 'Adventures in Atheism,' and 'We Go To Washington' (FFRF's Supreme Court lawsuit, in which Dan was a plaintiff)..
Price: $8.90
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Preacher Vol. 2: Until the End of the World
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Preacher Vol. 3: Proud Americans
The Reverend Jesse Custer is a Texas minister who swears worse than a sailor and is not above killing people who get in his way. One might say he's lost his faith. No, he's just looking for God, and when he finds Him... Proud Americans is another sick and fun addition to the Preacher series. This book contains three story lines: One, a short tale about Custer's father in Vietnam. Two, a recounting of the transformation of Custer's Irish buddy Cassidy into a vampire and his coming to America. And three, the conclusion to the story begun in Preacher: Until the End of the World, the story of the angelic mafia (known as the Grail) who have come after Reverend Custer and the secret power inside him called "Genesis." --Jim Pascoe.
Price: $7.67
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Preacher Vol. 4: Ancient History
While technically the fourth book in the Preacher series, Ancient History isn't part of the main Preacher story line and doesn't even use any of the main characters (Reverend Jesse Custer, his girlfriend, Tulip, and his vampire buddy Cassidy). Instead, this collection of side stories delves into the freakish, perverse, and downright mythic supporting characters. The main feature is the 106-page demonic Western featuring the "Saint of Killers." In many ways this guy--and the spirit of the ruthless frontier he represents--is the soul of the Preacher series. Writer Garth Ennis said, taking all of the characters of the series into account, "I felt one more character was needed to round out the cast: someone who would directly represent the Old West, who had walked straight out of history, and who brought with him the horror and terror of those times." If this is the soul of the book, then its heart is the "Story of You Know Who," a reference to the character Arseface, whose self-imposed shotgun wound to the face has left him rather disfigured. This boy's abusive family is so overblown, his tragedy so all-encompassing, that a lesser writer would let this swerve into complete silliness. Ennis's talent is to pull pathos out of such outrageousness. He succeeds here again. --Jim Pascoe.
Price: $7.80
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Preacher Vol. 8: All Hell's A-Coming
It's trite but true: you can't keep a good man down. Holier-than-anyone Jesse Custer comes back from the dead--or wherever--in the eighth collection of Preacher, All Hell's A-Coming Garth Ennis's knack for developing characters slowly and almost effortlessly pays off more and more with each issue, and by now Custer, his lover Tulip, and his vampire friend Cassidy are as complex as anyone you're likely to meet. The story arc focuses on Tulip's own resurrection from her unlife of booze, drugs, and Cassidy as she reunites with the Preacher, and this powerful tale doesn't require any superheroic conflict to affect the readers. (Fans of the Voice will be disappointed to learn that it's only used once, in an amusing throwaway scene.) As this develops, the nefarious Grail suffers from internal struggle, and poor Arseface finds himself on the backside of fame, setting the stage for plenty of future weirdness. In addition to the regular collected issues, All Hell's A-Coming includes the one-shot "Tall in the Saddle," a fast-moving story from Jesse, Amy, and Tulip's younger days. If you've never met the Preacher, isn't it about time you found the fear of God? --Rob Lightner.
Price: $9.40
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Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity
For about two decades, John W Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity With three degrees - in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion - he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, as he ministered to various congregations and taught at Christian colleges, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s, he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith, brought on by emotional upheavals in his personal life as well as the gathering weight of the doubts he had long entertained.In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, Loftus carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The bulk of the book is his 'cumulative case' against Christianity. Here, he lays out the philosophical, scientific, and historical reasons that can be raised against Christian belief. From the implications of religious diversity, the authority of faith vs reason, and the problem of evil, to the contradictions between the Bible and the scientific worldview, the conflicts between traditional dogma and historical evidence, and much more, Loftus covers a great deal of intellectual terrain. For every issue, he succinctly summarises the various points of view and provides references for further reading.In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering. This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion..
Price: $12.39
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