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.

This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion. £10 plus £2 p&p.

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05 September 2008