True Reason Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism edition by Tom Gilson Carson Weitnauer Religion Spirituality eBooks
Download As PDF : True Reason Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism edition by Tom Gilson Carson Weitnauer Religion Spirituality eBooks 
While New Atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others proclaim loudly their rationality, clear thinking, and incontrovertible scientific arguments, others are beginning to wonder how genuinely rational they are. Have they proved anything? Have they argued convincingly? Have they pinpointed any real challenges to the credibility of Christian faith?
"True Reason," edited by Tom Gilson and Carson Weitnauer, brings together a compendium of writers--philosophers, apologists, ethicists, theologians, historians--who look carefully at the best arguments atheism has and evaluate their validity, logic, assumptions, and naturalist conclusions.
Authors include noted philosopher William Lane Craig and popular apologist Sean McDowell, along with Gilson, Weitnauer, John DePoe, Chuck Edwards, Matthew Flannagan, Peter Grice, Randy Hardman, David Marshall, Glenn Sunshine, David Wood, and Samuel Youngs. Each chapter tackles a different atheist argument and brings reason fully into the discussion.
Which is more reasonable atheism or Christianity? Read "True Reason" and think for yourself.
“‘People of faith are biased,’ we are told. This critique is tossed so often at those who express faith in a personal God that we forget that those who express faith in atheism and secularism are themselves guilty of bias. There is no evidence to support Dawkins’ or Harris’ loud proclamations that they have secured their belief via reason. In fact, the evidence shows the opposite. Their loud diatribes and definitive conclusions show a lack of reason, and True Reason points this out. Reasonable people will take this content seriously.” -- John Stonestreet, Speaker, Radio Host, Author — The Point Radio, BreakPoint, and Summit Ministries
“One of the key talking points of the New Atheists is that theirs is the side of reason and evidence. It is a powerful rhetorical device; after all, who would want to be on the side of irrationality and ignorance? But the contributors to this wide-ranging volume call their bluff, inverting the charge and arguing that it is not atheism but Christian theism that has reason and evidence on its side. Anyone who engages with these arguments thoughtfully will discover that it is surprisingly difficult to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” -- Timothy McGrew, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Western Michigan University
“A splendid and timely book…. I thought all the chapters were first rate and that each contributed to the overall defense of the rationality of the Christian faith and the poverty of resources in Naturalism for accounting for the possibility of reason and science.” -- Dr. Larry Lacy, (retired) Chair of the Philosophy Department, Rhodes College
True Reason Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism edition by Tom Gilson Carson Weitnauer Religion Spirituality eBooks
Some of the arguments in this book are very useful, while some are mediocre, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. The essays on slavery, the meaning of reason and genocide in the Old Testament were real eye openers, especially the latter which can be verified with a bible at hand and by reference to easily accessible extra-bible sources. However, the essay on the compatibility of science and the bible were weak, and dealt with much better in Plantinga's "Where the Conflict Really Lies".Product details
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True Reason Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism edition by Tom Gilson Carson Weitnauer Religion Spirituality eBooks Reviews
I regularly read apologetics books, and I highly recommend this one for its diverse response to so many areas of current debate. I learned new things from the slavery chapter and the last chapter, on the issue of God commanding genocide, is excellent. I would have given it 4.5 out of 5 stars if I could, simply because it's not as usable in a -only format. I in fact came back to it here at to see if I could order a hard copy (not yet, anyway). Copying the text - which is allowed - provides only the text without the formatting. Reformatting is very very time consuming.
This book was written as a response to the so-called reason rally. Though I am literally thousands of miles away and cannot possibly comment on what the reason rally might have been like, the book appears to cover a wide range of questions and does so in a style that is accessible, easy to understand and in, with only a few exceptions, a more respectful tone than the usual derisiveness of the new atheists. It appears to me to be a good answer to the reason rally, and a good example of solid reason on the other side of the spectrum.
Great book!!!! Hope people who read it will look at religion more seriously and not so be judge mental.For Dawkins I would like to add "if religion is a illusion"what's is science?Or,is he stating he is better then everyone and his brain is not subject to illusions?Some people are not happy with thinking everything is meaningless and for no reason.Just because you feel that way don't laugh and mock people who did find a meaning to life.
This book does its job in exposing the faulty reasoning made by the world's most prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Examples are given to show that the leaders of the New Atheist movement do not have good arguments to deny God's existence, relying mainly on rhetoric and straw man fallacies, and when Christians offer an argument for God's existence, the argument is not competently addressed by the atheist. As evidenced by some of the atheist reviews on here, some followers of the New Atheist movement also engage in the same faulty reasoning, rhetoric, ad hominem and straw man fallacies. For those who are interested in a brief comparison of the way both camps use logic, purchase this book.
For the most part I agree with C. Murphy's review (True Reason? Not so fast...) but will explain below why I think the chapter on the Outsider Test for Faith was actually a failure, not a success.
A brief outline of the book
Chapters 1-5 Lots of examples of atheistic claims (especially by Dawkins and Harris) and why they are unreasonable, arrogant, silly, etc. I guess this is a pop-the-balloon technique to help readers realize that Dawkins and Harris are not gods of reason, and that their claims must be subjected to careful analysis.
Chapter 6 Answering the Outsider Test for Faith. See below.
Chapter 7 Summary of the usual arguments against naturalism/materialism cosmological argument; fine tuning; biological complexity and the origin of life; consciousness and reason; origin of values; logic ("Naturalism ... entails that there are no transcendent logical laws."); natural uniformity (science assumes uniform laws of nature, an unwarranted assumption unless the universe was put together by a rational mind; apparently Marshall doesn't consider the empirical nature of science but thinks it needs a philosophical basis of uniformity). Conclusion "Naturalism is bankrupt as a worldview. . . . Hence, if science tells us anything, it tells us that Naturalism is a dead option."
Chapter 8 The impossibility of meaning and value in a purely natural universe. "Only a few atheists have understood that if there is no ultimate purpose behind existence, then ultimately none of the alleged purposes in existence have a basis." Really, so few understood that? Christianity provides a basis for morality and values with the image of God, the Fall, sacrifice.
Chapter 9 The Bible often appeals to evidence and reason, and tells believers to think, use their minds. "In Christianity, faith is an active, justified trust in God. It is neither `blind' nor irrational.... Rather, it simply follows upon sufficient evidence of trustworthiness." "The biblical pattern of coming to faith always begins with evidence." If naturalism is true, we can't trust our brains even to tell us so, since they have no built-in purpose as truth-seeking organs.
Chapter 10 Contradicting Richard Carrier's claim that early Christians accepted the Gospel on faith without rational inquiry, the NT gives seven ways which tied reason to faith in Jesus "historical investigation, rational argument, critical accounts of Jesus' life, miraculous `signs' ..., prophecy, convincing depictions of Jesus' character, and the resurrection." "Trust in God is the ultimate act of rationality."
Chapter 11 There is no inherent conflict between religion and science. There are even some real scientists today who are Christians! Debunking the story of Galileo as paradigmatic for religion and science. Science only works because the universe is orderly. Atheists can't do real science unless they import the theistic assumptions of an orderly universe.
Chapter 12 I'm a bit unclear on the purpose of this chapter, but I think that it's designed to explain why God made the universe regular in the first place, rather than constantly intervening in it. Reasons include that without uniformity we couldn't distinguish miracles from the ordinary; we couldn't learn from experience (broken law of consequences); science could not move forward; we could not be moral agents without the action-consequence connection.
Chapter 13 The oral tradition behind the Gospels may have been more constrained to consistency than previously thought; there may have been some written materials backing it up. John Mark is reasonable as the author of the 2nd Gospel, and Luke of the 3rd and Acts. The last part of Acts has been shown to be historically reliable, so it is reasonable that Luke wrote a factual Gospel as well. Nothing is said about non-canonical gospels or the 4th Gospel (John).
Chapter 14 God might have allowed suffering and evil in the universe because it builds our character (so we can be courageous and patient in the face of suffering, for example) and allows us to be true moral agents, with the free will to choose good or evil. [There is no real explanation of why it is so important to have creatures that can be patient or choose evil, we are just told that those are very valuable attributes.]
Chapter 15 Countering arguments that the Bible supports slavery (or turns a blind eye), we are given instances of how it was regulated in the Old Testament and how NT teachings undermined the very idea of slavery, ultimately (1800 years later) resulting in its abolition. Interesting examples of how the Church opposed slavery throughout history, and of how the Church saw slaves as persons rather than property.
Chapter 16 Nicely deals with the problem of the Canaanite genocide by saying that it was all a misunderstanding ... phrases like "killed every living thing" and "left no survivors" were just standard figures of speech in those days. All that really happened was that the Israelites conquered the Canaanites and drove them out of the land. No killing of women and children. Oh, and when Moses had thousands of Midianite women and children killed (well, the virgin women were kept for the Israelites) (Numbers 31)? That was on his own authority, not because God told him to do it.
My problem with David Marshall's chapter on the Outsider Test for Faith
In a nutshell, John Loftus' Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) says that when evaluating the validity of their religious views, believers should try to analyze its claims as would an outsider, impartially weighing the claims of any religion. For example, a Christian should apply the same rigor to the claims of Christianity as she does to those of Islam, a Protestant should be as critical of the evidence for his beliefs as he is for those of Mormonism, and so on.
I have summarized Marshall's response to the OTF more fully in my complete review (my blogspot name is mikeblyth), but to bring it down to the simplest terms
* The OTF is "amusing, coming from an atheist from Indiana."
* Some people do rationally evaluate their inherited faith, and some do convert.
* Culturally-inherited knowledge is sometimes (usually??) valid. Just because my religion is a product of my culture does not mean I should doubt it.
* Christianity's popularity proves it to be valid (or at least a major contender). Other popular religions don't count because they're not popular for the right reasons.
* Religions are not all that different, anyway, and Christianity is the fulfillment of them all, so why stress about comparing them!
* Christianity is the fulfillment of "hundreds" of prophecies from the Old Testament about the salvation of the world coming through the descendants of Abraham.
* "The Gospel also fulfills specific archetypes and prophecies, beginning with the Jewish Scriptures, but even prophecies among Gentile writers who foresaw such a Savior."
What Marshall really seems to be claiming is that there are so many reasons to believe Christianity that we don't need to address the OTF on its own terms. I think the underlying message is summed up in this quote from the chapter "Is not this vast movement of hearts and minds over centuries and continents, a more objective test of the Christian faith than the abstract mental exercise of an Indiana skeptic?"
Overall, I find this book depressing because it seems to just pick at the edges of atheism. It probably does achieve its stated goals of showing that atheists are not always reasonable, and Christians can be reasonable. For those new to the issues, or whose only exposure is to popular atheist arguments, the responses in this book will probably be helpful.
Excellent apologetic guide to Christianity. This book is for the believer, the seeker, and the atheist. Wel researched and reasoned.
Some of the arguments in this book are very useful, while some are mediocre, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. The essays on slavery, the meaning of reason and genocide in the Old Testament were real eye openers, especially the latter which can be verified with a bible at hand and by reference to easily accessible extra-bible sources. However, the essay on the compatibility of science and the bible were weak, and dealt with much better in Plantinga's "Where the Conflict Really Lies".
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