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| Category: Religion:Christianity |
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| About the Book | |
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Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer is a dialogue between Scott Crates, a skeptic, and Chris Proselman, a Christian who is handing out Judgment Day pamphlets that warn of the eternity of hellfire that awaits the unsaved. The skeptic acknowledges that eternal hellfire is something best avoided, but wants to know exactly why the Christian believes that his knowledge of the Divine is accurate. Chris identifies three sources for his belief: faith, the Scriptures, and the evidence of God in our physical surroundings. Chris and Scott then discuss each of these sources and reach tentative agreements in the following areas: - the "design" argument for the existence of a Master Designer, and the subsequent assumption that such a Designer would have been likely to make some sort of communication effort with the one species given a genuine language; - that in trying to make sense of all the multiple and conflicting versions of Divine Directions we may choose from, a reasonable conclusion is that only one came from God, whereas the rest must have just been made up by man; - all the reasons that non-Christian religions fall into the "Made by Man" category: they're pieced together from pre-existing religions, their holy laws include those based on irrational prejudices and erroneous conclusions about cause and effect, and their stories contain inaccurate and earth-bound descriptions of the universe (stars that are tiny, a moon that shines its own light, a sun that orbits a flat and stationary earth, etc.). Chris and Scott then turn to examining the Christian religion in the same light as the non-Christian. Their conversation remains a respectful exchange of ideas, but is no longer harmonious. The book's two themes: (1) "If you understand why you reject all the other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours." (2) A marveling at man's handiwork in the creation of the world's religions: their stunning range of creativity, cruelty, compassion, ingenuity, and absurdity. Included are scriptural passages from Bahaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism; as well as mythology and folklore from the Aztecs, the Babylonians, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Kenya, the Native Americans, Nigeria, the Pygmies, the Sumerians, the Vikings, and more.
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| About the Author | |
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In preparation for writing Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer, Todd Gates spent several years studying skepticism, Christian apologetics, comparative mythology, and the anthropology of religion. His first book, also published by Booklocker, is Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames. |