God or Godless One Atheist. One Christian. Twenty Controversial Questions.

163 Pages·2013·0.94 MB·English

by  John W. Loftus

© 2013 by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser
Published by Baker Books
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ISBN 978-1-4412-4069-9
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John
I dedicate this book to the various respectful bloggers on both sides of this
debate who have fine-tuned my understanding of the issues.
Randal
In 2003 my doktorvater Colin Gunton, theological mentor and personal
friend, passed away unexpectedly just months after my thesis defense.
Colin believed theology should be presented unapologetically even as it
engages with a skeptical culture. I trust he would have been pleased with
the spirit of these debates, and I dedicate this book to his memory.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Acknowledgments 9
An Irreverent, Interesting, and Somewhat Informative Introduction 11
1. If There Is No God, Then Life Has No Meaning 13
2. The Biblical Concept of God Evolved from Polytheism to Monotheism 21
3. If There Is No God, Then Everything Is Permitted 29
4. The Biblical God Required Child Sacrifices for His Pleasure 37
5. Science Is No Substitute for Religion 45
6. The Biblical God Commanded Genocide 53
7. God Is the Best Explanation of the Whole Shebang 61
8. The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Slaves 69
9. If There Is No God, Then We Don’t Know Anything 77
10. The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Women 85

11. Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, but Only if God Exists 93
12. The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Animals 101
13. Everybody Has Faith 109
14. The Biblical God Is Ignorant about Science 117
15. God Is Found in the Majesty of the Hallelujah Chorus 125
16. The Biblical God Is Ignorant about the Future 133
17. God Best Explains the Miracles in People’s Lives 141
18. The Biblical God Is an Incompetent Creator 149
19. Jesus Was Resurrected, So Who Do You Think Raised Him? 157
20. The Biblical God Is an Incompetent Redeemer 165
The Last Word 173
Recommended Readings 183
Notes 197
About the Authors 203
Back Cover 204
Acknowledgments
John thanks . . .
When I first went online to discuss my doubts in 2005, I found a particular
evangelical forum that treated me with disdain and vitriol simply because I
disagreed. I knew most Christians were not like this, but this group poured
gasoline on the fires of my passion like nothing else. They provoked me to go
for the jugular vein of a faith that could be used to justify their treatment of
people like me. If it hadn’t been for them, I probably would have moved on with
my life. So I want to acknowledge them for helping to motivate me.
Randal thanks . . .
First, I’d like to express my gratitude to my wife, Jasper, and daughter, Jamie,
for their support and patience on this and every other writing project in which I
am engaged. Second, I’d like to thank Janet Grant, my agent, for her
commitment to finding God or Godless the right publisher. Finally, I’d like to
thank my opponent, John W. Loftus. I appreciate the fact that John is a very
capable defender of atheism who argues his case with knowledge and passion. I
also appreciate his ability to distinguish arguments from persons and thus
maintain cordial relations even in the midst of deep disagreement. For these
reasons I am especially grateful for John’s participation in these debates.
An Irreverent, Interesting, and Somewhat Informative
Introduction
We (John and Randal) enjoy formal philosophical debates about big and
important issues, and they don’t come any bigger or more important than the
question of whether God exists. But as much as we love formal philosophical
debates, they have their drawbacks too. For one thing, they often take way too
much time. (Two or three hours in a stuffy lecture theater is a tax on anyone’s
stamina.) For another, they often are a bit too formal (dare we say anal-
retentive?). And finally, they are often fixated on a narrow set of questions that,
while important, have been asked a million times before, like “Does God exist?”
and “Did Jesus rise from the dead?” Important and interesting questions to be
sure, but there are different ways to slice the pie, and we think it is high time to
approach from some fresh angles the same old debate over whether God exists.
With all this in mind, we wrote God or Godless? as a rather immodest attempt
to address all that is lacking in the standard discussions. To kick things off, each
of us chose ten debate statements in which the one who made the choice argued
the affirmative while leaving the opponent scrambling to establish a case for the
negative. I (Randal the Christian) seek through these debates to make a case for
going with God, while I (John the atheist) aim to make the case for going
Godless. With that basic formula in mind, we then tailored our twenty exchanges
to address the weaknesses in the standard debates. First, we’ve cut down the
length. Forget hours of ponderous argument, tortured rebuttal, and meticulous
cross-examination: in each of our debates we were restricted to opening
statements of about 800 words, rebuttals of about 150 words, and closing
statements of a meager 50 words. As a result we managed to touch on all the
main issues on the topic in question in a breezy debate that can be read in about
twenty minutes. Second, we bypassed most of the traditional questions and
topics to make way for some new angles and issues. And finally, so far as the
formalism of academic discourse is concerned, let’s just say that we weren’t
wearing neckties when we wrote this book. We purposely sought to keep the
mood light, and we left the official timekeeper at home.
Before we begin, we’d like to point out one more thing. There is a handy
bibliography at the end of the book that provides our suggested readings for each
debate. Yes, we admit that we cannot exhaust each of these topics in twenty
minutes. Our hope is that you view these brief debates not as the last word on
any issue but rather as an invitation to further reading, discussion, and debate.
So without further ado, we turn to the task at hand. Pull up a comfortable chair
by a roaring fire, don your most intelligent-looking reading glasses, pour
yourself a cup of coffee or a snifter of port, and join us in addressing the
grandest of questions: Should I go with God or Godless?