Reddit mentions of Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

God is Not Great. Getting it out there, I think it's probably one of the more inevitable ones.

Losing Faith in Faith and Godless each by Dan Barker.

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett.

First ones that come to mind. I think a few theologians may be worth reading as well. Not sure what ones though. If Kent Hovind wrote a book, we could keep a facepalm count.

Yes it is passive aggressive to pretend you both know me and know I seek 'truth' from some apologetic websight pretending to translate better than scholars because it fits their interpretations better.

Yes I have sought truth and no longer feel any need to question the stories in the bible or apologetic explanations of them. I am neither your friend nor your foe, just some dude on the internet. I would strongly suggest you research more than the bible or those who seek to support it with presuppositional logic.

Read about the origins of christianity how the bible has been altered before and after the ecumenical councils. Take some classes offered by people who do not believe, study the actual history.

I suggest reading this
>http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Faith-From-Preacher-Atheist/dp/187773313X

A tough view. The use of pop, and children's, culture icon cartoon figures, the distracting background noise, and the really slow presentation of actual information/argument make the first vid hard to watch and really dilutes any message. Though I did like the cameo from the Little Caesars Pizza-Pizza guy. From watching the first vid, there is no topic argument/position statement explicitly made/presented, though if I had to guess as to the final topic position/argument, based upon the way the very sparse information is presented, that an argument will be made that supports the listed or attributed authors of the various books of the NT - this is just a guess, the presentation of introductory material was really incoherent.

> "One of the things I have noticed about critics who say that this or that book in the NT is bogus is that they seldom seem to explain in any detail how we decide who wrote a document."

Say what? I smell a strawman argument.

The above quote was made whilst a slide show of books that discuss the New Testament was shown. Some of these books are recognizable as titles containing literary criticism of the New Testament, many are not. I could not get a good look at the "examples" presented as the screen time was very short (compared to the relatively long time given to worthless animations of smurfs or topic transition special effects), too short to get a good look at the sources that I assume supports the above statement was quoted; I had to do a frame by frame advance to see/read the titles presented.

Let's look at the first few "references" presented:

• The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by Acharya S
  
  Just between the book title and lack of authorship identification, without even reading the book description, is enough for anyone discussing NT literary criticism to reject the book as a credible source.Does not seem to be a reference to literary criticism and authorship of the New Testament books. Nope.
  
  
• Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, by Dan Barker
  
  A book containing the personal journey of one man losing Religious Faith. Does not seem to be a reference to literary criticism and authorship of the New Testament books.
  
  
• Secret Origins of the Bible, by Tim Callahan
  
  Examines the documentary hypothesis and other possible sources of much of the narrative of the Bible. Does not seem to be a reference to literary criticism and authorship of the New Testament books.
  
  
• The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, by John W. Loftus (Editor) , Dan Barker
  
  Look, another Dan Baker book already. A book against the reasonableness and rationality of Christian belief. Does not seem to be a reference to literary criticism and authorship of the New Testament books.
  
  
• Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity, by George Albert Wells
  
  Finally, a book that appears to have sections that may address the authorship of selected New Testament writings (I say appears as I have not read it and am relying upon the publisher description, the TOC, and reviews) - though the book appears to be more directed towards the content of the NT rather than attributed source critism.
  
  Bummer. Out of the first 5 potential references which one would reasonably consider as being presented on the authorship of the NT (you know, the topic/vid title), none (0 for 5) of them seem to be a reference to literary criticism of the authorship of the New Testament books. And I wanted to use the very references presented above to refute the strawman argument presented in the above quote that books/references that perform a literary criticism of the NT authorship (or the Bible in general) "seldom seem to explain in any detail how we decide who wrote a document."
  
  Let's look at a popular writer on the New Testament, Bart D. Ehrman. An example, Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. And look at that, Ehrman does indeed present extensive detail, on the how's of literary criticism and attributed authorship. Granted one example does not a strawman break, however, I have found that references literary criticism, Biblical or other, almost always include a review of the methods used.

Essentially I was deconverted by an ex-preacher.


Specifically, Dan Barker, ex-evangelical preacher turned atheist. Reading his book "Losing faith in faith'" helped me to see through a lot of the subjectivity of my beliefs. https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Faith-Preacher-Atheist/dp/187773313X

Leaving the Fold

Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists

Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

Why I Am Not a Muslim

Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships

In Search of the Light: The Adventures of a Parapsychologist

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

May I also recommend The Dark Side of Christian History, Losing Faith in Faith and Ken's Guide to the Bible. It doesn't hurt to get some more objective sources of information on your religion's history.