Why I Became an Atheist ─ A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity

For devout Christians, those who are questioning their faith, and skeptics, Loftus, a former evangelical Christian preacher and college instructor, describes the experiences and reasoning that led him to become an atheist. He argues that people need to critically evaluate what they were taught to believe as children with the same level of skepticism used to assess other religions and writes on the level of college students and general readers to explain the arguments of scholars in an accessible manner. He critically examines evangelical Christianity and relates how he was raised as a Catholic, converted to fundamentalist Christianity, and became a liberal, a deist, an agnostic, and then an atheist. He gives reasons why believers should examine their faith with the skepticism of an outsider, and how Christianity does not pass the outsider's test or the insider's test for faith. He shares arguments that led him to leave the faith, from questioning unanswered prayer and suffering to who wrote the Bible and science and creation, and why he initially became an atheist. This revised and expanded edition addresses criticism of the original volume, adds new arguments and references, and refines the presentation. No index is provided. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John W. Loftus (Angola, IN) earned MA and MDiv degrees in theology and philosophy from Lincoln Christian Seminary under the guidance of Dr. James D. Strauss. He then attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he studied under Dr. William Lane Craig and received a ThM degree in philosophy of religion. Before leaving the church, he had ministries in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, and he taught at several Christian colleges. He is also the editor of The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails and The End of Christianity. In addition, he has an online blog at http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com.