50 Simple Questions for Every Christian (50 series)

I am an avid reader, and an avid atheist. I read almost everything that is worth reading about skepticism concerning religion (especially, but not exclusively Christianity), and I also try to read some of the best works in apologetics.In this unassuming, very readable, and honest book, Guy Harrison perhaps inadvertently pulls a fast one.Not only are his 50 questions simple, direct, and to-the-point, but, honestly, this book should be read primarily for Harrison's excellent answers.Each chapter is full of the author's characteristic good will mixed with worldly wisdom. As a journalist and traveler, Harrison has been all over the world, and has come into contact with a wide array of people of all sorts of religious sensibility. This comes clear in each chapter, and also shades an important contrast to so many other "atheist" books currently on the market. Completely unlike the in-your-face and often alienating (to believers) tone of the primary bestsellers of the "Four Horsemen" of the "New Atheism" in particular, Harrison comes across as one of the rarest and yet most important of types: He's both a hard-hitting skeptic *and* a genuinely Nice Guy. (Pun intended.)All of the questions he asks are important ones, and many of his answers are deceptively sophisticated. His text is quite easy to read, but also conveys many subtle yet important ideas which often seem to stump even quite complicated and intelligent apologists and defenders of religion in the broad sense and, in the narrow(er) sense, defenders of the tens of thousands of variants of Christianity.To take just one question/chapter--not quite at random, since I've been re-reading it--, "Does the Complexity of Life Reveal An Intelligent Designer?", Harrison begins with a personal anecdote about his experience of being asked (while a guest on a talk show): "But just look outside[.] Look at all the life. Look at a single leaf. It's so complex and mysterious, but it works and it had to come from somewhere, right? What more evidence for God do you need?" With his typical humility and empathy, Harrison concedes the prima facie appeal of this appeal. "Life and the things life can do," he readily admits, "really are astonishingly complex." He in fact goes on and amplifies the force of the appeal: Life is much much more complex than even the theist usually thinks about. "It seems like a reasonable hunch that it couldn't have 'just happened all by itself,'" Harrison stresses: "Life *is* complex, and, in many ways, life *is* beyond our comprehension today. But a hunch--no matter how comfortable and satisfying it may feel--is not necessarily the correct answer to an important question." In fact, "[s]ometimes we just have to accept that there are no available answers, at least for the time being."A stereotypical "New Atheist" answer to this honest question might easily come across as high-handedness, or even ridicule. Richard Dawkins, for example--although, in my opinion, quite justifiably--reduces this sort of question into an "argument from personal incredulity". Harrison alludes to this sort of response when he suggests that, "[c]ontrary to what some science advocates say, the problems with creationism and intelligent design are not obvious . . . It's also too easy to write it off as science illiteracy."Harrison stresses that the honest poser of this simple question is "correct about there being a gap in out knowledge," but he also stresses that the typical Christian reaction is illegitimate:"I have encountered people who know more than a little modern biology and even accept evolution as the process by which life changes over time. But they still think it makes perfect sense to default to their god as the answer to science's unanswered questions about the origin of life and other remaining mysteries, for example. They point to a big, fat blank in our scientific knowledge about how it all started and fill in 'God.' . . . The key point some Christians miss is that scientific ignorance . . . is not evidence of a god. Sometimes we need to be brave enough and patient enough to leave a question unanswered for the time being. Keep working the problem, sure, but don't cheat by inserting a solution we haven't earned through effort."Bertrand Russell once made a similar point, which I paraphrase as: "Inquiry isn't a taxi cab."Harrison manages to not just answer the initial question, here, but also to teach--in a forceful, persuasive, yet polite way--a fundamental cornerstone of critical skepticism: Don't leap before you look. "Does the Complexity of Life Reveal An Intelligent Designer?" Simple answer: No. All that the complexity of life reveals is . . . the complexity of life.And it is exactly this complexity that science was *invented* to address. As Harrison pleads, "First of all, give science a chance. We haven't been serious about doing science for very long. Considering the funding and resources we devote to it compared to other things, one can argue that we haven't started taking it seriously yet."Harrison doesn't browbeat an honest interlocutor. He doesn't ridicule or talk down. And, by doing neither of these things, he is able to entertain, educate, and enlighten a much broader audience than is arguably usually addressed by atheists--"New" or otherwise--and the broader critical skeptical community.Excellent, excellent book.

Stay with me, I promise this is a review of THIS book and not Harrison's other books, but I think my comment can be helpful to those Christians who are wondering if they are up for the challenge of a book that will indeed challenge them. My experience with Harrison's books has been such a good, helpful (and gentle!) progression to thinking beyond faith. But please don't click away if you aren't interested in moving beyond your faith! You need this book anyway.This is the third book I've read by Guy Harrison and I'm really looking forward to reading his other two. I discovered 50 Popular Beliefs People Think Are True when I looked over at my husband's nightstand and saw it there. Strangely enough, at that moment I was reading a book by a popular Christian author that was a part of my Lenten reading for the year. I became frustrated and bored by the logic of that book that I laid it down and picked up 50 Popular Beliefs and read it that night. I'm admittedly not very good at articulating my thoughts to friends who think differently than I do, and to see my same arguments so clearly and thoughtfully laid out by Harrison (vaccines, creationism, astrology, etc) was so deeply satisfying, even the parts skeptical of religion, I actually breathed a sigh of relief. "So glad this guy is out there! There are so many people I want to direct to this book!" I was excited to read other books by Harrison, so I looked him up. Uh-oh (and, of course I knew this might happen) a couple are related to matters of faith and religion. Seems silly to me now, but I think I was a little scared of what I was going to have to ask myself. I read 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in God. It did for me exactly what I was scared it would do and, if I'm honest, what I knew it would do. Now onto 50 Simple Questions. I figured I've given 30+ years of my time and thought to Christianity, let's be honest about the constant, nagging feeling that my doubts need answers and see what the other side has to say. If this is what you are asking yourself, Harrison is who you want as your "challenge your Christian thinking" tour-guide. He's just laying the arguments out there. He won't call you an idiot or belittle your faith, like many atheists are quick to do, he simply lays out the facts and his interpretation of them (all very logical, reasonable, and, yes, even humble). 50 Simple Questions and Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy should be mandatory reading for people who want to think of themselves as informed American Christians and for those who have questions their Christian faith leaves unsatisfied.

This was a very well written and interesting book. The 50 questions were well selected. The discussion of each question was of appropriate depth although there was not a great deal of originality. Most of the novelty came from the author's personal anecdotes which not only highlight his interesting career but lend an immediacy to the questions. Harrison's writing is accessible to the layperson but is adequately documented for those wanting to check sources for some of the claims made.At the same time I thought the book somewhat disingenuous. Despite repeated statements about being respectful and to not condescend I don't think the author pulled that off. The book reads more like a prosecutor's opening statement than a respectful conversation. I couldn't shake the impression that Harrison not only does not share the Christian's faith he has very little regard for it.Thus, the book will probably not reach its intended audience. I think a better strategy would have been to say that he is aware the book will ruffle feathers and to beg the reader's indulgence. The gulf between believer and non-believer is probably too wide to bridge in one book. Still, the questions raised are important and the book does an excellent job of staking out the atheist position and it can be recommended from that standpoint.The Kindle edition is formatted almost perfectly with everything being linked including the index.

Keep this book handy. If you don,t actually cite it in a discussion you will be glad you read it

Der Autor stellt gute Fragen und liefert auch gute Antworten. Er weiß, worüber er schreibt und auch seine Erfahrungsberichte sind eine Bereicherung. Insgesamt liest sich das Buch sehr flüssig, der Schreibstil ist angenehm. Für Atheisten, die sich jedoch schon etwas mit der Materie befasst haben, liefert das Werk kaum Neues: Theodizee, Trinität, Definition von 'Theorie' im wissenschaftlichen Sinne, Evolution, ...Das für mich große Manko ist allerdings der Entschuldigende Ton, der sich von der Einleitung des Buches an bis zum Schluss durchzieht.Ich habe es schon beim 1. - andere vielleicht erst beim 3. - Mal verstanden: Er will niemandem auf den Schlips treten. Er hält Christen oder wie auch immer Gläubige nicht für dümmer oder sonst wie minderwertiger als den nicht glaubenden Teil der Welt.Man braucht das nicht zu Anfang eines jeden(!) Kapitels und auch mal zwischendrin immer wieder und wieder und wieder breit treten.Für Einsteiger in die Materie oder Sensiblere Gemüter mag das Buch eine Option sein, für mich war es leider nicht ganz das Richtige.

This book is introduced as a conversation, between friends, one a Christian, the other, perhaps an atheist, or simply a skeptic. It takes a different approach to books from Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris which depending on the reader, can feel like an all out assault on their religious beliefs. Those books are very necessary for some. However, for those in your life who are open to talking about their beliefs and have an open mind, then this book is perfect. It's gentle enough not to put off or offend committed Christians, but direct enough that it might make them confront and really try to justify things like why the Christian god answers their prayers but allows millions of children to die each year. If you've read any of Mr Harrison's titles before, then you'll see that this book needfully retreads some old ground, especially 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God. No bad thing at all, as Mr Harrison's writing style is easy to take in and as always the content is well presented. If you're a Christian and having doubts about your religion or your place in it, do yourself a favour and pick this book up. It will get you thinking, and if you have an open mind and want to challenge yourself and your faith intellectually and honestly then you may finish the book a different person. Even if you're an atheist, pick up this book and you'll learn a different way to approach the believers in your life and show them that there is another way. A definite must-read!

I recommend this book to all alike: whether Christian or agnostic or atheist. Food for thought of the highest calible, with no waffle.

Though this is a fairly basic book and the arguments (where they exist) aren't necessarily all that well developed (and nearly no competent and well-known Christian responses are included), the author does ask some great questions that help to encourage non-believers and believers alike to think - which is a wonderful and dramatically important thing to do no matter which side of the fence one sits on. The title is a little misleading, however. Many of the questions are great questions that need to be asked - and answered. Yet, just because one can ask a question in one sentence using simple words definitely does not mean that it is a simple question. Many of these questions are well thought out and are far from simple and require answers of the same scope.