FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Updated
1. Why did
you put the entire book online? Won’t this hurt your sales?
Quite simply, I chose to give it away free because the
message is more important than the money. I’ve received feedback both ways on
my decision, but the overwhelming majority lauds the choice to publish 100% of
the material on the web. Yes, this will inevitably hurt sales of the book
because many will choose to read it but not purchase it. I have absolutely no
problem with that decision. However, each book ordered through the purchase section keeps
the website up for another week or pays for much needed advertising.
2. What happened
to your email link? Why were the reader response pages
discontinued?
I removed the link and discontinued the pages for the same
number of reasons. I have received a number of somewhat threatening and
harassing emails. I have also received a large quantity of responses that do
not deserve comment, particularly bigoted copy-and-paste articles that I did
not want to run the risk of plagiarizing by reproducing and editorializing. I
tired of politely responding to the same old arguments that I have debunked
several times before. My tolerance to those letters noticeably diminished with
time. Responses to some absurd reader comments gave them an air of
respectability that they did not deserve. I am working on something new, and my
time is limited right now with that and other life factors. It takes the reader
very little time to compose an unorganized flight of ideas, but I take much
more time to carefully construct a response. With a
forty-hour job, the load was too much. Someone also thought it would be funny to
sign me up for Christian mass-mailing lists. I appreciate all the letters of
support, but perhaps you can now send those in the form of reviews on
amazon.com.
3. Can I
help you out by writing a review?
Absolutely. If you read the book but didn’t
want to purchase a copy, a well written review may be just as beneficial. Good
or bad, let the world know what you think. Here are some direct links to the Biblical Nonsense review pages of the
three major online booksellers: amazon, barnes & noble, and books-a-million. This process takes no more
than two minutes to complete. Please note that your review will not appear
immediately after you submit it.
4. Why would
you write such a book?
As stated in the book’s introduction, “Although I
can’t offer an exact reason, my passion is probably driven by the salient
danger created by Christianity and its subsequent influence on nearly two
billion people every day. While the evil forces of certain deceitful religions
have somewhat subsided in more recent times, the hatred inadvertently generated
by these belief systems remains the greatest threat to humankind’s continued
existence. In the past 2000 years, Christianity has been guilty of initiating
several wars and crusades resulting in thousands of needless deaths, blatantly
oppressing women to the point of worthlessness, abhorrently justifying the
enslavement of Africans and perpetuating cruelties upon them we would rather
just forget, shamelessly driving its followers to hang or burn alleged witches,
nearly exterminating the entire Native American population, and inconspicuously
robbing billions of people of countless man-hours that could have been much
better spent on improving our planet. Someone certainly needs to address these
issues, and the book most of the Western world swears by demands a thorough
critical analysis.”
5. Why do
you hate God?
I can’t easily provide a response for such a complex
question. I suppose that I can sum up my feelings by saying that I hate the god
in the Bible about like I hate the villain in a movie. Think about it.
6. Why do
you misrepresent Christianity? It isn’t like that.
Mainstream Christianity is Salad Bar Christianity. In
other words, people often pick and choose the parts of
the Bible that they want to follow and ignore the parts that they don’t like.
This practice is so rampant that the overwhelming majority of those who call
themselves Christian know next to nothing about the Bible. I have no problem
with those who follow only the better principles of the book, but the notion
that something is moral or true just because a supporting passage can be found in the Bible directly contradicts the idea of
Salad Bar Christianity. Many can easily argue what actually constitutes to
Christianity, but many easily fall victim to the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
7. Haven’t
you read anything by Author X? He/she explains all of the so-called “problems”
you mention.
While it’s not possible for
one person to answer every claim and review every supposed solution to every
discovered problem, whomever Author X happens to be at the moment, a few things
almost always remain true:
1. X began with the conclusion that the Bible is true
and worked backwards to find only supportive evidence.
2. X is not interested in the most likely conclusion,
only the most likely conclusion that doesn’t invalidate the Bible.
3. If X was born with
religion Y instead of Christianity, X would be just as confident that religion
Y was correct.
4. There are countless Xs in every religion
who claim to be able to prove that each of their belief systems is true.
5. X is skillful at making an argument seem valid but
eventually looks foolish if you just do some unbiased research.
People who study a concept in which they have no
emotional investment are going to offer more reliable conclusions than those
who want the concept to turn out a certain way. If you wanted safety
information on a used car, would it be wiser to trust the used car salesman or a consumer report? Similarly, if you wanted
information on the historicity and veracity of Islam, would you ask an Islamic
scholar who was born into Islam – or would you ask an agnostic scholar with no
emotional investment in Islam? If you choose the unbiased scholar, why make an
exception only for your religion? You
may want to begin your quest for enlightenment here.
8. May I
link to your page? Will you link back to my website?
You may include all the links to my website that you
want, but please be sure that there is a link to the main page. I don’t have a links page and do not plan on adding one at the
moment.
9. I want to
share your work with my friend. Is it okay if I copy and paste something from
your book?
Yes, but please include a direct link back to the page
from which you copied the text. Otherwise, you’re really going to upset my
publisher as well as the author.
10. What
religion are you?
I really don’t have a religion, but I pretty much
follow the basics of humanism. This means I try to do what I believe is for the
greater good of humanity without the expectation of a reward. I base my
decisions and actions upon reason and observation rather than religious
convictions and ancient superstitions. I call myself agnostic because I know of
no way to be certain about supernatural existence – I can only eliminate
possibilities.
11. Are you
working on a new book?
Yes. More information will be
provided later. Look for a release date sometime in early 2008.