A response to advice

I have recently received some very good advice from Ophelia Benson. (I don't know her you understand, I just follow her on Twitter.) I had asked her, as I have been asking everybody, to retweet a link to my blog, this blog in fact, in the hope that it would lend some much needed exposure to my book. She has suggested that if I were to post something a bit more substantive on this blog I might enjoy better results. I agree.

I must say though, that I am quite embarrassed by this, especially since I have been given very similar advice before. It's obvious to me now of course, that looking at my posts so far there is nothing of any substance here. All I have really offered so far is half-hearted posts about the the fact that my book is available for Kindle, or my facile observations about my various exploits in self marketing. I'm enormously grateful for the wake-up call, and I intend to do something about it in subsequent posts.

In my book, I identify five main themes that I argue are the most important and fundamental cornerstones of Christianity. They are: God, Sin, Atonement, Judgement, and Faith. Over the next few days and weeks I intend to make a series of substantive posts that set out various ideas that I tackle under these umbrella terms. I have previously posted a brief synopsis of the book, but just to set the scene as it were, here is a more substantial adumbration of the themes of the book:

God

This topic is mainly addressed in the first chapter of the book which begins with an analysis of the main arguments and counter arguments for the existence of God – the arguments from design, cosmic origins and morality – and touches upon aspects of science, simple philosophy and logic. Having touched upon all the major arguments for God, and demonstrating that they are all lacking in some way, the chapter finishes by waiving all objections and ‘accepting’ that God exists. This sets the tone for the rest of the book and a similar concession is be made at the end of each chapter, save the last.

Sin

This theme is covered in the second chapter, where I am concerned primarily with establishing whether or not the Christian idea of an ancestral, inherited curse of sin is scriptural, and the various objections to the dogma of ‘Original Sin’ are discussed. This chapter includes sections on the Genesis account of Creation and The Fall, the transmission of sin from one generation to the next, the logical implausibility of the dogma in stories such as the Great Flood; and the bizarre circumstances that might have been expected had the Fall not taken place.

Atonement

The third and fourth chapters of the book deal with the person of Jesus of Nazareth and his so-called sacrifice on the cross. The topics discussed range from Old Testament Prophecy and biblical inerrancy to the concepts of choice and responsibility, and questions the whole idea of blood sacrifices, their morality, or lack thereof.

Judgement

The concept of divine judgement is dealt with in chapters five and six where the mismatch between the Old and New Testament treatments of the subject is explored, as well as the amusing lengths to which certain denominations of Christianity go when predicting when the final judgement will actually take place. The chapters also discusses the much anticipated Second Coming of Christ, and attempts to define the different types of unbeliever or infidel.

Faith

Finally, chapter seven tackles the concept of faith, the various definitions of the word itself as well as its role in religion, science and public education. The second half the chapter seven also acts as a kind of coda for the rest of the book. Drawing upon all of the arguments made so far, all of the objections to Christianity are stacked up, one after the other, stretching the credulity of the reader to breaking point. The chapter ends by questioning the morality of Christianity's overall message, as well as drawing some final conclusions.

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So there we have it. That's the book. What I thought I would do now is to take one aspect from each theme and rework them into less formal blog posts, appetizers if you will. I'll submit the first one in the next few days, and it will be about the clash between science and god. Wish me well and watch this space...