Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists /by Dan Barker and Richard Dawkins. It isn’t difficult to work out that religious fundamentalists are deluded—those people who think the entire universe began after the agricultural revolution; people who believe literally that a snake, presumably in fluent Hebrew, beguiled into sin a man fashioned from clay and a woman grown from him as a cutting: people who find it self-evident that the origin myth that happened to dominate their own childhood trumps the thousands of alternative myths sprung from all the dreamtimes of the world. It is one thing to know that these faith-heads are wrong. My mistake has been naively to think I can remove their delusion simply by talking to them in a quiet, sensible voice and laying out the evidence, clear for all to see.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR GODLESS
“Valuable in the human story are the reflections of intelligent and ethical people who listen to the voice of reason and who allow it to vanquish bigotry and superstition. This book is a classic example.”
—CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS author of God is Not Great
“The most eloquent witness of internal delusion that I know—a triumphantly smiling refugee from the zany, surreal world of American fundamentalist Protestantism—is Dan Barker.”
—RICHARD DAWKINS author of The God Delusion
“Godless was a revelation to me. I don’t think anyone can match the (devastating!) clarity, intensity, and honesty which Dan Barker brings to the journey—faith to reason, childhood to growing up, fantasy to reality, intoxication to sobriety.”
—OLIVER SACKS authors of Musicophilia
In Godless, Barker recounts his journey from evangelical preacher to atheist activist, and along the way explains precisely why it is not only okay to be an atheist, it is something in which to be proud.”
—MICHAEL SHERMER publisher of Skeptic Magazine
“Godless is a fascinating memoir and a handbook for debunking theism. But most of all, it is a moving testimonial to one man’s emotional and intellectual rigor in acclaiming critical thinking.”
—ROBERT SAPOLSKY author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers