"Darwin was the first to use data from nature to convince people that evolution is true, and his idea of natural selection was truly novel. It testifies to his genius that the concept of natural theology, accepted by most educated Westerners before 1859, was vanquished within only a few years by a single five-hundred-page book. On the Origin of Species turned the mysteries of life's diversity from mythology into genuine science." -- Jerry Coyne
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
This is someone's customer review for the book "Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist" by Dan Barker"
I really enjoyed Barker's explanations for why he is an atheist (chapter 9). His straight-forward, clear writing gets his points across well. (For those who wish to hear Barker in televised debates, go to ffrf.org/media) The analogy to `evidence' for Santa Claus had me rolling on the floor in laughter. He rightly points out that children believe in Santa Claus due to our cultural and social traditions, and that this is the same basis adults have for belief in the Bible or any other "holy" text. The only difference is that most people are aware of the cultural basis for belief in Santa Claus, but fail to recognize that the more ancient stories (i.e., Bible, Koran, Torah) are also cultural products of their time. The greatest challenge to overcoming theistic thinking is that science is relatively young. It's been roughly 150 years since Darwin's theory of evolution was published, and only about 50 years that we first learned about genetics, whereas the Bible has been sinking its teeth into people for over 2,000 years.
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