Dan Barker

Dan Barker's semi-autobiographical critique of religion came into my life years ago at the same time I began asking the hard questions about the nature of existence, the universe and everything. To say that Losing Faith in Faith influenced me would be an understatement—more accurately, it fueled the flame that steered me away from dogmatic belief once and for all.

Barker's writing is clever, replete with humor and a pure joy to read for anyone wrestling with the illogicality of belief. He show more can no longer take religion seriously so you see that he's just laughing at the absurdity of it all.

In the mid-2000's Losing Faith was updated for a newly-energized freethought market, and the result was 2008's Godless. The new edition is worth checking out since it goes into further detail on most of the subjects first printed here, but I still prefer this version. show less

This short book is a great reminder that morality is less complex, and more dependent on our cooperative instincts and on reason, than most people suppose. It’s also a reminder that reason is not a thing, but rather a function of the brain, and to be a fully aware and functioning moral agent requires the use of reason and the freedom to choose.

The book also shows how morality cannot come from religion, as very few people follow every teaching within the Bible or claim to be biblical show more literalists. The decision as to which parts of the Bible are moral and which are not (stoning homosexuals to death comes to mind as a teaching that is most definitely not moral) obviously cannot come from within the Bible but rather comes from modern moral sensibility applied via reason.

The better way to think about moral problems is in terms of the harm principle, which directs our actions towards the avoidance of unnecessary suffering. In fact, the parts of the Bible we reject almost always violate the harm principle while the ones we accept always abide by the harm principle.

Barker does a great job of elaborating on these points, showing how our three moral minds operate (instinct, reason, and law), and explaining how religion gets in the way of moral progress. show less

It's hard to imagine a more fervent believer than Dan Barker, a born-again Evangelical preacher and missionary from the age of 17. You might expect he'd be the least likely to lose his faith, but lose it he did -- from coming out as an atheist on Oprah in 1984 to becoming co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The initial autobiographical portion of the book eventually gives way to both philosophical arguments (e.g., how a being cannot be simultaneously both infinitely show more merciful and infinitely just), appeals to logic, and detailed descriptions of biblical inaccuracies and contradictions that refute the idea that it is the word of an omniscient, divine being.

I listen occasionally to the FFRF's weekly podcasts, but I'm not a particular fan of Barker as a host. I find his smug personality and flat humor rather off-putting and, while he's admittedly a gifted musician, I find most of his compositions almost unbearably corny. If it weren't for the show's fascinating guest interviews I wouldn't be listening at all. That said, Barker is much more likable and convincing on paper, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I enjoyed the philosophical reasoning, and I was also particularly fond of the chapter titled 'Dear Theologian,' a monologue of existential questioning directed from God to his human creation. show less

Finished ~75% of this. Barker states my problem with this clearly; he was a preacher, this was his marketable skill, so he basically presses on in that role from the opposite position. It sounds like a mean-spirited attack, but it's his own story. Unfortunately the role of a preacher isn't reasoned argument or stating facts, it's conversion, and there's a lot of stabs at this in this book, and it's clearly directed at (Christian) believers. You can read biblical studies, authors like Bart show more Ehrman (which Barker cites) in Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why or Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are makes clear contradictions, insertions and gives you a read on the motivations behind the changes - and while he often gets a rap as if he's just out to "deconvert" believers the contrast when looking at this book could not be clearer.
It's not so much Barker getting things wrong as that he's throwing in the kitchen sink and multiple (sometimes contradictory) lines of attack, without any overall coherence beyond finding cracks in belief. From contradictions, to pulling random bible verses (the she-bears mauling children for God is a classic), historical evidence, philosophical debates (that often seem as unfounded as what they attack) about what omniscience and omnipotence would be like, and what standing outside of time would mean... add to that his personal biography and work with the Freedom From Religion Foundation and it's kind of a mess of a book.
For a systematic breakdown of problems in the Bible from an atheist perspective pick: The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 1 and volume 2 instead.
For a critical scholarly look at the Bible, Ehrman is good, also consider his Great Courses, like The New Testament.
For a down and dirty polemic attack on religion that's better written, consider Hitch's God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. show less