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175th out of 1,900 books
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1,838 voters
What's So Great About Christianity
Is it reasonable to have faith in God? Can intelligent, educated people really believe what the Bible says? Or do the atheists have it right—has Christianity been disproven by science and discredited as a guide to morality? Best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza (The Enemy at Home; What's So Great about America) responds head-on to the anti-God arguments of prominent atheists...more
Hardcover, 348 pages
Published
September 25th 2007
by Regnery Publishing
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rife with misconceptions and assumptions, this book is not much information about anything. more of a book about the author's opinion than facts, it is sheer propaganda. what makes me sad about this book is that i can see the angle that this brand of christian is coming from, and it sees wrong conclusions using faulty logic. for example, dinesh d'souza claims that he understands darwinian evolution, but reading his take on it is laughable. he claims that darwinian evolution actually SUPPORTS the...more
This is one Christian's response to the recent onslaught of atheistic anti-Christian literature. D'Souza answers their attacks eloquently, showing how religion is triumphing globally over atheism, how Western culture, including the scientific method, is thoroughly indebted to Christianity, how Christian teachings are supported by science, and how atheist attacks against Christianity don't hold up philosophically. I found this eye-opening and intriguing. It's a good tool for anyone seeking an ans...more
Of the recent books I've read on Christian apologetics, this is the one that I'd most like friends who are skeptics or doubters to read. It's written in clear, conversational, persuasive and sometimes witty prose. ("If you are confronted by a relativist who insists that all morality is relative, go ahead and punch him in the face.")
The chapter on evolution challenged my thinking on that topic.
I can't say that I understood everything in this book. Anselm's argument for the existence of God is a...more
The chapter on evolution challenged my thinking on that topic.
I can't say that I understood everything in this book. Anselm's argument for the existence of God is a...more
Didn't agree with every point, but it's a great comeback to Hitchens, Dawkins and the rest of the atheists who have published books in the past few years. What I liked most is that he takes the atheists' primary argument tool-- "reason" --and turns it right back on them to show the limits of their arguments, but without being arrogant or assuming. The overall message could be summed up as "Faith is not as unreasonable as some would have you believe; in fact, it's the more reasonable option."
I am a devoted follower of Jesus and firmly believe he is the way, the truth and the life, but d'souza is, in my opinion, trying to exploit a right wing market to sell books by putting out poorly researched, very biased, one-sided works designed to be self-congratulatory to a particular group. His sense of history is so skewed that a high school teacher would give him a "D". Open minded, fair and balanced, it is not.
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I just skimmed through this at the library, but I don't think I missed much because I've encountered every idea here in other books. The only argument I found somewhat convincing is the anthropic principle, which Stephen Hawking elucidated more adeptly in A Brief History of Time. However, while I believe it's possible (if not necessarily probable) that the laws of physics were created in order to sustain life, everything we know about evolution, astronomy, and science in general suggests that h...more
The book could use one more revision for concision, but it really is a brilliant and substantive response to Dawkins and Hitchens. Hitchens himself said in one debate he had with D'Souza that D'Souza is one of the more formidable opponents he's ever faced. That's high praise, coming from Hitchens.
Several of the chapters are right on par with C.S. Lewis.
Several of the chapters are right on par with C.S. Lewis.
I am "reading" this book via CD (many CDs, as it turns out). It is a thorough refutation of atheist Richard Dawkins and his ilk.
A favorite point D'Souza makes so far is this: The very nature of "faith" *means* that we will doubt. If we *knew* with complete certainty, by all available empirical evidence that there was a God, then we would not *need* faith. In this, we share our doubt, our "not knowing" with agnostics.
"Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." Mark 9:24
But, believers use faith t...more
A favorite point D'Souza makes so far is this: The very nature of "faith" *means* that we will doubt. If we *knew* with complete certainty, by all available empirical evidence that there was a God, then we would not *need* faith. In this, we share our doubt, our "not knowing" with agnostics.
"Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." Mark 9:24
But, believers use faith t...more
Meh. I read this because I had recently read The God Delusion and wanted to see what this sort-of-rebuttal had to say. (I also D'Souza and Christopher Hitchens debate at a conference over the summer and wanted to hear what this book had to say.)
Ultimately, I thought that this book was just as uncompelling as was the Dawkins book. The arguments are mildly interesting to think about, but there seemed to be many points either forgotten or left out. In both books, I found myself wanting to present t...more
Ultimately, I thought that this book was just as uncompelling as was the Dawkins book. The arguments are mildly interesting to think about, but there seemed to be many points either forgotten or left out. In both books, I found myself wanting to present t...more
A fascinating read, with views on not only Christianity, but religion as a whole. A definite must-read for anyone who wants to rebut that athiest at the office.
This is one of the best modern Christian apologetics I have read, because it directly addresses the specific concerns of atheists and secularists by drawing evidence and reasoning from a variety of fields including science, history, literature, and philosophy. The tone is fairly moderate, and the book is well reasoned. For me, the chapters on the origin of modern science (which was made possible by and grew out of Christianity) were the most intriguing. I would have liked more detail in the argu...more
This was gift from my brother and it really came at a good time in my life. Dinesh does a fantastic job of answering his book title question. As a glimpse of what yu can expect I share one of his opening quotes. "They have been flogging the carcass of 'fundamentalism' without having to encounter the horse kick of vigorous traditional Christianity". His writing is rhythmic and powerful. Enjoy!
Excellent book. Well-written and thoughtful, this book makes the case for how important Christianity is to western civilization, going to the extent to say that it is the basis of western civilization, and warns that if society moves away from Christianity then it is in danger of collapsing. Not only that, but the book takes on the atheist points of view on a variety of subjects, including science and morality, to show that the atheist viewpoint offers little to explain reality, which is the opp...more
Dinesh D'Souza drives me crazy. He's clearly a bright fellow, and when he knows his subject he's fascinating, but he has a bad habit of dismissing some concepts out of hand, which means that the depth of his ignorance is sometimes astonishing. I suppose we all are guilty of that, but what's annoying is that he has no interest in issues sometimes quite close to his main subject, meaning he can go from profound to just plain ol' ignorant in the space of a sentence.
I don't mind reading stuff I disa...more
I don't mind reading stuff I disa...more
One of the best book I've read about what makes Christianity great. ;) I'm planning to re-read this once again when I have the luxury of time. I really like Dinesh's point on Chapter 5 where he said:
"Today courts wrongly interpret separation of church and state to mean that religion has no place in the public arena, or that morality derived from religion should not be permitted to shape our laws. Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression. Secularists w...more
"Today courts wrongly interpret separation of church and state to mean that religion has no place in the public arena, or that morality derived from religion should not be permitted to shape our laws. Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression. Secularists w...more
I smiled at D’Sousa’s portrayal of liberal Christians (readers know me as one): “Instead of being the church’s missionaries to the world, they have become the world’s missionaries to the church. They devote their moral energies to trying to make the church more democratic, to assure equal rights for women, to legitimize homosexual marriage, and so on … Liberal Christians are distinguished by how much intellectual and moral ground they concede to the adversaries of Christianity.” Guilty as charge...more
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What's So Great About Christianity?
Someone is going to tell you.
(The book title itself actually has no question mark on the end of it. The Christian Fish symbol on the book jacket does, but it seems the author is intent on telling about Christianity's virtues--not asking a series of rhetorical questions and then answering them one by one. Once opened with the very first chapter, you'll soon see quite simply this book is not in that kind of format).
More on this great read momentarily.
A while...more
Someone is going to tell you.
(The book title itself actually has no question mark on the end of it. The Christian Fish symbol on the book jacket does, but it seems the author is intent on telling about Christianity's virtues--not asking a series of rhetorical questions and then answering them one by one. Once opened with the very first chapter, you'll soon see quite simply this book is not in that kind of format).
More on this great read momentarily.
A while...more
This is an excellent book.
It does a great job of taking the arguments made by leading athiests and intellectually debunking them. He does it not in a spirit of hate but in a spirit of love constantly lifting up Christ.
While I don't really encounter that many true athiests ( I really think that more and more the world is turning towards spirituallity....often misled spirituality) but it makes you examine much of athiestic indoctrination that we constantly receive in the west. It helps you identi...more
It does a great job of taking the arguments made by leading athiests and intellectually debunking them. He does it not in a spirit of hate but in a spirit of love constantly lifting up Christ.
While I don't really encounter that many true athiests ( I really think that more and more the world is turning towards spirituallity....often misled spirituality) but it makes you examine much of athiestic indoctrination that we constantly receive in the west. It helps you identi...more
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While in a very few instances the rhetorical underpinnings of this book get a bit wobbly, on the whole it is an impressive synthesis of theological and philosophical arguments--drawing on the long history of Western thought--and presents a cogent, erudite-yet-readable, and relatively comprehensive description of the Christian “position” in the 21st century. I do not expect the book to convince militant atheists, and it will offend at least two types of Christians: those who cannot allow any disc...more
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What D'Souza has basically done is accept what the atheists say hook, line, and sinker, and then twisted the Bible to make it fit. He writes, "but what impresses me is that virtually every biologist in the world accepts the theory of evolution." (pp. 145-146) Of course, since science changes over the centuries, and is bound to continue changing, I guess we have to keep changing the Bible to make it fit. So much for the authority of the Word of God.
D'Souza also brings up a lot of so-called facts...more
D'Souza also brings up a lot of so-called facts...more
I feel a little generous giving D'Souza 4 stars for this book. It was quite an interesting read and didn't drag, which I suppose is always a plus. He handles the so-called rational and scientific atheists superbly and demonstrates the clear fallibility of their arguments. Anyone who wishes to know why atheism is just as impoverished as much of contemporary Christianity ought to read this book. If anything, D'Souza convinces us not to fall for the atheists argument of scientific superiority, and...more
After hearing D'Souza speak in an IQ2 debate, where the premise was "Science Refutes God", I was looking forward to reading his book as his "pro-God" arguments in the debate were the most reasonable I'd heard from a Christian source. As a non-Christian, I have been mystified by the Christian faith and wanted to hear a reasonable discussion that would satisfy my scientific understanding of the world while explaining Christianity.
I appreciated his initial sentiments: "This is also a book for athei...more
I appreciated his initial sentiments: "This is also a book for athei...more
This is a good summary of Christian defense against atheism and modernism. This book is a one volume work that is a good primer for 'mere' Christianity. I think that if one were to read Mere Christianity, Orthodoxy, Answering the New Atheism, and Chance or Purpose one would have a better grasp on the arguments than reading this single volume, but if one is not ready to tackle these books, then this one volume is sufficient to give a good foundation.
Feb 05, 2013
Jimmy
added it
The author of "What's so Great About America" has written a book on the subject of Christianity. The book is largely a response to the "Brights," or the New Atheists, such as Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris. In terms of a work coming from a broadly Classical school of apologetics, I would say this work fits the bill in terms of what you expect from this particular approach. My favorite chapter has to be the one on Galileo, in which D'Souza gives the historical account of what historically happened...more
Chapter 1: How popular and on-the-rise religion is around the world as opposed to secularism.
Chapter 2: How religion gives hope and thus as a group, the religious thrive as opposed to the secular.
Chapter 3: The recent atheist movement, their arrogance and their adamant attitude.
Chapter 4: Hoe secularists try to snuff out religion through science and their brand of education,
Chapter 5: The great influence of Christianity in Western civilization, focusing on how the idea of the separation of churc...more
Chapter 2: How religion gives hope and thus as a group, the religious thrive as opposed to the secular.
Chapter 3: The recent atheist movement, their arrogance and their adamant attitude.
Chapter 4: Hoe secularists try to snuff out religion through science and their brand of education,
Chapter 5: The great influence of Christianity in Western civilization, focusing on how the idea of the separation of churc...more
Not as good as Tell Me Why or Mere Christianity. He talks about Kant and Hume, but I don't think he is giving a full explanation of their ideas. And a weird citation from Leo Strauss. If I was an atheist, I don't think I would find this convincing (as an argument for the God of Christianity). I found an informative (negative) review.
http://www.infidels.org/library/moder...
http://www.infidels.org/library/moder...
I was very disappointed in this book. I was looking forward to some solid reasoning on the positive points of Christianity. What I read were mostly arguments trying to prove that atheists are wrong. In addition, many of his arguments were contradictory and he made many blanket statements without any basis of fact. The book should have been titled instead, "What's So Bad About Atheists."
I agree neither with all of the assumptions nor with all of the conclusions of this author. Nonetheless, as an example of a way to approach thinking about the intersection of science and religion, I think it is a very interesting read. Also, I found it highly entertaining. D'Souza follows a pattern of carefully walking the reader through an explanation of scientific reason (which atheist-scientists believe refutes the existence of God) and building up to a "gotcha" point in which he demonstrates...more
The popularity of such “New Atheist” writers as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and the like has spawned a slew of apologetics books from intellectual Christian writers seeking to promote rational arguments that refute the torrents of criticisms and attacks currently being leveled against traditional Christianity. Some books do a really good job of this; unfortunately, WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY? isn’t one of those.
The first problem is that the title d...more
The first problem is that the title d...more
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Catholic Indian conservative writer and speaker.
A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983.
D'souza writes primarily about Christianity, patriotism and American p...more
More about Dinesh D'Souza...
A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983.
D'souza writes primarily about Christianity, patriotism and American p...more
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“Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression.”
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6 people liked it
“I now want to examine a second major feature of Western civilization that derives from Christianity. This is what philosopher Charles Taylor calls the 'affirmation of ordinary life.' It is the simple idea that ordinary people are fallible, and yet these fallible people matter. In this view, society should organize itself in order to meet their everyday concerns, which are elevated into a kind of spiritual framework. The nuclear family, the idea of limited government, the Western concept of the rule of law, and our culture's high emphasis on the relief of suffering all derive from this basic Christian understanding of the dignity of fallible human beings.”
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5 people liked it
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