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It Makes Sense: The Handbook to Believing
Book by Gaukroger, Stephen
- GenresChristian
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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August 25, 2020
Another revisiting of a book that was influential in my youth. This is a book designed to present evidence of evangelical Christian belief as a sensible, rational choice for everyone, so effectively it's a book of basic apologetics, with an evangelistic bent.
All I can say is, I found it pretty obnoxious.
It starts off trying to establish whether God exists or not, and does it by some pretty awful whataboutery - it basically says God must exist, because we can't conclusively prove he doesn't. It sets the tone for the rest of the book - it'll hold atheism to different standards, and rip it to pieces using arguments it won't apply to orthodox Christian belief.
Having established that God exists, the rest of the book deals with the old chestnuts like suffering, other religions, hypocrisy etc., in an attempt to blackmail people into becoming Christians. It's deliberately designed to leave you unsettled and disturbed, and thinking that Christianity is the only solution to a corrupt world, and your own individual failures. This is, of course, what Christians believe, but after 25 years of attempting to make it work, I gave up in despair, and I refuse to recognise this nasty view of what people are like. I also question the solutions the book proposes, and the lack of any decent evidence for anything. Classic circular logic appears - the Bible is defended using what it says about itself - and there's no decent scientific, academic or philosophical referencing or pointing to source material that might really convince you of anything.
Obviously a book with a specific agenda, and very clumsily executed. If you want to try and analyse Christianity's claims for yourself, this is not a good place to start, because it's gruesomely biased.
All I can say is, I found it pretty obnoxious.
It starts off trying to establish whether God exists or not, and does it by some pretty awful whataboutery - it basically says God must exist, because we can't conclusively prove he doesn't. It sets the tone for the rest of the book - it'll hold atheism to different standards, and rip it to pieces using arguments it won't apply to orthodox Christian belief.
Having established that God exists, the rest of the book deals with the old chestnuts like suffering, other religions, hypocrisy etc., in an attempt to blackmail people into becoming Christians. It's deliberately designed to leave you unsettled and disturbed, and thinking that Christianity is the only solution to a corrupt world, and your own individual failures. This is, of course, what Christians believe, but after 25 years of attempting to make it work, I gave up in despair, and I refuse to recognise this nasty view of what people are like. I also question the solutions the book proposes, and the lack of any decent evidence for anything. Classic circular logic appears - the Bible is defended using what it says about itself - and there's no decent scientific, academic or philosophical referencing or pointing to source material that might really convince you of anything.
Obviously a book with a specific agenda, and very clumsily executed. If you want to try and analyse Christianity's claims for yourself, this is not a good place to start, because it's gruesomely biased.
Displaying 1 of 1 review