Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 3

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this review.


4. The Obstinacy of Atheism

Dr. Spiegel starts this chapter using the movie The Sixth Sense as an analogy for the doctrine of original sin. It is the idea of being dead and not even knowing it. We all need a person like the boy, Cole Sear, to bring our deathly situation to our attention.

"Then, and only then, can we glimpse the truth about ourselves and--to break from the analogy of the film--experience spiritual resurrection." p90

In this chapter Dr. Spiegel aims to show how "a person may become locked in the atheistic delusion" through his worldview and the influence of sin on the mind.

Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 2

Read Part 1 of this review.


2. The Irrationality of Atheism

In this chapter Dr. Spiegel deals a fair amount with one of atheisms "leading champions of atheism" and his "conversion" to theism. Antony Flew.

"In this chapter we will look at the principal categories of evidence that persuaded Flew to become a theist, and we will see why any fair-minded person should be similarly convinced of the reality of God." p42

There were three evidences that moved Professor Flew from atheism to theism, and they were: "the laws of nature, the existence of the cosmos, and the presence of life." (p42) Nature's laws are very constant. The question is why? Scientists could formulize laws from the data they study, yet they cannot answer the question, "why?" Even though some scientists still deny God and believe that the laws of nature are as they are by necessity, "this only raises the 'why' question at a different level." (p43) What makes these laws necessary?

Interview with Dr. Jim Spiegel author of The Making of an Atheist

For those who have been following this blog, you would have been reading about The Making of an Atheist blog book tour.

It is my privilege today to interview Dr. Jim Spiegel on his book The Making of an Atheist.

1. Just thinking...: Hi Jim, welcome to Just thinking...!
Dr. Jim Spiegel: Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with your readers.

2. JT: Tell us a little about yourself, where you grew up, your family and how you came to Taylor University.
DJS: I grew up in Michigan and Mississippi.  I did my undergraduate work in Biology at Belhaven College in Jackson, then went on to do graduate work in philosophy at University of Southern Mississippi and then back up north to Michigan State University for my doctorate.  I arrived at Taylor in 1993 and have been teaching there ever since.

Book Review: The Making of an Atheist - Part 1

TITLE: The Making of an Atheist
SUBTITLE: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief
AUTHOR: James S. Spiegel
PUBLISHER: Moody Publishers, Chicago
YEAR: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8024-7611-1
PAGES: 141 (including notes and acknowledgements)

Apologetics, especially in the face of blunt, dare I say "blind", atheism, is never
easy. The question of their "blindness" always intrigues me. How could they not see God's handiwork all across creation? How could any rational person believe the fairy tale of goo to the zoo to you? How could a thinking person deny that what so clearly looks like design is not design? If an alien (of the grey extra-terrestrial variety) lands on our moon, would their first thought really be, "I wonder how many million years it took for this flag to evolve on this moon?" (The flag mentioned here is the one that the Apollo 11 crew planted on the moon.) Why do these atheists not believe? Why are the New Atheists like Dawkins so acerbic towards any belief in God, especially Christianity?

The Making of an Atheist by Dr. Jim Spiegel book giveaway

It is almost time for Just thinking... to post its review of Dr. Jim Spiegel's book, The Making of an Atheist. I will also have an interview with Dr. Spiegel. This will all happen from 1-3 April. I have already written the review in 3 parts and I am waiting on the answers to the interview questions that I posed to Dr. Spiegel.

As a bonus to you, the readers of this blog, Dr. Spiegel and his publishers have made 2 copies of this book available for a free giveaway. So, if you would like to win one of these books, please fill out the form below to be entered into the draw. The competition is valid until 30 March 2010, 18:00, South African time. That is 12:00 EST in the U.S. and 16:00 in London, midnight in Perth, and 05:00, 31 March in Auckland. That should make it understandable... I hope!

Only those names and emails entered via the form below will be considered!

UPDATE (30 March 2010):
The book giveaway has ended and the two winners have been chosen. They are:
Eric Loynes
Eleanor Poulter

I made use of Random.org to determine the two winners.

I have emailed them to inform them, and as soon as they have sent me their postal addresses, I will inform Dr. Jim Spiegel of their postal information.

Congratulations Eric and Eleanor!

Do you have questions for Dr. Jim Spiegel on his new book, 'The Making of an Atheist?'

My turn for giving my review and interview of Dr. Jim Spiegel on his new book, The Making of an Atheist, during his blog book tour, will be 1-3 April here on my blog.
If anyone would like to ask him a question on his book, you could leave a comment to this post and I will make sure that he gets it. Make sure that I get your questions NO later than 23 March 2010.
Unfortunately my blog doesn't have comments links for all new posts on my blog's default page, since I started using intensedebate's comment code. They are working at it so I am hoping it will work real soon. However, if you click on the subject of this post you will be taken to this post's own page which would have the comment section at the bottom.

Finished reading "The Making of an Atheist" for the blog book tour with Dr. Jim Spiegel

Well, I have finished reading The Making of an Atheist by Dr. Jim Spiegel. As most of you know, I am part of a blog book tour by Dr. Spiegel. I can now start thinking about the review I will be writing on this book and the questions I would like to ask Dr. Spiegel in the bloggerview.

The review and interview will appear on this blog one month from today (1-3 April). To find out who is reviewing the book and interviewing Dr. Spiegel in the mean time, check out my post on the blog book tour.

"The Making of an Atheist" book has arrived

As you know, I will be part of a blog book tour involving Dr. Jim Spiegel's latest book, The Making of an Atheist. I explained how the blog book tour works at my previous post on this matter.

I must say, I was starting to worry, because up until yesterday, I had not received the book yet, and I am due to post my review of Dr. Spiegel's book and do an online interview with him by 1-3 April. I really didn't want to do a rushed job and so was concerned about the arrival of the book.

Well, I am glad to let you know, the book arrived today and I will start working through the book immediately. So, look out for my review and interview with Jim around 1 April.

I promise you, no April Fool's jokes!

"The Making of an Atheist" Blog Book Tour is now underway!

As I announced in my previous post about "The Making of an Atheist" Blog Book Tour, Dr. Jim Spiegel has reached out to several bloggers to be part of his Blog Book Tour to promote his new book, The Making of an Atheist.

The tour has started and it will be very enlightening to read each review/interview. Here is the complete schedule:

Making of an Atheist Blog Book Tour

Jim Spiegel, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Taylor University has written a new book, The Making of an Atheist. In order to promote his book he will be doing a blog book tour in which his book will be reviewed and/or he will be interviewed by several bloggers from around the internet. Jim is a blogger himself and will announce the full schedule from his own blog as to when reviews and/or interviews will appear in the blogosphere. I am privileged to be one of the bloggers asked by Jim to be part of the blog tour for his book.

A preliminary blog book tour schedule has been made available to the bloggers, but these dates cannot be released yet since the participating bloggers must still agree with the schedule. As soon as the dates have been finalized I will make them available from my blog.

The following table contain the list of bloggers that will participate:

Blog Name	Blogger
Cloud of Witnesses	Chris Reese
Apologetics.com	Rich Park
Truthbomb Apologetics	Chad Gross
Triablogue	Peter Pike
Mike Austin's blog	Mike Austin
The Seventh Sola	Joel Griffith
EPS Blog	Steve Cowan
Doug Geivett's Blog	Doug Geivett
Apologetics 315	Brian Auten
Just thinking...	William Dicks
Oversight of Souls	Ray van Neste
Constructive Curmudgeon	Doug Groothuis
A-TeamBlog	Roger Overton

The blog book tour will start somewhere mid-February.