A few weeks ago my recent apologetics book The Swedish Atheist, the Scuba Diver and Other Apologetic Rabbit Trails was reviewed by Randy Hardman at The Bara Initiative (barainitiative.com). You can read the review here.
I think the best part of the review is when Hardman rates the “Enjoyment Level” as “Oh yes!” Hardman concludes the review: “There are few “intellectual books” which I would recommend to the non-expert that I believe could be read in a single sitting. This is one of them that could be.”
Hardman does raise one criticism (of sorts): the absence of discussion of science and history:
“Questions of science (though not scientism) are noticeably absent in the text and aside from a few forays historical questions are as well. One might wonder why, for example, the existence of Jesus and historical evidences don’t enter the conversation–the claim that Jesus of Nazareth never existed is, after all, a popular claim against some of the new atheists.”
This was a tough one. As I wrote the book I especially was hoping to have chapters both on specific questions of science and the historical Jesus. But the conversation that I wrote between Randal and Sheridan simply didn’t turn in those directions. And that raises an interesting phenomenon that the writer often experiences in the writing of narrative: the conversation often takes on a life of its own and goes in directions unanticipated by the writer. It is as if the characters within the narrative are not mere passive pawns of the writer but instead exert their own autonomy as they take control of their own narratival destiny. And that destiny, as it turned out, didn’t include the anticipated chapters.
The good news is that both topics are covered adequately in God or Godless which (according to Baker) should be available in the bookstores by mid-March.
