Reddit reviews A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

I was an evangelical for 27 years, from age 18 to 45. I wouldn't say that there's one profound argument against Christianity; I would say that Christians and atheists are not even talking the same language. And most of that has to do with Christians having their conclusions in mind when they investigate, whereas atheists are willing to be led wherever the evidence and reason lead them. The end result is that atheists and Christians have completely different mindsets about what constitutes evidence and what they are willing to consider.

The first book I would recommend is Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliot Friedman. Friedman is, himself, a Christian. The book deals with what scholars know about the construction of the first few books of the Bible.

Second book I would recommend is The Bible Unearthed by Neil Silberman and Israel Finkelstein. Have you ever wondered what the archaeological support is for the stories of the Old Testament? Dr. Finkelstein is one of the leading archaeologists in Israel today. This is an excellent place to start. (Here's a 90 minute video if you prefer.)

Third, pretty much any book by Bart Ehrman. Here's a good one, though -- Jesus, Interrupted. Dr. Ehrman is very respected in the scholarly community, and what he writes here, for the most part, represents where the majority of scholars are.

Fourth is A History of God by Karen Armstrong. Ms Armstrong tells the story of how the God the Jews, Christians, and Muslims got his start in Canaan. There is a quick summary of the book here.

If you research Christianity with the same goal to find the truth most of us researched Mormonism, it's pretty much the only conclusion. Christianity has just been around a lot longer so the apologists have an easier time. Christians by and large also have no interest in researching anything which might challenge their faith in Christ.... Kinda like Mormons.

Edited to add: History of God did it for me as far as the historical claims, but The End of Faith and Why I Am Not a Christian are good too. History of God is really heavy, but also an amazing experience in itself. I've read it twice. I read The Spiral Staircase by the same author first, which is a much easier read. It is a memoir of her own loss of faith. She was on the verge of graduating from novice to full nun. Studying apologetics did it for her, much as it does for exmormons. It's the beginning of the end for the critical thinker.

You can also read Mother Theresa's letters wherein she often questions her belief in god pretty strongly and for long periods of time. One of the most interesting things Armstrong discovers in her research is that many of the most learned leaders and aesthetics of all 3 monotheist religions are virtual atheists themselves. She interviews several from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It's just something that happens when you study it to that degree. She is a really interesting person and an aesthetic in her own right.

Zeitgeist is full of misinformation; do not rely on it as a source. If you want a thorough debunking, start here (admittedly, that's a very long read, because there's so much to debunk).

The Old Testament (Torah) is a collection from several different sources, including Babylonian and Canaanite mythology. Here's a decent overview, and I suggest you read its source, A History of God by Karen Armstrong, for details.

You can check out Karen Armstrong - A History of God and Richard Friedman's books (only old testament I think)

You may want to start outside the Bible. This is an excellent option.

https://www.amazon.com/History-God-000-Year-Judaism-Christianity-ebook/dp/B005DB6LSG/ref=nodl_

Karen Armstrong in History of God talks about how these prophets made it up as they went along. Worth reading but a very dense book and too much detail sometimes.

My advice is to research research research. Like they say, make the truth your own.

Now that you found out the witnesses don't have the truth and you've spent your whole life deconstructing other christian beliefs you should start looking for the truth.

Look for it everywhere; in history, philosophy, theology, etc. I'm out and I study the bible from secular historians and I feel more spiritual than I ever did in the KH.

I don't know the answers to life, the bible might have a few but its obviously had a tremendous human influence. The cool thing is that we both have the rest of our lives to figure out the truth.

This idea that nobody has the answers is very comforting to me and just drives me to explore and research more and more. I'd suggest starting with The History of God by Karen Armstrong. It's an absolutely fascinating book and pretty easy to read.

http://www.amazon.com/History-God-Karen-Armstrong-ebook/dp/B005DB6LSG/

Feel free to PM with any questions, good luck buddy.

There are multitudes of explanations.

It totally makes sense that people in the past could've thought of any of the angels as being deities, or that they saw visions of God but misunderstood it, or were hearing demons (though I hate this particular view, because quite frankly its not at all charitable, and what the hell would demons need worship for anyway? brownie points?).

I do think, for the modern religions, its probably the second – that they're hearing the voice of God, but misinterpret it. Every single religion believes this, by the way. So its not at all an uncommon view.

Have you tried out the History of God by Armstrong? She's one of the most respected scholars on religion and does a pretty darn fair overview of the entire history of monotheism (in general), though less fair for the Eastern religions.

Read (or listen to) "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. I didn't even finish the book, and it cured me of caring about the god of Abraham as anything more than a man-made construct.

https://www.amazon.com/History-God-000-Year-Judaism-Christianity-ebook/dp/B005DB6LSG

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This skims the surface:

http://www.amazon.com/History-God-Karen-Armstrong-ebook/dp/B005DB6LSG/ref=la_B000AQ72VE_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408205513&sr=1-2