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Summary: Still operating from faith first, facts second point of view
Review: McDowell's first section in this book, "The Bible - I trust it" should tell you all you need to know about his "evidence". His argument is that the Bible is unimpeachable and therefore is acceptable as 100% truth. So, inevitably, he uses the age-old circular argument: Christianity must be true because the Bible says it is. I expected OH SO MUCH more.And this, after the book jacket claims to provide "Answers which will satisfy anyone who is willing to honestly weigh the evidence." Too bad the author wasn't willing to offer up any non-tainted evidence.
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Summary: It's a relative exploration of all things passionate.
Review: The arguments contained within connect to the specific grasping of individuals who feel inclinations toward grasping and consuming.
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Summary: A Good Bit of Ammunition
Review: There is ample testimony here. If one wants to begin an inquiry of arguments about the bible and its historical accuracy, this is THE place to begin, as there is a voluminous quantity of fully documented evidence. The introduction carefully explains that the reader must be intellectually honest in approaching the subjects dealt with, if they wish to discover the truth. This work is made by humans and thus is not perfect but it is ironclad in its assertions regarding treatment of the subject matter. It is carefully written from a studied and deliberate thinker's point of view, devoid of bias as anything I have ever read except the bible itself. You do not need an unabridged dictionary and an encyclopedia of philosophy to adequately dissect it. It is plainly written for all levels of adult thinkers. Get it, it is more than worth the money.
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Summary: This book changed my life. I lost my faith.
Review: McDowell's book changed my life. Upon reading it 17 years ago, I lost my faith in Christianity. Up until then, I had a strong confidence in Christianity, for I believed that Christianity had strong evidence in favor of it. I purchased McDowell's book in the hope that it would help me to become better educated and more articulate in my presentation of this evidence. But when I read the book carefully I was shocked. For the first time I became aware of how weak and illogical the arguments in favor of Christian faith really were. What I had always been told were iron-clad arguments turned out to be, on close inspection, empty sophistry. Especially revealing were all the Old Testament prophecies that McDowell claimed were fulfilled by Jesus. If I recall correctly, McDowell listed about 70 or 80 of these. But when I saw how unpersuasive the vast majority of these really were, I saw the foundation of my faith crumble. I realized that if this was the best evidence Christianity had to offer, my faith in Christianity was merely arbitrary, with little to offer to compel one intellectually to believe in it. Christians often claim that they have powerful evidence on their side. If you are interested in seeing just how empty this claim really is, read McDowell's book.
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Summary: No answers here
Review: As a skeptic looking for valid reasons to reconsider Christianity, I was really looking for some good information. I've already educated myself with works on Biblical scholarship and archeology. Needless to say I was disappointed with what is offered in this book. McDowell states that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible as if it were accepted fact--which it is not--and doesn't offer any evidence to the contrary. All the archeological evidence is pre-1970 and there have been significant discoveries in the last 30 years! There is nothing in here that made me reconsider my position on the reliability of the contradicting Gospels, or that Jesus was a man and not a god. Needless to say, this book turned me even farther away from considering Christianity as a religion.
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Summary: Still waiting for the "Evidence"
Review: From the title of this book, I suspected that it would offer actual evidence. At the very least, I expected some kind of argument. McDowell does neither - he just quotes a whole bunch of people that have come to the same conclusion as he has, and none of them offer evidence either. Hardly any of the book is even written by McDowell. Even to the Christian, I would suggest reading a book that actually puts forth an argument - such as a theology book. To anticipate the reader who will think I did not read this book, I did read this book from front to back - every page.
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Summary: Read The Bible Instead
Review: The readers would do much better by reading Scripture. Unfortunately, too many people want the quick-fix and something easy to look at. This is not to say that all of McDowell's "verdicts" are wrong, but some are. People should think twice when a person is defending this book instead of defending from the Bible itself. Unfortunately, of the readers that I know, many of them do not have a strong biblical background. This is an easy way out for them. As a result, it has often led to disputes within churches that should not have occurred (our denomination is very scholarly and clear on most positions). For that, I would have given zero stars, but there are some points that it may benefit new Christians.
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Summary: For Christians and non-Christians, utter rubbish
Review: How do I say this strongly enough? This book is to evidence what a loud belch at a formal dinner table is to prayer. Its title notwithstanding, it is not about employing the methods of evidence to examine fundamentalist Christianity's claims, but about using all available tricks, obfuscations and sleights-of-hand to support fundamentalist Christianity's particular and rigid world view. Tragically, that method is anathema to those of logic, reason and science, and therefore to the methods of evidence. For the non-Christian seeking to understand Christianity, this book is a stereotype for close-minded fundamentalism. For the reasonable Christian who may not believe every word in the Bible exactly as it is written, this book does nothing to offer a systematic method of interpretation. This is not to suggest that the book is without its admirers. ... For the fundamentalist Christian seeking arguments to use against the vast horde of heathens in the modern world, this book will provide plenty of carefully-crafted phrases guaranteed to drive any reasonable person to distraction. It may even induce some - not just militant atheists - to pray for deliverance from the intellectual myopia McDowell so clearly displays. McDowell abandons the methods of logic and reason early on. Seeing himself perhaps as a modern-day miracle-worker, he wastes no time turning logic into illogic. Christianity, he writes, is the best of all religions because it is objective. Considering the book's title, one might think he means that objective evidence supports or proves literal Christianity's claims. That is his implied conclusion, but it is not what he means by this argument. No, Christianity is objective, he says, because it has an object, namely Christ. Having such an object is what makes it superior, never mind that anyone could use the same reasoning to construct a religion around any object, such as one's morning bowl of corn flakes. So much for any serious intellectual probing in this book. The Bible as the inspired and infallible word of God? Well, of course it is, and all those heathens out there darn-well better believe it if they know what's good for them - except, that is, for the Apocrypha, which are not canonical. After all, we modern-day humans have the ability to know what parts of the Bible are really true. So much for consistency. Two contradictory accounts of the Creation and Jesus' genealogy? Easily explained: We can just interpret them to refer to different things. So much for sticking with the evidence. Well, yes, but Christianity is unique, writes McDowell. That is true, but it hardly supports the McDowell's conclusion that its uniqueness makes it the greatest of all religions. Every religion is unique in its own way, which is why we can recognize and define each of them. So, for that matter, was Hitler, but this hardly makes him the greatest of all leaders. So much for using evidence in a logical and reasoned way. No doubt this review will not sit well with people who have constructed their world view around the supposed truth of literal Christianity's claims. Having constructed a psychic universe in which the only alternative to fundamentalist Christianity is a hopeless void, they will quite naturally choose their tragically limited image of the ever-present reality over their equally limited view of the alternatives; but it has nothing to do with evidence. Its sole genesis is the fundamentalist mind's inability to see through the opaque layers of dogma that the mind itself has constructed. For it, its own dogmas are the reality, and like a suicidal person buried in a deep depression it can see no way out. That is the central problem with this book. McDowell's operational definition of evidence is whatever supports his theology. Those who think they need it are welcome to it, but there is nothing here for anyone who seriously seeks the truth.
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Summary: The best
Review: I'm going to make this short and simple. I was an atheist. I had a high school friend who'd become an evangelist. I asked him the confusing questions that atheists like to ask to confuse. He told me he couldn't answer all my questions but suggested this book. I told him that he had to read one of my books. I read "Evidence" and soon after became a Christian. This book totally changed my life. Thank you Josh.
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Summary: Premier Apologetic Resource!
Review: Josh is one of this generation's foremost apologists for the Christian faith, having begun his journey in college as a skeptic himself setting out to disprove the Bible. To his amazement, the evidence was overwhelming and 'demanded a verdict'. The vast range of source material cited (and updated for new audiences) from personal research and extensive Scriptural and soul searching have produced a monumental one-volume arsenal to defend the faith in a friendly but firmly factual way. This belongs in every church library and should be read by every church member to re-examine the documentary evidence for believing in Christ: there is no need to apologize for accepting the Bible at face value, since it has never been disproven and the preponderance of the evidence points to its truthfulness beyond a reasonable doubt. Great companion books would be Lee Strobel's Case For Christ; Case For Faith; C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity; Norman Geisler When Critics Ask; D.James Kennedy Solving Bible Mysteries. Josh's masterpiece has stood and will withstand the test of time as a classic component of the 20th/21st Centuries' apologetic arsenal. Meaty but more than manageable for the patient Bible student/sincere seeker.
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