The Case Against Christianity

Rating:
Summary: Challenging and Fascinating
Review: "The Case Against Christianity" is one religion's dogma scrutinized by a philosopher. On every level -- whether you are a believer or not-- is is profoundly challenging.

Why, Martin asks in his intro, should someone believe in Christ? He details two options: epistemic reasons ( having knowledge that makes one believe) and beneficial reasons (reasons that enhance well being, regardless of truth). Narrowing his focus to epistemic reasons, Martin examines in the first chapter the evidence for a historical Jesus (are there enough independent sources to prove that Jesus even lived?) and then moves on to the tenets of the faith.

Each chapter relies heavily on scholorship and ideas and arguments that already exist. By the end, I felt that no stone was left unturned. In spite of its rather lean 260 pages, I felt like I'd run a marathon by the time I made it to the end.

Make no mistake about it -- this is a serious book, and a neophyte may be scared away. I found it to be as challenging -- and rewarding -- as C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" and "The Problem of Pain".

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Did Christ Exist?
Review: Dr. Martin's attack on Christianity is based on historical and philosophical evaluations of the life and teachings of Christ. He examines historical writings and concludes that Christ may not even have existed. Even if he did, was he the significant figure that we make him out to be? Why do the early Christian writers such as Paul seem totally unfamiliar with his teachings. Paul, for instance, has many opinions, but he never uses any of Christ's teachings to bolster his (Paul's) beliefs.

Martin explores the Resurrection, the Virgin Birth, and the Incarnation. Much of his analysis is centered on the biblical contradictions regarding these events. He also tears apart the bible in discussing the ethics of Christianity.

I found this to be an interesting philosophical and historical treatise. While the author seems to be reaching at times to interpret biblical statements in line with his own beliefs, it is well worth reading if you are interested in varied perspectives of Christianity.

Rating:
Summary: A Word of Caution To Readers:
Review: Firstly, this review is only for the open minded.
Secondly, it is representative of what has been called the author's "apparent lack of confidence" in his work and not the work itself.

I'm not familiar with all of Mr. Martin's works outside of what I've found in infidels.org, But I'll give three stars for effort. =) I came to discover this book through a response Dr. Greg Bahnsen has put together (and available to download in mp3 format through Covenant Media Foundation's web site): Twelve 90-minute lectures on the philosophical merits and weaknesses of this book along with another of Dr. Martin's works, "Atheism: A Philosophical justification". Whether or not his observations are accurate, I prefer to allow my atheist friends to decide for themselves.

However, it is noteworthy that after this recording, these two scholars were scheduled to debate the truth of Christian theism at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. Yet two weeks before the scheduled debate, citing his opposition to having the it recorded for public distribution, Dr. Martin abruptly withdrew and cancelled. Nevertheless, Dr. Bahnsen traveled to Memphis anyway and presented a lecture on atheism, "exposing the weakness of Dr. Martin's published attack on Christian theism."

I recommend the studious researcher read this book and listen to Dr. Bahnsen's response to gain a balanced picture of the matter in question.

Rating:
Summary: A systematic critique of the Christian religion
Review: In this book, Michael Martin does an excellent job of dissecting the Christian religion with a tone of objectivity. The reader knows the author's conclusions from the title of the book, but it does not weaken his intellectual style. Though his position as philospher instead of theologian has brought his credibility in doubt, I was at least insured he would not jump to conclusions and keep them with stubborness. He states the problems with each Christian doctrine, reviews rebuttals to his arguments, and goes on to show the fallacy of the rebuttals. Some Christians, especially evangelicals, will quickly be unimpressed with his arguments when he doubts the probability of miracles. I personally thought his conclusions on miracles were rational and reasonable, but it takes an unbiased mind to appreciate his logic. Overall, I recommend this book to any person interested in religion because the book is based upon facts and philosophy, and I find it a devastating blow to Christianity's reasonableness. In conclusion, I find it to be a rational belief to accept Michael Martin's conclusions on Christianity and its doctrines.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a plod
Review: Martin is a reasonably well known free thinker who has a background as a academic philosopher. This book is an attempt to suggest that Christian doctrine is not true. The methodology of the book is to suggest that a Christian is someone who accepts the doctrines outlined in the three major Christian Creeds. That is that Jesus existed as a historical figure and was God incarnated, he died and was resurrected, he was born of a virgin and will come again.

As a text some of it is a bit plodding. The reason for this is that unlike other books rather than just outlining his position, he advances his argument by contrasting it to other arguments against his position. Thus in the chapter about the resurrection he discusses at some length the position o Habermas a thinker who suggests that the resurrection is a historic event. He then responds to those arguments at some length but the narrative flow is rather poor.

The arguments around the resurrection and the historical nature of Jesus are the same arguments which have been running around free thought circles for years and have been outlined by such people as Remsberg (The Christ) and Cutner (Jesus God, Man or Myth). That is that the biblical accounts of Jesus life are contradictory and the Gospels appear to have been written years after the event. The structure of the Gospels suggest stories which are mythical or elaborated and there is a complete absence outside Christian sources to verify what is meant to have gone on. Martin tends to labour these points a bit and in my view Remsberg is by far the strongest exponent of these arguments.

The rest of the book is however reasonably original. The argument against the incarnation is in short that the biblical account of the temptation of Jesus is inconsistent with his divine nature. How could the supreme God of the world be tempted by Satan and entity who had in reality no power? How could a God, who does not have human appetites and is a perfect moral being suffer from temptation? This then leads to a discussion about how it would be impossible for the natures of God and man to co-exist. The discussion of Christian Ethics and their general incoherence is well done as is the problems around the notion of salvation.

The problem with the book is that it is very much a work that is written by an academic philosopher. It discusses the topic by the use of a series of abstract theoretical arguments which have force but take a bit of getting through. Other free thought writers such as Remsberg and Ingersoll write with much greater clarity passion and sense of the absurd aspects of Christian belief.

The part of the book that I enjoyed most was the second appendix which discussed the diverse theories of the Atonement. The main advantage of the book is that is presents in a reasonably accessible form a series of arguments which otherwise are contained in a number of volumes. The main difficulty with the book is probably the first chapter which tries to set up a basis for suggesting that Christians should adopt a rational approach to belief instead of relying on faith alone.

Rating:
Summary: The most authoritative criticism of Christianity available
Review: This is a serious philosophy book, which means that it leaves very few stones unturned. Martin considers all possibilities as he examines in detail such issues as the resurrection, the virgin birth, and Christian ethics. The arguments he presents are carefully reasoned and for the most part compelling.

Even if one does not always agree -- and there are several places where I think more could be said -- the book is immensely valuable for what it does cover. All Christians and probably most atheists stand to learn a great deal from reading it. I sure did.