Foreword

by Jeff Lewis

When I came to the conclusion that I could no longer accept Christianity, it was only after several years of research and intense self-reflection. During the course of that transformation and afterwards, I wrote several essays which I thought some people might find interesting. This collection documents the thought process that I went through in abandoning Christianity, and explains a little bit the beliefs that I have, now.

While the essays are all collected here in one place, they were originally written as stand-alone essays, so they can be read in any order and still make sense. The arguments within them may not be entirely consistent, as my stance regarding religion has developed over the time that the essays were written. I have made some editorial changes to the essays in an attempt to make certain sections more clear, but I've tried not to change the sentiment, even if it's one of those areas where my stance has changed.

All of these essays are included in the Religious Essays portion of my website , but some were written originally for other portions of my site, and have been adapted, sometimes with liberal editing, for this collection. For reference, here is a list of those essays, along with links to their original versions.

• Musings on the Existence of the Soul
  http://www.jefflewis.net/philosophy4.html
• Further Musings on the Soul
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2008/04/further_musings_on_the_soul.html
• Problems with a Day-Age Interpretation of Genesis
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2005/12/problems_with_dayage_interpret.html
• Confidence in Historical Knowledge
  http://www.jefflewis.net/confidence_in_historical_knowledge.html
• Confidence in Scientific Knowledge
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2010/02/confidence_in_scientific_knowl.html
• Pascal’s Wager
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2008/08/pascals_wager.html
• Liar, Lunatic, or Lord … Or Something Else
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2010/09/liar_lunatic_or_lord_or_someth.html
• Book Review – More Than a Carpenter
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2011/04/book_review_more_than_a_carpen.html
• How Monotheistic Is Christianity?
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2010/03/how_monotheistic_is_christiani.html
• What's the Point of Intercessory Prayer?
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2009/10/whats_the_point_of_intercessor_1.html
• Standards of Evidence for Religion
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2011/03/standards_of_evidence_for_reli.html
• Reasons for Strong Atheism
  http://www.jefflewis.net/blog/2009/10/reasons_for_strong_atheism.html

This is the third print edition of the book (the online version has gone through a few more revisions). It’s very similar to the second edition, with mostly minor revisions, fixed typos, and additional footnotes.

In preparing the second edition, I tried to keep the book short enough that it’s not overwhelming (I have many, many more essays on my website than what’s included in this book), but there were a couple essays I’d written since the first edition that I thought filled some holes. The first of those additions is actually a review of the book, More Than a Carpenter. It was a nice way to directly address many of the arguments that Christian apologists actually use. The other addition was the essay on Standards of Evidence for Religion. And of course, the second edition included its own minor revisions and typo corrections.