The Real Face of Atheism Kindle Edition

The book start off with a section called “The Assault Begins.” Ravi is starting off with his “Us against them” narrative. He brings up Charles Darwin & Friedrich Nietzsche who’s atheistic ideas influenced Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini & Adolf Hitler who went on to commit great atrocities. While not stated, it is implied that these “atheistic beliefs” somehow contributed to these atrocities. I will not defend the horrific acts committed by these regimes. However we cannot ignore the atrocities committed and sanctioned by the religious such as: the crusades, the inquisition, and the witch trials to name a few. Humans have been cruel to humans for eons; but we are getting better as our knowledge, technology, and global dependency increase. We currently live in the most peaceful time in history.A great deal of time was spent on Nietzsche, who was an atheist, and how his writing were full of despair and how he went insane at the end of his life. It seems Ravi is using Nietzsche as a strawman to represent all atheists. This is an unfair comparison.At one point Ravi adds a quote which contributes to his strawman “…to believe in the nonexistence of God would be analogous to waking up in the morning, looking in the mirror, and seeing nothing.” This statement implies that atheism is the “belief that a god does not exist”, when in fact, for most atheists, it is the lack of belief in a god or gods. There is a vast difference between the two. First, just to clarify something, belief is NOT a choice. Belief is a result of information received through your senses and interpreted by your brain. Here is a simple example: You are at the beach. You feel the sun on your face and the sand on your feet. You hear the wave crashing and the seagulls’ squawking. You can smell the salty air. You believe you are at the beach, but at no time did you choose to believe you are at the beach. You believe because of the information (evidence) coming into your brain. Suddenly you open your eyes and find you are in your bed. You now believe that you were never really at the beach, you were only dreaming you were at the beach. You did not choose to change your belief, it happened subconsciously when the new information (evidence) entered your brain. Ravi further quotes “…even if there were not a god, we would need to invent one to keep us from eating each other up.” Really? That is an absurd claim. Explain to me why the most atheistic countries on the planet have the lowest crime rates and highest happiness rates?Ravi continues with his bleak narrative, “In Nietzschean terms, the cause – atheism, and the result – violence and hedonism, are as logically connected as the chronological connection between Hitler’s announcement of his intent in Mein Kampf and the hell ushered in by the Third Reich.” Really!?! I am truly offended by the completely outlandish claim! Ravi is going too far in trying to falsely portray atheists as horrible, evil creatures. In reality atheists are just normal people with a single opinion about a single question, “Do you believe the claim that a god exists?” Based on existing information Hitler believed he was a Christian. I really have to wonder if Ravi actually believes what he is writing.Yet again Ravi states, “By definition, atheism is the doctrine of belief that there is no god. It is an affirmation of God’s nonexistence.” One simple Google search and here is the definition: “disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of god or gods.” He is intentionally mischaracterizing atheism; he is creating a strawman so he can beat the arguments that the strawman makes. However those are not arguments most atheists would make. Again, atheism is the lack of belief in a god. In reality it is not believing the claims humans make that a god exists. A god is NOT self-evident. I cannot believe in the existence of a god because I do not have sufficient evidence to believe.To my dismay Ravi moves on to some standard apologetics which have been debunked over and over again. He also continues to add jabs at atheist and science. To make it worse he continues to use unnecessarily academic language throughout his writing. To quote Leonardo Da Vinci, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” His bashing of science is unjustified as he connects atheism with science and treats it as a philosophy. Science is a method; the most effective method we humans have at this point to determine factually accurate things about our shared reality. Scientists are humans who use this methods. However humans are human and can be prone to biases and mistakes. However science has done more to move our species forward than religion has ever done. We currently live in the most prosperous, most peaceful, and most cooperative time in history thanks mostly to scientific advances.Ravi starts with evolution: We currently have enormous amounts of demonstrable evidence to support the theory of evolution. Whereas “intelligent design” cannot demonstrate the cause they claim explains the diversity of life on our planet. If you can’t demonstrate the proposed cause of the phenomena you are investigating then you have already failed. He then goes back to implying evolution (Darwinism) leads to human atrocities.Ravi moves on to “first cause”, i.e. abiogenis and irreducible complexity. Currently we (humans) do not fully understand how life originally formed on our planet, but we have many great minds working on figuring it out. So at this time the honest answer to how life began is we (humankind) don’t know. That includes Ravi. Again, if he is going to claim a god did it he MUST demonstrate this god or else he fails. Irreducible complexity does not apply to biological systems. We know that more complex things develop from less complex things. This is something we have figured out. As long as the less complex things give an organism a survival advantage it is beneficial. As that thing changes over time, and becomes more beneficial it becomes more complex. Ravi has it backward. He takes the most complex thing and says if we remove any part of it, it will no longer function. This is true, but it is backward as previous less complex versions functioned perfectly fine in a slightly different way.Ravi then chastises science because it has changed over time: “Scientific facts have often been discarded with fresh discoveries, old laws have surrendered with the advance of new hypotheses.” This is exactly what we want from science! As our knowledge and technology advance we gain greater understanding of our universe. This is how we advance!Ravi moves on to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which states: The total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time. This one is simple; the Earth is NOT an isolated (or closed) system because we receive constant energy from our sun.Objective or absolute morality: Ravi next talks about morality that, somehow, exists external to human minds. All morality is subjective. It is subjective on an individual level but less subjective at a societal level. Groups of people form governments and by consensus create laws with real world consequences. At an individual level; the majority of humans understand what it feels like to be human. We understand pain and pleasure. We understand that other humans feel the same way we do. We understand the potential consequences of causing other humans pain and the potential benefits of providing other humans with pleasure. Ultimately morality boils down to human well being. Just like science and technology our morality has gotten better over time and that is demonstrably true. For instance, the majority of the world no longer tolerates slavery (owning another human being as property). However, the bible still condones slaver, gender inequality, and the death penalty for having sex with someone of the same gender. Luckily most Christians have a tendency to conveniently ignore these bible passages.In Chap 4 Ravi speaks of the meaning of life. He asserts, “Atheism walks with its head down, earthbound, which is why it grasps nothing of eternal value. It must admit its predicament: without god, there is no meaning in life.” Really!?! This is an absurd claim. All humans give their own meaning to their own lives. For me personally I find meaning in helping others, in my job, as a parent, as a husband, as a friend. I pursue hobbies and enjoy traveling. I GIVE meaning to my life with no god required. Ravi claims that atheists are pitiful sad people because we don’t see any “eternal” value. We have value here and now in the real world. Ravi does not know if there is anything eternal; although he believes he knows he has nothing tangible to support that belief.In Chap 5 Ravi speaks of death. There were many statements about atheists and death, I will select one: “The questions about death demand answers, but atheism has none because there is no heaven to be gained and no hell to be shunned. Life finishes with the last heartbeat: all relationships are severed, all endeavors are ended, the arm of justice is cut short, finality of experience. There is nothing to fear or to hope for, no god to meet, and no hope to anticipate – all is truly and ultimately ended.” I will add my own quote from the famous atheist Mark Twain: “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” I focus on life. I understand that, most likely, when I die my brain ceases to function therefore my conscious ceases and I am no longer aware of anything. Because I can’t believe the claims of an afterlife, because there is no evidence to convince me, I appreciate life all the more. I want to focus on my relationships with others because that brings me joy. I want people to miss me when I am gone because we enjoyed life together. Knowing our lives will end does not bring despair it brings a greater appreciation of every second I am alive.In Chap 6 Ravi starts with speaking of philosophy. I want to clarify that philosophy deals with concepts in the mind. Philosophy is a mind exercise. However, while philosophy may speak about things that exist in our shared reality it can also speak of things which are not part of our reality. Philosophical claims which assert the existence of anything in our shared reality must demonstrate that these things actually exist in our shared reality in demonstrable ways. Ravi mentions that Christian faith has suffered because some Christians believe things that do not align with his interpretation of Christianity (the bible). At the end of this section he states; “The great danger of such cynicism is the false conclusion that the truth about god can never be known.” Is this really a false conclusion? How can any human actually know anything about a god? He is claiming this god exists and can be known then he must demonstrate this claim to be true; which he doesn’t. Ravi goes on to speak of reality and how we can understand the truth of our shared reality. He tells a tale of a student who asks his professor, “Sir, how do I know that I exist?” Well, the only way to know is that you are consciously aware. You think, therefor you are. We are at the mercy of our brains and the 5 senses we have which collect sensory input. We have no other choice but to accept the input as reality because that is all we have. We can then verify what we are perceiving with the other people around us. That is the best we can do. Ravi then states, “God has put enough into the world to make faith in him a most reasonable thing, and he has left enough out to make it impossible to live by shear reason or observation alone.” This is simply wrong. We do not have enough evidence of a god to make faith reasonable. Ravi then goes on to using the bible to prove god which is a text book example of circular reasoning.In Chap 7 Ravi goes back to intelligent design, which he covered earlier. Basically he uses the watchmaker argument. However he must demonstrate a designer to validate his claim; but he doesn’t. He goes on to state that atheists are prejudiced against miracles, but this is not true. Methodological naturalism simply states that we (humans) have no way to investigate miracles. Miracle claims are non-falsifiable. Anyone can claim a miracle but it is not possible to verify them; if there were a way then the miracle would be part of the natural not the supernatural. Ravi goes back to morality at one point as well which has already been covered. Later he covers Pascal’s wager which is not convincing. He comments about atheism: “One rejects god because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit one’s need for god.” Once again, Ravi must demonstrate the existence of a god as part of this claim. Also, most atheists do not reject god. That implies a choice is made. Atheists do not accept the claims, made by humans, that a god exists because they cannot believe. Belief is not a choice and this is demonstrably true. If you are a Christian just ask yourself why you don’t believe that the Hindu god Brahma created the universe.Based on the title of this book I was really hoping to find some new information in this book, yet Ravi fails right into the same old Christian apologetic arguments that all apologists use. He creates a strawman of an atheist, puts forth the false argument he created, and then proceeds in defeating those arguments. His arguments are not what most atheists would propose. There are many logical fallacies and many misleading statements about atheists used to create an “us vs. them” narrative. Ravi also uses a huge amount of filler from other people. This book was obviously not written for skeptics, atheists or people who adhere to other religious beliefs because none of these people would find any of the information convincing. This type of book is written as Christian propaganda for Christian believers to bolster their ”faith.”

Dr. Ravi Zacharias describes rationally and academically the insanity of Atheism. Even though the Bible shows us that the natural men cannot embrace God by his own will (he hasn't) it is interesting that we get to the same point when using the human knowledge as well (it could only be this way!). Other great books on similar topics and more reader friendly are: "Apostate" by Kevin Swanson and "The Other Worldview" by Peter Jones.

Another great book by Ravi. I was disappointed that the quotations were not in the kindle book, so I purchased the paper book. The book is that good.

With 75-88% of our kids coming out of Christian homes and walking away from the faith, they are becoming enamored with some form of atheism. This book provides a classic response. If you want to understand the atheistic worldview, and various responses, this book is a must read. This is a great follow up read to the initial title, "A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism."

Everyone should read this book. Especially atheists.This book makes it clear that Jesus is God and without him there is no life.

What I love is that Dr. Zacharias spends a great time preparing his written work. I love listening to his podcast, and there is plenty of opportunity just in this book alone to have a copy of some of his major points made in his speaking engagements.I recommend this book to anyone interested in evangelism and/or apologetics. Also, those who are confronted with skeptics and scoffers.

Dr. Zacharias has done a masterful job of making a defense for Christianity while showing the bankruptcy of atheism. Written with a 21st Century cultural sensitivity, he reminds us of arguments previously developed and sets forth new ways of communicating the superior truth claims of Biblical Christianity.

good book.

Ravi Zacharias does a good work in this powerfully critique of Atheism and it's inability to stand up to its claims. A worthy read for any one to see a well prepared outline of the Truth and meaning to life, that only Jesus Christ can give

Prompt service and a truly wonderful book. So readable despite the complex subject matter. Good quality cover and pages. A couple of pages had feint print but that is as nothing when you consider the life-changing value of Ravi Zacharias's words. .

Ravi is balanced in this book and does not hold his intelligence over his readers. Many modern writers lead their readers into deception with long and flamboyant language. Zacharias brings a very solid and balanced approach to understanding the implications of Atheism. This books is a great read for anyone looking to understood more about Atheism.

Highly recommended. Very helpful and relevant in times when all certainty seems to be gone. Beautifully written and clear illustrations given.

By reading this book I realized of the destructive consequences of an consequent atheism. Not only makes it sense to believe in the Christian God it is also benefical for society if people do so.

Ravi, always makes you think! A challenging book to read. Recommend it to anyone who is interested in apologetics. thumbs up

Still reading it. Loving it. Highly recommended for every citizen of the world. Ravi is an intellectual and Great communicator.

Excellent book, grasped my attention until the end. Well balanced, deep, but easy to follow. Would give a 6th if possible.

All you Christians out there, you've got to be filled up with something to say to the non-believers. Hugs and handshakes aren't going to be enough any more. If you're an average bod like me you'll have to read it a few times AND out loud to get all the amazing bits to sink in.I would also say that there is no point in passing this book on to most unbelievers to read for themselves because they won't have the inclination to start with and the material requires human communication...