I Am Writing A Book Entitled "the Problems With Christianity Today" And Would Like Your Ideas For Content

[chaddjohnson]

Greetings!

 

I grew up in a Protestant Christian home, and now I am an atheist. I am quite happy with my life now (far happier than I was while I was a Christian), and yet my family and old friends continue nagging me and insisting that I believe as they do. I am so very tired of this nagging, and I wish to not continue repeatedly explaining to them why I do not and never will believe as they do.

 

I attended a four-year religious engineering school, and every day during those four years, I would contemplate various philosophical and logical issues with Christianity and religion in general. It was after school that I finally became an atheist. Needless to say, did a great deal of thinking and took countless pages of notes.

 

So, I have decided to write a book, as I figure I have a duty to share with the world my conclusions and experience in regards to religion. I have a very rough, incomplete, unedited outline of my book here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rdZTl_tmb-E3NxPo7iwYlx2XvruN-fLl_ER2LGx9kDM/edit?usp=sharing

 

Feel free to go there make annotations! Everyone's thoughts are welcome. I am most interested in what you think of the topics I've selected and any additional topics anyone might have in mind for inclusion. If you have any ideas for new topics, please feel free to comment here in this thread.

 

However, I do kindly request that if your only intentions are merely to debate or bring negativity to this discussion that you refrain from doing so! This thread is not in any fashion intended to facilitate debating (there are other subreddits and threads dedicated to that). On that note, if you would like to kindly offer any corrections to ideas and facts presented, feel free to comment in this thread. I do ask that you provide sources for your corrections and additions where applicable.

 

Thank you!

[mymistake]

I'm a little confused about your target audience.  It appears like you intend this book for faithful Christians.  However I doubt many Christians would read past the first page.  There would be a few apologists who would read it in the hope of using it to further their own agenda.

 

I would suggest that you eliminate the "To Those Who Read This Book" section and change the tone slightly so that you are writing for the sake of people who are going through the same situation.  There are millions of people who are raised in fundamentalist families and are frustrated by how it doesn't make sense.

 

You might have to change to order of topics around for it to flow better but other than that it looks good.  Should be an interesting book.  I wish you the best of luck with it.

[Merlin]

40

[chaddjohnson]

I hope you are not offended by this, but I personally think that this topic belongs in another thread...  The ex-Christian testimony thread is sacred ground to a lot of us on here.  It is a place that we come to share our deepest feelings and stories as they relate to leaving Christianity behind.  Some of the stories that have been posted on here are of a very private and personal nature.  It is not an easy thing to leave Christianity behind, and I am almost one-hundred percent sure that there are people who belong to this community who will not appreciate the exploitation of their personal pain and heartache for the sake of your book.

 

In sum, this part of the forums is not really supposed to be used for the purposes you are using it for...

 

If you take some time to actually get to know some of the people on here, they might be more than willing to help you with your book.

 

(Maybe you could post this in the creative works section?)

 

If you are a regular member and you disagree with me, I apologize.  Please feel free to let this guy know that I don't speak for you.  However, I would just like to point out that I have been a member of this community for six months now, and I've never seen this part of the forums used in this manner.

 

This is not a creative work. It is not poetry, art, or a mere story. This actually is a testimony. This is a my extensive, personal examination of Christianity in article/book format. It outlines specific reasons why I have become atheist. My examination was quite extensive. So, I disagree with you.

 

Also, I have been a member since 2007.

[Fweethawt]

If its your testimony, then why are you asking members here for input to add to your content?

 

You're pretty much saying, "Hey! I'm writing a book! But I want to write your words in it and call it MY testimony!"

 

This reeks of bullshit. And I agree that, no, this post does not belong here. You may have signed up here back in 2007. But you've made less than 40 posts.

 

No brownie points there! Sorry.

[Overcame Faith]

The Testimonies Forum is not the proper place to solicit feedback on a manuscript you are writing.  The proper place for that is the Creative Works forum.  Therefore, I am moving this thread to the Creative Works forum where any member is free to make comments as they see fit.

 

You are, of course, free to post your Testimony about your deconversion in the Testimonies Forum should you so desire but not to solicit feedback on a manuscript.

 

I hope everything works out well for the book you are writing.

[chaddjohnson]

Okay, now that that is over...

 

I would like to continue the conversation. Can anyone offer some helpful, positive, constructive feedback?

[Overcame Faith]

I have looked it over and have a few comments.

 

I do not know what your qualifications are in some of the areas about which you plan to write. You may be a biologist, physician, scientist, etc., I have no way of knowing. You are going to write in some fairly technical areas like the human brain, genetics, science, evolution, neurobiology, and others. Be careful to get what you say correct with appropriate citations to proper and qualified authorities. If you slip up and get something wrong in one of these technical areas, what you write will lose credibility and such areas are sure to be attacked.

 

Unless you are qualified in each of these technical, scientific areas, prior to publication, you may want to consider asking a person qualified in these areas to read your draft to make sure the points you raise are correct.