Baptized Atheist

by David Smalley, Frank R. Zindler (Editor), Jack David Eller (Foreword)

You've always believed because it was the right thing to do, but you have questions that your religious leaders and prayers have not yet answered. You've always had thoughts in the back of your mind that you would never actually say because it's taboo to question your religion. I understand because I've been there. This book is for you. I asked the questions you were never supposed to. What I found changed my life forever.

Genres: Religion, Atheism

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 10, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[JonM · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fair book, but almost entirely anecdotal, the "proofs" of which, ultimately, amount to autobiographical remarks. In other words, we learn more about his reasoning for becoming and remaining an atheist (as a former Christian) than actual valid proofs about why anyone else in the world should be an atheist.

Virtually every criticism of Christian beliefs within the book are lumped together with an umbrella category of "religion" and "metaphysical" beliefs, and then staged within a framework of fundamentalism, and not critical scholarship. So then, by recognizing the limits of David Smalley's research, his criticisms of fundamentalism are very reasonable. Unfortunately he comes across as pedantic and facile in his understanding of Christianity (and philosophy, and logic, and science) outside of fundamentalism, which is why I'm rating this with only three stars. David runs an entertaining podcast. I have even been a guest on it (one time) for a lengthy three hour discussion, where I learned how elementary his discernment of Christian tradition is.

His criticisms are often fair though, considering that he appears to be most familiar with (and critical of) mainstream western-American Christian fundamentalism and Christianese cults. I was not surprised at all to find his methodology for critiquing fundamentalism to be equally fundamentalist, but with materialistic, naturalistic, pre-commitments. I consider his search for truth to be genuine and fair. I also consider his rejection of what he understands to be "Christianity" fair as well. But David is most certainly not qualified to comment or critique "Christianity" outside the fundamentalist box he places all "religion" in. David is no scholar whatsoever. He's a clever, passionate, ex-evangelical turned comedian & atheist. Most of his "proofs" are laughable because of him being a comedic atheist and not a scholar.

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baptized Atheist by David Smalley

“Baptized Atheist" is the entertaining personal quest for the truth. Popular host and moderator of the Dogma Debate Podcast and strong advocate of Secular Humanism, David Smalley takes the reader on an entertaining and philosophical journey inspired ironically by a pastor during the ritual of baptism. This provocative 256-page book includes the following seven chapters: 1. Skepticism, 2. Passing Judgment, 3. Instinctive Sins, 4. Investigating Atheism, 5. Our Society, 6. My Conversion?, and 7. Life after the Journey.

Positives:
1. Entertaining, provocative and accessible book.
2. The fascinating topic of quest for truth. It’s a personal deconversion story from Christianity to Atheism.
3. Smalley in many respects represents the average deep-thinking man on a quest for truth. The appeal of Smalley is his genuine desire to find the truth no matter where it leads him. He is very respectful of believers and seeks to engage and debate them in a civil manner. His personality shines through this book.
4. Entertaining personal quest inspired by a pastor during the ritual of baptism. “You know, son, you can’t just say you believe; you have to know it to be true in your heart.” Those pastor’s words were the impetus behind his quest and this book.
5. Smalley has a good grasp of the Bible and makes good use of it to make sound and logical arguments. He examines it and is unable to defend the logic of the Bible and the quest picks up speed. “The entire basis of Christianity begins under the assumption that the Bible is the ‘Word of God.’ Regardless of the many contradictions I listed above, I was positive that if I could prove that the Bible was in fact ‘God’s Word,’ then we could all investigate the meanings of those scriptures at a later time. After all, if the Bible could never be proven to be of holy inspiration, then chasing those rabbits down a hole would be pointless and foolish. So, I set out to discover how a god could write a book for us.”
6. Provides a brief list of popular religious labels.
7. Provocative statements abound in this brief book. “That fear of being wrong is what should motivate research and understanding, not prevent it. “
8. An interesting look at free will. “I did wonder why a perfect god would create a being bound to fail, and how it could be considered ‘free’ if we are going to be punished for making the wrong decisions.”
9. My favorite point of this whole book is as follows, “For there to be absolute morality, we would first need to have an absolute source from which that morality derived. Without that source being proven as absolute, we cannot say that any rule is for certain.” This is the joy of reading exemplified.
10. Should we get our ethics from “sacred” books? “Don’t get your ethics from a book, regardless of how holy you think it is. Books are written by humans, including this one, and are subject to error and human fallibility. Obtain your ethics and self-respect from your personal experiences and base them on accepted sociological norms, how you want to live, and how you want to be treated, and most importantly, make decisions based on what causes the least amount of harm. There is no black and white, wrong or right. Just be you and treat every human you meet with the utmost respect.
11. A fascinating look at sins. “The request for repentance in itself is even ridiculous, as you are apologizing for being created as a sinner, which you had no say in. Where’s the free will in that?”
12. Addressees some hot-button issues. “You simply can’t force yourself to be attracted. We have to look at this physiologically. If it is impossible for you to choose the same sex against your nature, don’t you think it’s impossible for homosexuals to choose the opposite? There’s just a fundamental difference in your brains; that’s as far as it goes. Gay people have no more chosen to be gay than women have chosen to be female. One day, our government will see that, too. As for the votes in state legislature to ban gay marriage, I will say this: it’s simply not fair to let the majority vote on how the minority is treated.”
13. Dedicates a chapter on how he investigated atheism. “Atheists we do trust evidence and science. It is impossible to say Atheists have no conviction at all, but it’s more accurate to say that Atheists have confidence in their process of forming knowledge, because it’s been rewarded in the past, multiple times over, and in a controlled environment.” Also mentions with admiration his mentor Frank Zindler and gives a lot of credit to Dr. David Eller.
14. Condenses the problem of evil down to five parts.
15. Provides some interesting insights during debates and written exchanges.
16. A short section on notable quotes and thoughts by Smalley.

Negatives:
1. Low production value. The book suffers from poor eBook formatting. In general, it’s a little rough around the edges.
2. The books overall flow could be better.
3. Many interesting themes are brought up but are given a light treatment.
4. Lacks scientific rigor and depth.
5. Lacks supplementary material. No tables, charts or illustrations.
6. Do we really have free will? What is the scientific consensus and can such a conclusion be effectively conveyed to the public?

In summary, this is a provocative and entertaining book that lacks production value. I really believe that the best is yet to come for David Smalley. His podcast is really taking off and his arguments are becoming stronger and smoother. I look forward to more books from Mr. Smalley. I can envision a book that resembles his popular podcast including contributions from his cohosts, a more comprehensive evolution segment and the like. Rough around the edges but provocative and worth your while, I recommend it.

Further recommendations: “Natural Atheism” and “Atheism Advanced” by David Eller, “Nailed” by David Fitzgerald, “Why I’m Not a Christian” by Richard Carrier, “Nonbeliever Nation” by David Niose, “Atheism for Dummies” by Dale McGowan, “The End of Christianity” by John Loftus, “The Atheist Universe” by David Mills, “The God Argument” by A.C. Grayling, “50 popular beliefs that people think are true” by Guy P. Harrison, “Godless” by Dan Barker, “God is not Great” by Christopher Hitchens, “Freethinkers” by Susan Jacoby, and “Society Without God” by Phil Zuckerman.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE MEMOIR AND JOURNEY OF AN ATHEIST WHOSE CHANGE BEGAN AT HIS BAPTISM

Author David Smalley wrote in the first chapter of this 2010 book, “I’d like to tell you I was raised as a Christian, but in fact, like most Americans, I was raised in a theistic household that THOUGHT we were Christians. I can’t blame my mother… She honestly thought a fear of ‘God’ and a decent life style meant that she was doing the best for her children… I had a happy, wonderful childhood. The assumption in my family was that as long as we didn’t do anything too terribly bad, and maintained our belief in Jesus, and ‘God’ as his father, we wouldn’t go to Hell. And so it was.” (Pg. 15)

He recalls, “As I walked around the community with our youth group, knocking on doors to tell people about Jesus, I often thought, ‘These people have their own faith, and some have none at all; how do I know I have it right?’ For all I knew, maybe THEY had it figured out, and I was the one going to Hell… What if my preacher was wrong? After all, he was just a man. With enormous questions in front of me, I set out on a personal journey to find the truth… Two things were for sure: I had doubts about the existence of ‘God’ that I didn’t want to admit, and if this god did exist, I wanted to be sure I was living and worshipping in the most effective way that resulted in me going to Heaven… I started approaching religion with logical reason instead of blind faith. I began asking questions…” (Pg. 18-19)

Later, “Furthering my knowledge of Christianity, I of course sat down with a professor of theology from a local university… He calmly said, ‘Do you believe in absolute morality?’… I said, ‘My answer is no… For there to be absolute morality, we would first need to have an absolute source from which that morality derived. Without that source being proven as absolute, we cannot say that any rule is for certain.’” (Pg. 69) Later, he adds, “we talked for several hours into the night. Ultimately I realized that we get our ethics from dealing with one another and our own personal experiences. The Bible may mention our morals, but it was not by any means an absolute source, and should not be considered as such.” (Pg. 73)

He asserts, “It is a complete contradiction that the Christian god would purposely create you imperfectly as a sinner yet expects you to begin this impossible race against time to become perfect and repent before death. If you fail, the punishment is eternal fire… Are you really okay with this logic? The Christian god created you as bed but expects you to become good and repent before time runs out, or suffer an awful punishment. This sounds more like a horrible reality show that most of us would opt out of, given the chance. The request for repentance in itself is even ridiculous, as you are apologizing for being created as a sinner, which you had no say in. Where’s the free will in that?” (Pg. 79)

He notes, “One of the stronger arguments against Atheism is … [that] Atheism requires just as much faith as religion… during a debate, a Christian once said to me, ‘I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist!’ This claim comes from the many religious folks who assert being an Atheist requires persons to have all knowledge of the universe in order to firmly state that there are no gods… I will not accept ‘faith’ as only a religious term… {this word means’ ‘complete trust, especially with strong conviction.’ Atheists… do trust evidence and science… but it’s more accurate to say that Atheists have confidence in their process of forming knowledge, because it’s been rewarded in the past, multiple times over, and in a controlled environment.” (Pg. 111-112) Later, he adds, “My lack of evidence for that I assert is nowhere near the amount of unjustifiable faith required to believe in magical spirits helping us with daily activities.” (Pg. 116)

He argues, “The preacher … asserts that God has always existed… That answer to me, is intellectually tapping-out. Since we don’t know what created the universe, we must assign a God to it. But the Christians go a step further. They claim to intimately know this god---what he wants, who he wants us to sleep with…. When things can’t be specified, or given a specific positive source, the archaic men… assign a god to the natural phenomena… gaps are filled with glee by believers who don’t want to search for the real answers. As for the beginning of time, I will not pretend to know how it all started from the singularity causing the expansion of the universe, but my answer is that ‘we don’t know yet,’ not that ‘we need a god to explain it.’ Assigning a god as the answer only begs more questions.” (Pg. 191-192)

He notes, “I want to make it clear that being an Atheism basically means you have a scientific difference of opinion as it pertains to the creation of life and other metaphysical claims… If you do not truly feel that the evidence points to the existence of a spirit, or that a god created you at all, you cannot help that. Atheism isn’t a choice, it’s a realization. The only way you can be religious at that point is to lie to yourself, and that’s not healthy or promoted in any religion or belief.” (Pg. 234)

He concludes, “an Atheist is not someone who knows too little about Christianity, but he or she is often one that has studied too many religions, and asked too many questions. It is a bit ironic that the very moment I was baptized into the Christian faith was also the moment that was the catalyst that led to my Atheism. I wanted to be ‘closer to God,’ but I got so close that I could see he wasn’t there. It was all a result of my baptism. In a sense, I was probably the world’s first ‘Baptized Atheist.’” (Pg. 243)

This book will be of keen interest to Atheists, Skeptics, and other Freethinkers.

[Winston Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, Concise and most Importantly, TRUE!

David Smalley (currently the host of the epically successful and popular Dogma Debate podcast) embarked on his quest to discover the origins of Christianity and its truth (or lack thereof) when he was being baptised. Ironically, the pastor himself sparked this journey by telling him that belief must be sincere and from the heart. Since Dave was uncertain, he started to study the bible and other religions. After all, his eternal fate was at stake.

Starting from the scientific impossibilities and contradictions in the bible (which an omnipotent god would not allow, even if he was using flawed human beings to scribe his edicts), he builds a rock-solid case against Christianity. For instance, it's ludicrous that an all-knowing, all-powerful being would create humans knowing they would fail. Why would he tempt them with the tree of moral knowledge? Why would anyone pray if god has already set the future in stone? Why was modern science entirely absent from the bible? Why does Isaiah depict the Earth as a flat disc? Contradictions and excuses are piled on top of them by pastors and apologists on a daily basis. Their house of cards has collapsed before construction began.

Without a doubt, the most powerful paragraph is the one when David enjoins his readers (or listeners) to entertain a situation - your daughter is being devoured by fire ants. The previous day, she said "I don't believe you're my mom/dad." Now, would you abandon her to her plight, as the god of the bible allegedly would? I certainly wouldn't, and except for sociopathic apologists like William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel and Ravi Zacharias, I'd have a hard time thinking of anyone who would.

As Smalley experienced firsthand, debating with apologists can often be head-splittingly frustrating. They will often evade direct questions (particularly if they are caught off-guard by unexpected questions). After redirecting the topic (or accusing their opponents/questioners of underhanded motives, as was the case in the Harris-Craig debate), they will regurgitate a well-rehearsed reply that often ends up being nothing more than a hollow platitude. This is triply true if they are asked about the Problem of Evil or whether there is meaning in suffering.

The additional rants in the audiobook version are inspiring as well as entertaining, and are akin to listening to an extended version of the podcast.

[Felicia J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

"If the entire world felt like there was no heaven and promised themselves to create a heaven on earth, and promised themselves to become a guardian angel now, the world would be a much better place."

I picked up this book after I became a fan of David Smalley's Dogma Debate podcast. It's brief, skims over some issues that could have been discussed in more depth and at times lacks organization. However, it's still a worthwhile read, especially for someone just beginning to question religion, or someone raised in a Biblical-literalist brand of Christianity.

Smalley shares his discoveries of unsettling truths about the Bible, religious holidays and creationist beliefs - facts which are never brought up in Sunday School.

He's at his best when he talks about the harm religion does to people and how it impedes rational thinking. After leaving Christianity, he started debating in churches and on religious radio programs. His recollections of these experiences were the best parts of the book.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminded me of a line from Billy Madison "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.". That being said, I am using it as a resource in teaching my young children about atheism. The arguments in the book are simple but represent the type of argumentation that are better fleshed out by Hitchens, Dennett and Harris. So, I would recommended this book as a kind of atheism 101 to teach children (in my case, 10 & 12 year old boys) what atheist believe before moving onto the more well developed (tho equally flawed) arguments of the Four Horsemen.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is very much on the topic of atheism, it is also a personal story. As an occasional listener of David Smalley's radio show, I think it gave some interesting details into his life and what he is doing.

While it's not the pinnacle of literature or the most rock solid book on atheism, I rate it rather highly because I like the small crisp format, it outlines good points in a well paced manner, without dragging along at half a thousand pages. Short'ish books just always seem more recommendable when it comes to non-fiction.

[Heidi Miller Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent thought provoking read for believers and non believers. David gave a calm, respectful, dissertation about his journey trying to understand Christianity and all religion. The beginning was good, it got a bit boring towards the middle but then he wrapped it up nicely in the end.

[Rob Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic look into becoming a skeptic and atheist from a personal perspective.