Seeing through Christianity: A Critique of Beliefs and Evidence

by Bill Zuersher

The only book you’ll ever need to read about Christianity.
This remarkable book provides a critical overview of Christian beliefs and the evidence for them. Where did these beliefs come from? Are there good reasons to believe Christianity is true?


Bill Zuersher clearly explains each of Christianity’s major beliefs. He then proceeds to demonstrate significant difficulties with each of them. The book tackles these beliefs in a logical order, beginning with the problems at the root of virtually all religions, suffering and death, and culminating in their supposed resolution through Jesus.


Mr. Zuersher also examines the evidence for Christianity, namely religious writings and the historical fact of the early Jesus movement. He makes the case that this evidence does not support the religion’s claims and he provides naturalistic alternative explanations for how its core beliefs arose.


In these pages we see the coalescence of Jewish and Zoroastrian religious ideas with those of Greek philosophy and mystery cults, to form the belief system we recognize as Christianity today. The result, Mr. Zuersher argues, is not revealed truth, but rather a human patchwork which contains unwarranted assumptions and logical flaws, all founded upon questionable evidence.


Entertaining throughout, it is must-reading for skeptics, apologists, and anyone interested the world’s largest religion or the culture wars behind today’s politics — an invaluable resource for students and teachers, writers and debaters.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Atheism, History

314 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2014

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When things like logic and reason threaten deeply embedded beliefs and superstitions people start to say things like, "God works in mysterious ways" or "It is not meant for us to understand.” In other words they dismiss what is probable and cling to what is possible. This is what Zuersher terms as a “retreat to the possible.” It's a defense mechanism that deflects scrutiny and can easily be applied to any one of the hundreds of gods man has invented through the ages.

Academic but without pretense, Seeing Through Christianity is easily comprehensible and, with minimal referencing, verifiable. Zuersher justly scrutinizes Christian dogma in a manner suitable for any important topic. By applying sound rationale he exposes a plethora of Christian inconsistencies, misconceptions, and untruths, many of which are only explainable by a "retreat to the possible."

This was a fantastic read. My one beef with Zuersher's book is that I burned through two good ink pens taking notes!

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no defense for the indefensible. Bible apologia is always flawed. This video led me to the book, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqZo...

In the video Zuersher presents information that even believers should strive to know. The way to destroy arguments that are based on special pleading and logical fallacies is to present the context, the relations, and the facts.

Arbitrary truths (faith-based certainties) created by people who they claim God made special spouting truly awful moral principles (genocide, baby killing, slavery, raping all in the name of God) foisted on to the world by a lunatic (Saul who later becomes Paul) with distortion of fantasies (Adam and Eve are foundational for Paul) and the creation of vicarious forgiveness through atonement sounds creepy because they are and are made up out of whole cloth.

I think the video is one of the strongest arguments against magical thinking I’ve ever seen since it uses their own truths to show the polytheism in the bible, show Paul is sloppy in his logic, the historical context the events transpired, and other items that are in the bible but spread out. Everyone should run towards learning more about their faith not away from it. That’s why the video knocks it out of the park because it uses their own truths to show the absurdities.

I always get stifled by Christians who say ‘that is the Old Testament not the New’ and for them Jesus changes everything. Zuersher makes me realize that Jesus is God (for Christians) and is the same God as in the Old Testament. I now realize if I had to pick I would prefer the Old Testament God since it is the NT that gives us hell and eternal damnation for finite wrongs. I much prefer living with an arbitrary God who is immoral and kills randomly if it means I don’t have to face Hell fire forever and a day just because I didn’t choose to believe in Him because I find manmade things flawed. Paul murdered Steve, had a psychotic breakdown, ran roughshod over Jesus’ early Jewish followers, twisted the Old Testament and then presented that message to Gentiles, that is in the Bible. That is the pill they swallow in order to believe their myths.

BTW, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons don’t believe Jesus is God (Trinity) in the regular Christian sense. Their mythology is different from the mainstream. Zuersher does point out that there is very little Biblical support for the Trinity.

If you don’t have time to read the book, watch the video.

If I were given the truth and believed, I would want to know as much as I could about it. I have not been given the truth and so therefore read as many defenders of Christian faith that I can. I counted 10 books that I read last year that were in support of Christianity, including having had read the bible cover-to-cover. Unfortunately for their arguments some of the books just seemed pathetic, Eric Metaxes’ “Is Atheism Dead,” C. S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, and William Lane Craig’s “Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview,” each book was ignorant towards reality. I read them nevertheless because I thought they offered the best arguments I could find and therefore show me why I am wrong. If anything, those books, and the Bible makes me not believe their nonsense even more. Zuersher’s book indicates to me that I might have been wasting my time trying to make sense out of Christianity.

[Arianne X · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Public Service Announcement

Bill Zuersher performs a public service by demonstrating how Christian doctrine “…is a savage step backward in the moral and intellectual development of the human species.” He coherently and logically provides the many examples of just how illogical, incoherent, and morally flawed Christianity is. There is no mystery here, Christianity indicts itself based on its doctrines, beliefs, practices, and history. Christianity is a ludicrous and pernicious cult that has become a parody of itself. For example, the Old Testament recounts the parochial petty squabbles and primitive superstitions of ancient near east peoples, much of it mythologized, not universal principles or predictions of the future. The New Testament is the product of literary fiction, obvious contradictions, fake history, outlandish tales, and bizarre theological claims. The mystery for me is how people in the twenty-first century can still be members of such a primitive and savage blood magic human sacrifice Iron Age cult replete with weird absurdities. It reminds me of the truism: the only miracle is that people believe in miracles.

But we know the answers. Humans have always invented deities, and the Christian God is no different. One reason for the absurdities, incoherence, illogic, intolerance, violence, cruelty, torture, and war caused by Christianity is quite simply, the human fear of death and need for comfort and reassurance. When we realize that death is quite literally nothing, we can see that all the absurdities, incoherence, illogic, intolerance, violence, cruelty, torture, and war is quite literally over nothing. However, the more important answer is the desire for uniformity and control to provide the craved reassurance with absolute certainty. This reassurance needs to be based on absolute and universal beliefs enforced with oppression and violence to be made creditable. In Christianity, belief is more important than actions, actions are only necessary to enforce belief.

Christianity is a primitive and savage doctrine as we will see in the coming Christian fascist theocracy with the 2024 election of Trump by the theocrats. The election of Trump was made possible by anti-intellectual, unlettered, scientifically illiterate, and profoundly superstitious rubes. The alliance of Trump with Christianity makes perfect sense in that both appeal to the ignorant, stupid, and uneducated; where education, critical thinking and rational thought are considered evil. Christianity is a sick and twisted fantasy that is a threat to the public good, it is fundamentally immoral in its emphasis on suffering, and an affront to peace and progress.

Note on the Organization of the Book:

This book does not make mythicist argument that the god man Jesus was invented gradually over time and inserted into history. The position in the book is that Jesus was an actual person, and his divinity was invented gradually over time and inserted into history. I find the mythicist position more convincing, but we may never know for sure either way.

Part I: Beliefs. This takes the reader through the absurdities and impossibilities of the common beliefs and core incoherent claims of Christianity with obvious refutations of each.

Part II: Evidence. This is much more interesting in that it takes the reader through the real history of Christianity describing how and why it arose out of natural causes, not supernatural spells.

I highly recommend reading the appendices as well.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

After six years in a Catholic school I still couldn't figure out if they wanted me to pray to one god or three. And what about the countless saints you could pray to whenever you were in need of a personalized miracle? Are they gods, too? Mr. Zuersher has written a book which details the inconsistencies and incoherence found throughout Christianity's teachings. I was pleased to receive a copy through Goodreads Giveaways and I felt right at home with his writing style. Not too highbrow and certainly never boring or repetitious, the pace of so many diverse topics, each covered in a separate chapter, was perfect for holding my interest.

If Mary could be born without original sin, why couldn't everyone else do the same?

Why cure the blind one at a time? Wouldn't it make more sense just to eliminate blindness?

If you've ever dared to question then this book will interest you. If you choose to support your beliefs with faith then don't touch it, there's nothing here for you.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very convincing and well-researched work. I did receive this through a goodreads giveaway and entered because I am Jewish. It has many notes and appendices to supplement the main body of the book. It reaffirmed my belief that Christianity is a completely manufactured religion taking elements from Greco/Roman myth,paganism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism mainly. It's difficult to fathom how Christianity comprises 32% of the world's religious adherents but, then again, there are many uneducated and unthinking people still in the world today. Although all religious systems are created by humans Christianity insists it is the only way to a "heaven" and if you don't believe that a Jewish man named Jesus in English died to save you then you are doomed to "hell." Its tenets should be examined extensively because of its audacious claims. I definitely would recommend it to anyone who is an open-minded Christian as well as those considering Christianity. Also recommended reading for those in any world religions class. The book did make me laugh because of the absurdity of the claims if one actually uses their intellect to dissect or ponder them. Easy to read.

[John R Sickler]

Understand ing the Bible

In reading this book, it show ed how we as a people have been program, we are told at the start not to question the bible. The big flood shows how wrong the bible is . The flood killed everything, now where did we come from..

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The only book you'll ever need to read about Christianity,” declares the back-cover. Well, I don’t know about that, however this is a very well researched and fascinating study of what makes christianity tick; why people believe in it (or don’t), what its history is, and what “evidence” means in relation to christian beliefs. So, maybe not the only book you'll ever need to read on the subject, but a great one in case you think you will never get around to another (and a pretty darn good one even if you have read LOTS of others). To again quote from the back-cover blurb, “[e]ntertaining throughout, it is must-reading for skeptics, apologists, and anyone interested the world's largest religion or the culture wars behind today's politics - an invaluable resource for students and teachers, writers and debaters.” Sure, if you believe that NO ONE has the right to question or criticize the “good book,” you will despise and probably want to burn this. But heck, even your own scripture suggests that “the truth shall set you free.” 😊

[Thordur · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find this book of a theology and agnosticism, so I put it in that category. Here you go through all kinds of stuff concerning Christianity, how it works and it's connection to Judaism. This is not a book for mere believers in Christ, for they mind find this book against what they believe in. It's much more for those who want to look at some hard evidence. The author seems well read, has studied religion and theology. It's a book for agnostics.

[David Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

By now, I have read too many similar books. I will likely read no more in the future. Part of that reason is due to the very excellent treatment of this topic by this writer. I grew up in this consortium of idiocy and therefore I find it almost necessary to indulge my mind in trying to forget that which was forced down my throat and into my brain.
The details, cross referencing and thoroughness this author put into this book has satisfied me completely. If this is a first read for you on this subject, perhaps it might be your last too. I wish I had started here and skipped many others. Not condemning other authors, but merely suggesting that when you have found the best ... heck will all the rest.
If you question your beliefs, this is where you need to go first ... it may be all you need. If you do not question your beliefs, this too is where you need to go and right now, wasting no more of your precious life. I was told, for decades, that one could not be happy without belief in Christ as taught in the Bible ... guess what, you cannot be happier than leaving this stupidity all behind. Trust me on that idea!

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was close to giving this book 3 stars when I started reading the first half of the book. The authors arguments against some of the tenets of Christianity, though I mostly agreed with him, seemed dismissive and short-sighted, not "philosophically strong." However, his audience isn't meant to be the philosopher who would argue the meta of things and dive into the esoteric philosophy, but the "average" individual who probably holds the same assumptions about logic and reality as most other people.

The second half of the book I enjoyed more as it was a breakdown of the "evidence" for Christianity and why it's not strong at all. I think this section of the book makes a stronger case for shaking the foundation of Christianity and only then, will someone be willing to challenge their beliefs about the faith. I think it may have made more sense to flip the sections around, but either way, I think this is a good read for any Christian who wishes to learn to defend their faith or anyone who is in the process of deconverting and wants to drive the nail further in the coffin.

[Richard Bellows · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very healthy overview and conclusion for a book nobody ever reads.

Bill Zuersher explains the Bible in a very professional way. He leaves no verse unanswered. And with a good and clear understanding of the book, he brings up very obvious and simple explanations for what is in the Bible and why it's there. I thought I had read everything describing this book, but with Zuersher's even I learned some simple and very important facts and conclusions that other authors have overlooked on many occasions. No matter how new and different you believe the N.T. is, it really is just a lot of recycled Bronze and Iron Age myths shuffled around and reused and proclaimed all new and better. Unfortunately much of what's in the Bible just doesn't work and Zuersher explains very clearly the how and why some of these flawless ideas are impossible to "fix".

[Brandon Jubar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and concise

The author did a nice job of addressing each topic in an organized manner, explaining the issue, the Christian stance, the logical reason for questioning it, the typical apologetic response, and the rebuttal. I am a cradle Catholic with serious doubts and this book answered so many of the questions I've had about the supernatural claims of my religion. Definitely worth reading if you have an open mind and are ready to embrace logic and reason instead of blind faith.

[Denali Kenozia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does make some crucial and valid critical points.
That being said, the author is militant in his attack on any faith and pure vitriol against Christianity.

This is just another anti-faith, Christian bashing militant atheist book of self-praise.

Only reason for giving it 2 out of 5 is the text is written well enough those not schooled in academic circles can grasp what's being discussed.

[Shirlene LeBleu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally I Understand

I was brought up in a Christian home but never fully accepted all that was fed to me. My questions were always referred to the "faith" answer. This book made logical sense to me. Zuersher provided the "proof" I have always sought and in a very understandable way.

[Sharon C. Robideaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and well written

Often books written on theological topics are confusing and poorly organized. This is a happy exception. The author explains as he goes. His writing is clear, informative, and exceptionally well organized. I recommend it.

[Don Dilworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb book. The author dissects Christianity with a scalpel and points out the many places where its beliefs are absurd, contradictory, or without foundation. I wish all Christians would study this book. It would clear their muddied heads and point them toward the use of reason.

[Paul Mbugua]

Review of the book ‘Seeing through Christianity’ by Bill Zuersher

A well written and thoroughly researched work. A good aid in understanding the Bible and how it came to us. An eye opener

[Fernando Magalhaes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book

An excellent book that every Atheist, agnostic and religious person should read and re-read to absorb the richness of information.

[Judy Tarver · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author makes some interesting arguments. However, I have read other books that are similar that make a much better case.

[Harley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good critique of (mostly) western evangelical Christianity, and will hopefully force any Christian reader to understand their own faith at a much deeper level.