Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity

Three years and more than 30 letters later, Letters from a Skeptic was published and Edward Boyd came to accept Christ. During his journey, he and his son hash through such topics as why the world is so full of suffering; why an all-powerful God needs prayer; how you can believe in someone who rose from the dead; and how another man's death can pardon others. Despite their brutal honesty, both men exhibit respect and love toward one another as they address these volatile subjects. In Edward's second response to Greg, he boldly says, "Well, your distinction between the 'Christian Church' and 'Christians' is interesting and novel, but frankly, I don't buy it." Greg responds, saying, "I've got to admit that you are raising some extremely good points in your letters. You are raising the most difficult questions a theist can face." --Jill Heatherly

Product Description
Dear Greg,

I find your idea of dialoguing about the subject of Christianity very interesting, and I'd be happy to do it. I've got enough time on my hands...You invited me to raise whatever objections come to mind, so I'll jump right in. Here's one I've wondered about a lot: how could an all-powerful and all-loving God allow the church to do so much harm to humanity for so long? Isn't this supposed to be His true church, His representation on earth?...To my mind, this alone is quite enough to prove that the church does not possess any true philosophy...Well, you wanted an objection; you've got one. I look forward to your response...

Love always,
Dad

In Letters from a Skeptic Dr. Gregory Boyd and his father Edward Boyd "debate" many other objections to Christianity, the church, and the Bible.

• Why is the world so full of suffering?
• Does God know the future?
• How can you believe that a man rose from the dead?
• Why do you think the Bible is inspired?
• Do all non-Christians go to hell?
• How can I be holy and sinful at the same time?

Greg Boyd initiated this correspondence with his father in the hope that his father would eventually come to know Christ. After three years, 30 letters, and numerous phone calls, Edward K. Boyd did just that.

Letters from a Skeptic will help you wrestle with the rational foundation of your own faith. It will also help you know how to share that faith with the skeptics you love.

Plus many other. Sometimes you'll get answers that are based on faith, sometimes you get clear facts, but I have to admit I have never read any explanations that left me thinking it was making sense.

If you already believe, this book might help you to see things a bit more clearly. If you are a skeptic (like me), it will leave you less confused.

Ultimately, I do not believe I will find any final answer from books. It will have to be a deep personal experience, but I am gathering as much info as I can. I dare quoting the Bible: "Test everything, hold on to the good" (1 Thess 5:21).

This book was great clearing up a few problematic issues like the concept of Hell. Of course I still don't understand many things, and still have a lot to learn, but if you are a skeptic, buy it now.

A previous reviewer wrote that Boyd claims to know the truth, but resorts to compromise when his beliefs are on the line. Maybe he does sometimes, but even Boyd himself near the end admits that you cannot be 100% of anything. He admits things might be different, but gives you enough facts to make you start looking at other options as if they are as hard to believe in as the whole "christian stuff".

I also recommend another book which also clears out many issues and some good arguments from atheists: "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. "The Journey" Bible is also easy to read and addequate for people who don't believe yet. I've been trying to explore it, it's a lot easier than most Bibles.

The book ends a bit quickly, the last 2 months were not written, it abruptly ends with Gregory's father saying he is ready to believe. I am curious about how he feels now, and it would be interesting to read more correspondence between the two.

In general, a great book, with many strong arguments. Doubts will always be present, but this was one of the most interesting books about Christianity I have read so far.

No matter what you believe in (or don't believe in), buy it. I am sure you will find some good thoughts in it, even if you don't end up converted or fully convinced.


Better Title: Answers for Skeptics   May 12, 2001
 45 out of 53 found this review helpful

An excellent book for anyone who is curious about Christianity and the many common misconceptions about what Christianity is all about and who God is. The book is essentially correspondence between a Father and Son, in which the Father asks dozens of tough questions about his Son's faith, all in letter format (including the small talk and pleasantries). Among the questions are "Why believe in God in the first place?", "Why would an all powerful God need prayer?", and dozens more about the Bible, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, and Christian doctrine. What makes this book so compelling is the honest way the questions are posed, and the answers delivered. The son (Gregory Boyd) answers these tough questions with logic, theology, science, and uses a straightforward approach which is neither "preachy" or "academic" but rather grounded in everyday language. In particular, the section on "Why believe in God in the first place" addresses the fallacies of "random chance" theories such as Darwinism's evolution. For example, the Son poses the question back to the Father regarding all human longing for meaning and a supreme being by saying "Where did our longing for something that never existed, and that never could exist (if we are a result of random chance) come from?" He presents some questions which atheists and evolutionists have been skirting and simply have no answer for. Overall, the book is easy to read and will challenge the way you think about Christianity, and the rational, logical, and even scientific conclusions which all point to God. It also demonstrates a rare feat these days: a passionate debate about a serious subject, handled with maturity and love. A great example for anyone who engages in theological discussions with persons who have strongly opposing viewpoints. Buy this book and read it - it is worth the effort!


Do NOT Recommend!   October 22, 2003
 38 out of 61 found this review helpful

Fortunately, a colleague gave me the book and I did not spend my own money on it. I know Dr. Greg Boyd somewhat personally and do not recommend any of his books for the mere fact of the misguided teachings he presents within them. Even his own father said, "I admit your view sounds better than the standard one...but I wonder if your view is just your own creation." He nailed it on the head! Boyd's view is his creation! It is not the view in the Bible. Boyd's view of God is extremely problematic. I would like to say I enjoyed this book but I did not. Rather than buy this book, purchase a book that explains the open view by an author who does not adhere to the open view (Norm Geisler, Wayne House, Bruce Ware, et al). Boyd subtly and at times, not-so-subtly, weaves his view within this book in the comments he makes to his father. I do NOT recommend this book to either Christians or non-Christians. From my own knowledge of Dr. Boyd, I believe he is determined to take over the world with his open view. It contains cultish characteristics and anyone reading this or any Boyd book, needs to do so with the utmost of caution!


Bad Theology mixed with good theology,   September 18, 2005
 28 out of 40 found this review helpful

I disagree with much of what he writes, and taking the skeptical view, I find it very unconvincing. Taking it from a Christian view, this book is not just challenging, but rejecting, many things that make God who He is. This books gets two stars just for a good effort, and the few things he gets right.


more snake oil.   October 22, 2004
 27 out of 58 found this review helpful

Letters to a Skeptic.
(Boyd & Boyd)

Christian apologetics are usually quite predictable and I didn't expect much from this book, but it was quite surprising to se just how far short it fell in its stated purpose. Its stated aim was to "...help the readers wrestle with the rational foundations of their own faith..." Since there are no rational foundations for this sort of Christian fundamentalism, it was bound to fail, but it didn't even make a half decent stab at it.. It purports to be a correspondence between a skeptical father and a Christian son, by the end of which, (Glory Be!) the father becomes a Christian too. You can almost overhear the angels rejoicing and Satans demons cursing in despair as the father is slowly won over. Someone less charitable than I may conclude that the book's true intention is to stifle and obfuscate the questioning that inevitably arise in the mind of the more rational type of young person who has been exposed to Christian Fundamentalism in early life and is now begining to doubt what they have previously never questioned. It skips over the deep issues, dismissing the father's doubts with facile speculation and unconvincing references to scripture, and hardly rises above naked Christian propaganda. To most questions, it admits (with disarming humility) that it does not know the answer - then speculates at great length on the how God's mind works. By the end of each chapter, the original admission that the writer 'didn't know the answer' somehow has become lost, and - Hey Presto! - the wild speculation has become a convincing answer! It will not impress anyone posessing even a basic grasp of basic logic (or even common sense). A rudimentary education will be sufficient to cut swathes through the invalid logic and circular reasoning upon which it constantly relies. The literary device is a straight steal from C S Lewis' Screwtape Letters. The folksy, chatty format and absence of any intellectual rigour allows logical errors and false arguments to go through on the nod, unchallenged by serious examination. Much is made of the (rather cloying) loving father/son relationship which cleverly pre-empts legitimate accusations of 'liar' and 'fool' from being voiced. The father is described as a ' highly intelligent 70 year old', but the manner in which false argument and transparently faulty logic is constantly passed over without a murmur, indicates this correspondence was either not a genuine debate, or the father was in the early stages of senile dementia. The father aquiesces too easily, under the psychological (not logical)pressure and accepts his son's irrational explanations and best guesses at the nature of God far too readily for this correspondence to sound authentic.

For example, in the correspondence concerning the divine inspiration of the bible, the skeptic father questions the truth of parts of the Old Testament. The Christian son 'overcomes' these objections by pointing out that Jesus, in the New Testament clearly accepts what is written in the Old Testament, so it would be improper to question Jesus' opinion of the Old Testament's veracity! In other words, since the New testament tells us Jesus believed it, it must necessarily be true! What kind of reasoning, is that? A ten-year-old could spot the question- begging circularity of such an argument!. The writer claims to have studied logic, so these errors are not accidental. They are deliberate distortions. ' Lying for the Lord' seems to be considered forgivable among Christian Apologists. The frightening thing is that this writer is a Professor of Theology at a college (admittedly only a bible college where intellectual rigour is not a necessity) but he presumably has the responsibility of helping to form the ideas of young people. He unashamedly declares his deep belief in 'demons and evil spirits' who are 'roaming the earth' trying to destroy God's order! It's enough to make one weep with despair. How do these people qualify as educators and entertain such ludicrous and absurd ideas? 'Faith' has had far to much undeserved respect shown to it This traditional uncritical respect shown to Faith encourages Christians to dispense with Reason, and it is time Faith was exposed for the error it is, as a vice and not a virtue. People of this mind set should not not be argued with - they should be cured. It has been well said that the proper study of religion is not theology but psychology, and the proper study of Christians is psycho-analysis. The sooner this becomes more generally accepted, the better.

Another example of the typically sloppy thinking is demonstrated when the father asks why God doesn't intevene when some sicko rapes and mutilates a child. The pathetic answer given is that God allows us free will....and if God intervened, we would no longer have freewill. The questioner just rolls over in acceptance of this facile answer. It never occurs to him to ask WHY God demands the rape and mutilation of innocent children as the price to be paid for free will. The bible is full of examples of where God can and did intervene in the affairs of men and their free will in much less important matters. You can't have it both ways Ultimately it comes down to the more basic question of whether God himself has any freewill (and if he hasn't, by definition he's not all-powerful) By ordinary human standards, anyone who stood by and allowed a child to be raped and mutilated when perfectly capable of preventing it would be classed as a monster. Christians seem not to be able to grasp that a God who stands idly by and permits it, is a monster too. He tries to extricate himself from this paradox by claiming God is not omnipotent, and simply opens himself up to the charge of heresey from most other Chrisians. It's a complete mess. So compelling is the need for the religious crutch that the real questioning never gets off the ground. There are excellent alternative answers to most of these questions, and at least partial answers to the all the others. Science is showing the way in the disciplines of neuro- and socio- psychology. Many scientists see that socio-biology and Darwinian thought can lead us away from the fantasy-peddling of the theologians to a true and rational understanding of why humanity is the way it is.

This book is an absolute disgrace. It couldn't convince anyone unless they had already relinquished their critical faculties in exchange for the comfort of religion's sentimental lies and superstition. This book does not help anyone. It is a snare in the way of any true seeker after knowledge, and does not even scratch the surface of genuine enquiry. It offers cheap comfort to the converted, the insecure and those for whom an illusory certainty is more important than truth. Christian fundamentalism, in championing Faith above Reason has a powerful appeal to the less secure religious personality in that it legitimises and encourages their flight from the threat of their own intelligence. This book is a perfect example of how the youth of today is lured from the difficult but honest search for truth, by the seductive false 'certainties' of superstition. It is Crackpot Christianity in the uniquely American style. It is regretable that the monstrous fiction of religion in general, and Christianity in particular continue to so infect American universities. Perhaps the fault is too much training and not enough real education. Fortunately, elsewhere it is on the decline. But as long as books like this can be pedalled around campuses, there will be those unfortunates who become distracted from seeking true knowledge by the appeal of cheap religious fantasy.

If this book fell in the fire, I'd be tempted to leave it there.


John Tate (Newcastle upon Tyne UK)