Excuse the shameless self-promotion, but … I just sent out the first newsletter to would-be buyers of my book, “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America. The piece wasn’t half bad, considering I did it myself. (If you know someone who might be interested in the book, please encourage them to join our e-mail list.)
From the moment I signed a contract with HarperCollins, I learned that an author just doesn’t write the book. He/She becomes the book’s primary promoter. That includes creating a website (done), an e-mail list and newsletter (done and done), contacting every person in the media that he/she has ever met (to be done) and generally figures out ways to sell his/her book (a work in progress).
I just finished the final edits of “Losing My Religion,” the book jacket’s done, and the memoir is available for pre-order on Amazon (click here to get 34% off!). Even though we’re more than six months away from publication, it seems as though we’re on final approach.
OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
The Latest on Faith and Doubt
12 responses so far ↓
1 Kate // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:35 am
I’m so excited to see you have a book coming out: few columns I’ve read have ever stayed with me - yours is one of the few that has.
Will your book be published in electronic format? Please say yes - I’m an avid fan of e-reader and the like
2 Emanuel Goldstein // Jul 11, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Well, even though you have abandoned Christ, you can still make a few bucks off of him!
Enjoy the money.
3 wyndham // Jul 11, 2008 at 9:53 pm
William, remember the Prodigal Son also lost faith but returned. Also understand that we can not raise ourselves from the dead, if there is no God, and Christ and Heaven then we’re dust and no more.
You have not lost faith, you have just placed your faith in yourself and in an anitchrist that lies to you for his benefit, not yours
As a potter I have control over the pots that I make. the pots do not have the ability to tell me what form they wish to be. Whether we agree with God or not, we are his Creation, we do not tell God what He should or should not do, we are not given that authority. Whatever His reason, we are given life and a Soul, thank God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who-so-ever believed in Him might not die but have Eternal Life”.
Don’t you think its interesting how many people want to be against God, almost a mob mentality and give you money to preach against God. Christ was betrayed by a friend and paid for with silver. Were’nt you a friend of Christ once.
There’s always a price. There’s no sitting on the fence on this, as for me and mine, we choose God thru Christ, His Son.
But you already know the truth. Please, may God Bless you. Though we all fall short many times in our lives and we don’t understand, He still loves us all. Wyndham
4 Les // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:13 pm
William,
I appreciate your struggle and search for God. I hope your quest has not ended. The search for truth is not one that is settled in a few years. Neither can it ever be settled by an individual. I appreciate the notion of losing your religion for Christ did not come to establish religion rather he came to establish his kingdom, his dwelling plave and utilize humanity as his body. The problem is religion is about us not about Him. God is not a God who makes evil happen OR who allows his church to sexually abuse children. Our God is a loving God who allows us to choose the path. Looking at the Catholic church is not a place of whole truth. Not to mention that the Reformation was a reform movement that saw corruption of this human institution. My point is that life is not about what God has done, it is about the history of Creation and a humanity that chose self over God. It is about a God who has allowed that choice and as any good parent, painfully allows the consequences of centuries to play out.
It is interesting that we are quick to point the finger but so slow to give credit. We yell at God when a plane crashes or a bridge falls but neglect to thank him for the thousands of planes and bridges that remain standing. We neglect to realize our falleness because we still want to be the point of our own existence. When it doesn’t focus on us, we cry, we moan, we act like our children do when they are left to the consequences of their choices. Creation is reeling in pains like child birth waiting on Christ’s return but what if (which is a biblical concept mind you) he is waiting on humanity to make a different choice. Not individually but communally. The Lord’s Prayer is quite telling. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give US THIS DAY OUR daily bread (not tomorrow, not a savings account, not a yacht but today’s bread), Lead US not into temptation, but deliver US from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever AMEN.
Notice the plural us and our. Yet, how many prayers do people hear or offer that are communal, in consideration of the whole of creation.
My prayer is that perhaps your quest has only begun and that you will one day write a book “How GOD found my faith again!” May God bless you on your quest for the Truth.
5 Art Albanese // Jul 12, 2008 at 4:48 am
Looks like a very special site for lonely atheists like us, or not so lonely with the number of proselytizers banging at the door in a neighborhood with no hills. Will be reading your posts and the book.
Our kids need to keep their mouths shut about our beliefs around here for fear of offending the True Believers. Our daughter all but ostracized by the girls she wants to play with because clear we do not attend church (where one just spent four million to expand their buildings to their greater pride and glory rather than help families going broke from trying to survive). How children of atheists must behave in oppressive religious atmosphere….post on this yet?
I am enormously proud as a devout atheist simply on the basis of my moral beliefs–in caring for poor and being opposed to war and the insane greed of the right wing. That we are a Christian nation is a sick joke: we worship only filthy lucre and clearly has corrupted every part of our national existence. And Christians cannot see this?
P.S. Note how they are going after PZ Myers at Univ of Minn. He may soon need help to pay for legal fees if they try to fire him.
6 ERV // Jul 12, 2008 at 10:44 am
There are several of us at SciBlogs that would probably be interested in your book– email our SEED overlords
7 Edward T. Babinski // Jul 13, 2008 at 6:10 am
Hi Will!
Dr. Robert M. Price is coming out with an excellent book soon that critiques Lee Strobel’s “Case for Christ.”
You should read it, since you’ll probably wind up being challenged by Strobel at some point. Price mentions in the intro his own journey round the country interviewing leading Evangelical theologians, but unlike Strobel, his interviews wound up creating more doubts than certainties.
Price’s previous book that took on the apologists from 20+ years ago is also online and can be read for free, it’s titled, BEYOND BORN AGAIN. It’s a great read. Those two books by Price are classics. Prometheus is probably going to reprint BEYOND BORN AGAIN, but don’t wait, print it out and read it.
Sincerely,
Edward T. Babinski (editor of LEAVING THE FOLD: TESTIMONIES OF FORMER FUNDAMENTALISTS)
8 Edward T. Babinski // Jul 13, 2008 at 6:11 am
Dear Emma,
“Making bucks off Christ” is what Christian preachers and churches have been doing for millennia.
9 Edward T. Babinski // Jul 13, 2008 at 6:12 am
Also keep an eye on the blog,
DEBUNKING CHRISTIANITY
since many of the contributors are “ex-ers”
10 Ian // Jul 13, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Hi William,
At the request of a mutual friend, tonight I spent time praying for you. I prayed that God will forgive you, and that you will know Him and his deep, wonderful unending love.
I don’t want you to feel insulted in any way. In particular, I’m concerned that you might feel insulted that I’m praying for you, when your whole point is that you don’t believe in God at all. But, intellectual honesty requires that no one can be so certain of the non-existence of God as to claim to be a complete atheist. Instead, at best, one can be a very skeptical agnostic.
Anyway, we each have our own spiritual journey. Mine has gone from fervent young faith, followed by years of doubt at Harvard & as a young adult (doubt probably fueled in part by my sinful lifestyle choices), to a sweet, growing, wonderful love for Jesus. My prayer for you is that you experience the same wonderful joy of deeply knowing and loving God and wanting to go higher up and further into His love.
Ian
11 Art Albanese // Jul 14, 2008 at 1:29 am
Edward: Thanks for pointing out that preachers and other hustlers make billions off religious suckers. Thanks for deflating Goldstein’s sarcasm in other words.
Am ex-Baptist fundamentalist and regret all those years esp. in adolescence doing so much church and never forget all those Saturday nights attending Youth for Christ meetings rather than walking along the beach (forget self-destructive partying…a bore). Never forget my Sunday school teacher (a U S Marine…this all in San Diego) throwing down the bible in anger at me wanting to know why I asked so many questions. So much time and energy wasted when I could have been working a real educations. And the girls were few and not very attractive. Sheesh.
12 Laurie // Jul 15, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Question- What is up with this “intellectual honesty” stuff (see Ian’s comment above) and no one being able to claim they are a complete atheist? I’m on another blog debating this with a pastor right now and these are the same assertions he makes. Proving a negative is impossible and yet this is the demand believers’ make of the atheist. The pastor I am corresponding with says atheists are “intellectually condescending” as they dismiss every reason a person gives for belief in God. Of course when one is having their beliefs debunked at every turn it may feel like condescension. How ‘intellectually honest’ is it to believe in something where the first requirement is to toss out all reason? Where from the beginning eating from the “Tree of Knowledge” is forbidden? Believe what you will, but please, keep the word “intellect” out of it!
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