Friday, November 17, 2006

Letter to an Atheist

A major Christian publisher has requested a partial submission in response to my e-query proposing my planned book Letter to an Atheist: A Response to Sam Harris.

Two chapters and a table of contents, to be submitted by snail mail. It took about 15 minutes to go from query to request for submission. This suggests I may be on to something here.

I am surprised that Christian publishers are not deluged by similar proposals. Perhaps the unique nature of my proposal is to respond to Mr. Harris with a logical argument, addressing his key errors point by point.

It may be unwise to interrupt the polishing of the final draft of Fort Desperate to work on this new submission right now, but I sense that timing matters greatly.

Comments ?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike,
As a believer I often sense that I "need to do something"..... whatever that may be. I have found that when I pay heed to these inner urgings ( which I call "God Whispers") it is always for a reason. I would encourage you to follow your heart and see where it takes you. I believe you will be both surprised and blessed at what God may have in store for you.

Just one question: Do you "sense it"? Or do you know it? Is it nagging at you?, (I don't know you at all, but get the sense that this is really important to you) If the answer is "yes", be a Niki commercial and "just do it!

Well, that was three questions, not one. Must stop interrogating you.

Karen

Michael Patrick Leahy said...

Karen,

A reason based Christian response to Sam Harris needs to be made.

I remain surprised that no such response is forthcoming from other sources.

As I developed my own response while reading his book, it seemed appropriate to be one of the first Christians to offer such a response publicly.

I offer an argument, not a quarrel.

Edgy Inspirational Author said...

Cool. Which publisher? Never heard of this atheist guy, btw.

SHARLENE said...

Interesting premise! -- Letter to an Athiest. I know nothing about Sam Harris, but I just read a few reviews of his book "Letter to a Christian Nation." I noticed a majority of the reviews came from professors of math and/or science, those who would consider living by faith synonomys with stupidity. I would like to read a review from an "average Joe", since that would come closer to defining the true American. Not that the average Joe is dumb by ANY means--just that he represents the majority.

I salute you for wanting to tackle this book. I hope your proposal falls into the right person's hands. One thing is certain--if God's hand is in it, He'll see that it happens. Sometimes timing is everything.

Praying for you.

Shar MacLaren

P.S. FYI, I came across the comment you made in Michelle's blog.

Anonymous said...

Mike,
I went to Sam Harris's blog and read as much of it as I could, without becoming totally cross-eyed. What astounds me is how looooong all of his admirer's posts are. They all seem to be very impressed with themselves. What I fail to understand is how they can go on and on about faith and Christianity when they clearly know nothing at all about it.... unless they are dragging up the Crusades or something from the Old Testament to demonstrate that only evil fools would believe all this Christian stuff. They completely ignore the New Testament (except for the sensational book of Revelation) where the lessons of love, mercy, forgiveness etc. are stressed, not revenge and hatred.

Simplistic as this may sound, God must exist or else why would they need to disprove Him? If you want to dismiss something, it seems as if it should first exist.

While, I personally believe that how one lives ones life is the best testimony of all, I do grow very weary of being pigeon holed as some zealot who would rejoice at the sight of a mushroom cloud rising above New York.

Anyway, in another post I no doubt left the impression that you should "ignore" him, as trying to refute his faulty arguments would be fruitless. While his mind will no doubt remain unchanged, a book by you, would cause many Christians to stand up and say, "Halleluiah! finally, someone is speaking up!" I think it would also appeal to people like my son in law, who is a doctor (and logical to a fault), who find it very hard to believe in something they cannot see or measure. I applaud your clearly heartfelt desire to respond. I hope and pray you DO pursue it. It would do my heart good and I'm certain many others.
Karen

Michael Patrick Leahy said...

Karen,

You know, it really is astounding how filled with logical flaws and factual inaccuracies Harris is in his arguments. It's a style that those who support his views share.

Austin Bob said...

MP --

I applaud your intentions, but it may be a bit late to be first. In addition to the long posts by admirers on Sam Harris' eponymous site, there are a series of near book length posts by one JP Holding that are garnering their share of scorn and ridicule. However, for a truly excellent response, please see the series of letters by Douglas Wilson, the final installment of which can be found at 'BLOG and MABLOG' (http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=3151).