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Roddy
New Member
Panama
48 Posts |
 Posted - 06/30/2008 : 18:41:48
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In the last few years, atheists have been publishing several books on religion, and Christians have done nothing but turning the other cheek (uh huh!!). Now they are fighting back, with a book called "The Loser Letters".
Anyone heard about this book? From the name, I can assume it is nothing but insults.
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2008 : 21:08:28 [Permalink]
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Google turned up this, and your assessment seems to be correct:| Both a hilarious and edgy send-up of today's atheism and a serious work of Christian apologetics, THE LOSER LETTERS will have the believers cheering — and the atheists wondering what hit them |
. I seriously doubt anyone at SFN will wonder "what hit them" since we've all dealt with just about every lame pro-God argument there is. So it will be interesting to read... |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/01/2008 : 02:32:42 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Google turned up this, and your assessment seems to be correct:| Both a hilarious and edgy send-up of today's atheism and a serious work of Christian apologetics, THE LOSER LETTERS will have the believers cheering — and the atheists wondering what hit them |
. I seriously doubt anyone at SFN will wonder "what hit them" since we've all dealt with just about every lame pro-God argument there is. So it will be interesting to read...
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Ouch! What hit me? I mean, it wasn't in the same class as a rifle bullet, but, I mean, ouch! anyway. Doesn't seem to be bleeding, though. Hmm, it didn't seem to leave a mark, either. Did something hit me? Oh, mosquito.....
SLAP!
One can't fail to notice that the write-up is in the National Review, a conservative fishwrap started by Wm. F. Buckley in 1955, and therefore about as might be expected. This screed fits right in -- they have even had the ill grace & poor taste to publish Ann Coulter.
But I wouldn't worry about it because it's almost like a write-up in the vanity press. As with most partisan opinion magazines in the United States, National Review carries little corporate advertising and has never turned a profit. The magazine stays afloat by donations from subscribers and black-tie fundraisers around the country. The magazine also sponsors cruises featuring National Review editors and contributors as lecturers.
Buckley said in 2005 that the magazine had lost about $25 million over 50 years.
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I did get a chuckle out of the article, although not so good a chuckle that I'll buy the book.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2008 : 04:43:26 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Google turned up this, and your assessment seems to be correct:| Both a hilarious and edgy send-up of today's atheism and a serious work of Christian apologetics, THE LOSER LETTERS will have the believers cheering — and the atheists wondering what hit them |
. I seriously doubt anyone at SFN will wonder "what hit them" since we've all dealt with just about every lame pro-God argument there is. So it will be interesting to read...
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The first installment sure didn't read like a conversion story.
In short, I offer to You my own conversion story — that of a former Christian who has Adapted at last to Atheism.
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Based upon the actual content of Mary's letter I thought that it could have been much shorter. Screed comes to mind, but that is likely the result of filthy's apt description. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2008 : 09:51:59 [Permalink]
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Yeah, Ed Brayton blogged on this awhile ago. Supposedly The Loser Letters, written by Mary Eberstadt, is Christian satire modeled on C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. Ed writes:
| The essays at NRO are a series of fake letters - she calls them the Loser Letters - addressed to the leading atheist authors, to whom she refers as her "BFF". They purport to be in the style of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, and they might be if C.S. Lewis had written like an absurdly self-righteous 13 year old girl. The series is supposed to be a satire of prominent atheists and atheism, but I think the joke ends up being on the author. |
And really, it's bad stuff. Just below the smarmy caricature of a deluded atheist, you can see the seething frustration of a Christian woman who knows she must misrepresent atheism in order to attack it. It's the literary equivalent of crossing your eyes, sticking out your tongue and saying "Durr. I'm a dumb atheist." That's the level of "satire" we're dealing with. For instance:
| Speaking just for this Atheist convert, congratulations, Guys, You really did it! Thanks to all Your hard work, the rest of us know once and for all that the so-called "God" is everything You say he is: the biggest fraud of all time, cosmic Zero, ultimate no-show. And after all those centuries and promises, too. Like throwing the biggest rave ever, only to cancel at the last minute after everyone'd already bought tickets and drugs for it. What kind of Loser does that, anyway? If this were Facebook, no one would be friending him now. |
Do you think it comes across that Eberstadt believes atheism to be equivalent to thoughtless teenage rebellion? Yeah, just a bit, huh. The the point of the book is to smear by association, and in that manner avoid ever having to address the actual arguments for atheism. Pure dreck.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 07/01/2008 09:54:02 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2008 : 12:22:46 [Permalink]
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And crap like this shows just how dishonest the whole thing is:| As I get it, Our atheist position on sex boils down to this: the believers with their tard regulations are all wrong about it, while we Brights have been — I'm reaching here for the words that You Guys might use — so groovy and hip by throwing out the Christian rule book on all that stuff. Or to put it another way, thanks to atheism and secularism more generally, words like privacy, consenting adults, and behind closed doors are in; and ones like monogamy, self-restraint, and staying together for the kids are out. If there's anything We Brights are all on the same page about — and again, I've read all those pages of yours pretty carefully! — it would seem to be this; am I right? [emph. in original] |
Got that? Brilliant use of a false dichotomy. In this set-up, secularists who might favor things like privacy when it comes to one's sex life, don't favor things like monogamy or self-restraint (given that evangelicals divorce at rates higher than non-evangelicals, the whole "staying together for the kids" thing doesn't even make sense).
HH, I like your characterization-- "the seething frustration of a Christian woman who knows she must misrepresent atheism in order to attack it"
About sums it up. Pretty lame stuff.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2008 : 14:41:15 [Permalink]
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Somebody please wake me when/if they find anything at all from this book that provides evidence for a deity. (Making one's opponents to look like jerks in fictive prose doesn't count.)
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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MilindChatterji
New Member
India
4 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2009 : 04:15:15 [Permalink]
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| well i haven't heard about any such book.. hmm.."The Loser Letters" the name sounds a bit complex, don't you think? |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2009 : 05:17:15 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Google turned up this, and your assessment seems to be correct:| Both a hilarious and edgy send-up of today's atheism and a serious work of Christian apologetics, THE LOSER LETTERS will have the believers cheering — and the atheists wondering what hit them |
. I seriously doubt anyone at SFN will wonder "what hit them" since we've all dealt with just about every lame pro-God argument there is. So it will be interesting to read...
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Well. I was was certainly hit by the elite-level bullshit coming from it... seeing from the later replies, as I never even heard of this book until now. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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BrittersFritters
New Member
USA
1 Post |
 Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:27:55 [Permalink]
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| I wasted two hours of my life reading this book..it is as completely stupid as you think it is. She makes atheists out to be manipulative drones who are incapable of any emotions or morals. Ironic seeing as how she had to be manipulative so that the atheists "wouldn't know what hit em". What really upset me in this book is that she would give her view as to why an argument didn't work and then she would suggest a way to "cover it up". As if we didn't care at all about truth and we only cared about converting others to our side...hmmmm, sounds familiar... |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2010 : 23:45:20 [Permalink]
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| this seems like a pretty awesome book. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2010 : 00:24:30 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by On fire for Christ
this seems like a pretty awesome book.
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You should pick up a copy if you think you'd like it.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2010 : 06:54:55 [Permalink]
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| Actually this really makes sense because the only way to support a fantasy is with more fantasy. Real facts and the truth are their poison, which can only bring death to their delusions. Their fear of death and desire to avoid the inevitable, can only be achieved by denial of the facts and creation of a pack of crap. It required a life dedicated to self deception. It's really sad that that when theists are asked about their unsupported beliefs they have to make up answers. I believe theists can try to ignore the voice of logic in their own heads but they can never escape it. SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Celt
New Member
4 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2011 : 13:52:14 [Permalink]
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| Imho, it seemed to be authored by someone trying desperately to convince themself of their own ideals. |
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Hal
Skeptic Friend
USA
302 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2011 : 14:42:52 [Permalink]
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| She may as well have written a book arguing that Men are objectively superior to Orcs. |
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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The Loser Letters
