The Loser Letters A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism

by Eberstadt, Mary

• ISBN13: 9781586174316
• ISBN10: 1586174312
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Ignatius Press

Summary

A wickedly witty satire, The Loser Letters chronicles the conversion of a young adult Christian to atheism. With modern humor rivaling that of the media lampooning Onion, found on college campuses all over America, A. F. Christian’s open letters to the spokesmen of the New Atheism” explain her reasons for rejecting God and the logical consequences of that choice. Along the way she offers pithy advice to famous atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, in the hope of helping them win over more Christians. Of course we score big time with the young guys who aren’t responsible for anything, and don’t really care about anything besides spending most of their time in the basement playing video games and texting girls,” A.F. Christian points out. But what about all those serious, thoughtful people who are Christian believers? If the New Atheism is to make real headway, she argues, its advocates must do more to persuade intelligent theists living meaningful and fulfilling lives. Amid the many current books arguing for or against religion, social critic and writer Mary Eberstadt’s The Loser Letters is truly unique: a black comedy about theism and atheism that is simultaneously a rollicking defense of Christianity. Echoing C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and Dante’s Divine Comedy, Eberstadt takes aim at bestsellers like The God Delusion and God Is Not Great with the sexual libertinism their authors advocate. In her loveable and articulate tragic-comic heroine, A.F. Christian, Dawkins, Hitchens and the other Brights” have met their match.

Author Biography

Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, consulting editor to Policy Review, and contributing writer to First Things. She has written widely for these and other magazines and newspapers, including The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, Commentary, the Los Angeles Times, the London Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the online journal thecatholicthing.org. Her previous books are Home-Alone America and the anthology Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 9
The Trouble with Experience	p. 15
Some Little Contradictions and How They Grew	p. 27
The Trouble with Good Works	p. 39
The Trouble with Dull Art	p. 53
Those Obnoxious Christian Convert Traitors-and What to Do about Them	p. 65
Query: Do Atheists Know Any Women, Children, or Families?	p. 78
The Unbelievably Annoying Problem of Christian Moral High Ground	p. 92
My Turn to Atheism, Part One: From Baby Killers to Barnyard Mayhem	p. 106
My Turn to Atheism, Part Two: An Internet Café in Portland, the Little Debbie Tea Party, and You	p. 118
Onward, Anti-Christian Soldiers! A. F. Christian Meets the Midget in the Red Cape	p. 130
Acknowledgments	p. 147
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.