Fundamentalist believer to fundamentalist atheist?

Since Mark Alsip's religious journey is, in many ways, the very opposite of my own, I was intrigued by his book's subtitle. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I actually found the description of his childhood experiences entertaining and poignant. Hearing his tale of distress and sleepless nights of worry that his beloved Catholic mother would "burn in eternal hell-fire" however seems a little exaggerated, Did his beloved and wise Protestant father ever reassure him that their own "fundamentalist" Bible-believing church was wrong that she needed to be baptised by full immersion? The thief on the Cross wasn't, and we know where he is today (and was John the Baptist ever baptised?). Mark's Sunday-school teacher gets a lot of flak, but his primary religious teacher should have been his dad. The description of the church itself might be similarly hyperbolic, but a useful caricature to build his growing antipathy upon. "All have sinned..." , indeed, but then why expect absolute truth in Bible exegesis from human church leaders? The author was a precocious child who should (with his father's help) have worked this through before going off to College with the seeds of doubt (his analogy) and rebellion against God firmly planted.
A secular science degree course became fertile soil, but his understanding of Chemistry is not helped by a reference to the "formula" of gunpowder - like air, the latter is a mixture. It was the realisation of the chemical impossibility of the spontaneous generation of life - the simplest living cell arising by chance from a "warm pond" of non-living chemicals, that led me to convert from atheism, and accept Jesus Christ as Creator God and Saviour, at age 34. It was then a further 5 years before I rejected the evolution story (you can't have Natural Selection if there's nothing to select!) and came out as a Fundamentalist believer (for years as a Chemistry teacher I had begun my first A-Level class by writing "The Fundamental Particles" on the board!)
The book portrays Mark as a moral and principled young man (even now I would struggle with some of his temptations!) but when he asserts that his morality is not rooted in God but instead derived from his parents, he is being a little disingenuous - he has already waxed lyrical about his parents' strong Christianity (and they got it from..?). His Bible scholarship throughout the book is commendable for an atheist, and he quotes it impeccably (though John 5:39-40 is a warning!). There is also no contradiction between Genesis 1 and 2 - Jesus quotes them seamlessly in Matthew 19:4-5. At times he reverts to cynicism when it comes to the miraculous (eg. Noah didn't have to collect the animals - God sent them - and He is perfectly capable of feeding them. Creatures do the will of their Creator!). He misunderstands and dismisses the typology of the Akedah (Genesis 22), yet surprisingly (or maybe its his aversion to Ham) goes on to have a flirtation with Judaism. He masters the Hebrew alphabet (I'm envious!), then misreads Isaiah 7:14 ("a young woman will have a child ..." no surprise there! But "a VIRGIN will have a child .." - that's clearly the "sign" to Ahaz): Job 38:31 is one of the clearest verses that affirm the divine inspiration of the Bible, since the concept of Bounded (the Pleiades) and Unbounded (Orion) star systems was only formalised in the 1930's and could not have been known by a human author beforehand (unless it's a "coincidence"!).
As expected, the phrase "Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) attracts his venom, but the crux of Christianity is not the age of the earth, but the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which the book doesn't address. Recent discoveries about fossilised dinosaur bones still containing soft tissue, blood vessels and chemicals such as collagen which should have degraded in thousands of years (not 65 million, when an unobserved meteorite "collided with the earth" causing extinction) will soon affirm that the YEC position is tenable. There are also human depictions of dinosaurs - the jury is still out on the accuracy of geological ages. Mark insists that the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State casts no new light on the Grand Canyon, but the Uniformitarian dogmas of college Geology courses need to be re-examined in the face of increasing evidence for Catastrophism. Radiometric dating requires knowledge of initial proportions of parent and daughter radio-isotopes, so is not rigorous empirical science.
Some scientists are mentioned in the book, although Galileo was not, as is popularly believed, a heroic atheist standing up to the blinkered and outdated Church of his day. He was a Bible-believer (a fundamentalist!) who dared to promote the heliocentrism of Copernicus and oppose the geocentric view of Aristotle which was Roman Catholic dogma. His contemporary Jhannes Kepler dated Creation as 3992BC - younger than the oft-ridiculed Ussher! Mark instead references Professor Brian Cox - the book has many other humorous moments!
To summarise: Journey to Reason is a good read - I did the whole 9+ hours of excellent narration (by fellow Brit Robert Shaw) in just 2 days. It is sad that the talented and initially amenable and free-thinking author ends his autobiography by recounting his recent attempts to censor school and college students from experiencing, critically examining and - yes, daring to reject today's straitjackets of evolutionism and a 13.8 billion year old universe. Two follow-up books I would recommend are "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe (a Catholic!) and "Darwinism - a Theory in Crisis" by Michael Denton (a non-religious agnostic). Maybe Mark Alsip could read them too.

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A book that pushed me outside my comfort zone

Well done to the author for sharing a thought provoking and truly personal account that will resonate with many people who have suffered similar indoctrination.

I was initially very sceptical about listening to this audiobook as I tend to shy away from anything that discusses faith, possibly because it is easier to just avoid an uncomfortable subject. But the truth is that I could recognise familiar parallels with my own childhood, including being shouted at, and physically hit over the head (with a bible of all things!) for daring to question the word of god. Thankfully, my own experience was not as extreme, nor as damaging.

It wasn’t all challenging listening though. I found laugh out loud moments that show the author’s wit and strength of character. Without giving spoilers, the visit to Noah’s Ark I found to be hilarious. Just how did they feed all the animals?

Overall, well written and narrated, with a serious message about the dangers of restricting education choices and reading material. I expect this book will banned in certain parts of the United States, which will absolutely confirm that the author has hit the nail on the head.

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A Triumph

Mark Alsip's "Journey to Reason" is a gripping and deeply personal memoir that resonates far beyond the author's own experiences. Alsip recounts his childhood indoctrination into a fundamentalist, science-denying religious sect and his eventual journey to free himself from those rigid beliefs through reason, education, and critical thinking. While Alsip's upbringing was uniquely challenging, his story parallels the experiences of many Americans raised in conservative religious communities that reject mainstream science and education. As he documents the emotional turmoil of reconciling his doubts with his indoctrinated worldview, the book serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of fundamentalist dogma displacing empirical truth.

Even for readers who did not face such extreme childhood beliefs, Alsip's recounting of grappling with incompatible strains of thought rings universally relatable. His determination to follow logic and facts wherever they lead, even if that path diverges from long-held convictions, inspires admiration and self-reflection.

Alsip's journey eventually leads him to a sobering realization - that the very fundamentalist ideologies he escaped are increasingly seeping into American discourse, education, and government. ​His concluding call to speak out against this encroaching threat of science denial resonates as a vital rallying cry for defending rational thought.

Complementing the compelling story is the excellent performance by the audiobook's narrator. With nuanced vocal delivery, the narrator perfectly captures Alsip's emotional struggles, intellectual awakenings, and ultimate moral outrage. The seamless production immerses listeners in this odyssey of breaking free from dogma.

In "Journey to Reason," Mark Alsip has crafted a must-listen memoir - an inspirational personal tale that doubles as an impassioned defense of empiricism over fundamentalist absolutism. This audiobook merits widespread listening for its crucial message girded by Alsip's intimate storytelling and amplified by the narrator's superior performance.

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