"A breath, a gust, a positive whoosh of fresh air. Made me laugh, made me think, made me cry." Adrian Plass In the last decade, atheism has leapt from obscurity to the front pages: producing best-selling books, making movies, and plastering adverts on the side of buses. There's an energy and a confidence to contemporary atheism: many people now assume that a godless scepticism is the default position, indeed the only position for anybody wishing to appear educated, contemporary, and urbane. Atheism is hip, religion is boring. Yet when one pokes at popular atheism, many of the arguments used to prop it up quickly unravel. The Atheist Who Didn't Exist is designed to expose some of the loose threads on the cardigan of atheism, tug a little, and see what happens. Blending humour with serious thought, Andy Bannister helps the reader question everything, assume nothing and, above all, recognise lazy scepticism and bad arguments. Be an atheist by all means: but do be a thought-through one.

Andy clears away the conceptual undergrowth that has sprung up around the faith/atheism debate, clearing space for a decent discussion.

About the Author
Dr. Andy Bannister is the Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity, speaking and teaching regularly throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, the USA, and the wider world. From universities to churches, business forums to TV and radio, he regularly addresses audiences of both Christians and those of all faiths and none on issues relating to faith, culture, politics and society.

Reviews
"Andy Bannister provides a set of powerful and accessible arguments that can be used by ordinary people in responding to the tsunami of atheist sound bites flooding public discourse in the West. His tongue-in-cheek humor gives a certain lightness which does not in any way undermine the rigor and force of the book's arguments. This is not a negative study--though atheism is certainly taken to the cleaners--but it is also profoundly positive in presenting compelling arguments for the central claims of Christianity." -- Dr. Peter Riddell, Professorial Research Associate, SOAS, University of London
"Every atheist vs. believer debate I've been to has made me want to gouge out my eyes with a spoon. Bannister's book, however, is exactly what this skeptical believer needed." -- Drew Marshall, radio host
"In a brilliant work that is as humorous as it is damaging to atheist arguments, Bannister demonstrates the consequences of implementing new atheist arguments into real life (that is, out of the realm of stuffy office speculations). His work is a wild ride that takes the reader from stories to theory to end game. Writing with eloquence and imagination, he illustrates the supposed 'safe ground' of new atheist thought as truly no ground at all." -- Mary Jo Sharp, Houston Baptist University
"This is a remarkable and timely book. Apologetics has to mature and evolve into the 21st century and this intelligent, funny and elegant work is precisely what we are looking for." -- Michael Coren, broadcaster, author and journalist



Book Information
ISBN 9780857216106
Author Andy Bannister
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Monarch Books
Publisher SPCK Publishing