Rationality Now Rotating Header Image

Borders

Some quick notes from Borders

Nov 21st, 2009
by dlgilbert.
2 comments

I’m hanging out at Borders this morning while waiting to pick up my daughter after a class she’s taking. I grabbed a copy of The Annotated Origin and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species – A Graphic Adaptation (like a graphic novel version of OTOOS) and am sipping on some coffee while hooked up to free wifi. It’s a good morning.

This isn’t my “home” Borders, so I went to the religion section to check out what they had to offer and to see how different it was from the Borders I normally frequent. This religion section is smaller, but had a nicer selection of atheist books. I did crack myself up when I noticed a section that was labeled “Christian Fiction” and thought to myself, Doesn’t that apply to this entire section?

I also saw a copy of Evolution for Dummies and considered (briefly) buying it and mailing it to Ray Comfort, but I figured that even a dumbed down version wouldn’t really help Ray… or Kirk, for that matter.

On another note, a friend of mine picked up a copy of Comfort and Cameron’s version of On the Origin of Species and is dropping it off at my house today.

It’ll be like the proverbial red-headed stepchild.

A Visit to Borders Books

Jul 12th, 2009
by dlgilbert.
No comments yet

Borders Books and Music I had a 25% off coupon for Borders that expired today, so I headed there to pick up a couple books. I ended up getting (among other things) Losing My Religion by William Lobdell and 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God by Guy P. Harrison. I also picked up The Real Face of Atheism by Ravi Zacharias to see what kind of straw men he was going to set up for his attack.

When I got to the checkout counter, the woman ringing me up paused briefly to look at 50 Reasons and then paused longer to look at the cover when she was bagging my items. I smiled and said, "That one seems to fascinate you, huh?"

She looked up and smiled and said (a bit tentatively), "Yeah. I’m kind of an agnostic. You know, I could go either way. The books in the religion section can be pretty interesting."

I nodded in agreement and simply said, "I’m an atheist."

The reaction was priceless. Her whole face lit up and she said, "Oh, our atheist section has some really great books! The God Delusion and The Portable Atheist… I haven’t read those yet, but I’ve read some of the others."

I told her that The God Delusion was, indeed, very good and that The Portable Atheist was a huge collection of essays, also very good. I think she mentioned one other book in the atheist section, but I don’t recall which one. It was as if she’d found a kindred spirit. Her statement about agnosticism was very tentative and casual, something a disinterested person would have just said "Oh" to, but after I said I was an atheist, she very nearly gushed with enthusiasm.

It was refreshing… and heartening.