I Sold My Soul on eBay

Viewing Faith through an Atheist's Eyes

By: Hemant Mehta

Narrated by: Hemant Mehta

I Sold My Soul on eBay tells the story of how and why Hemant Mehta, the nonbeliever who auctioned off the opportunity to send him to church, became an atheist and went on to attend a wide variety of church services. It also features his insightful critiques and observations of the churches he visited, including accounts of his visits to some of the best-known churches in the country. After spending Sunday mornings in some of the nation's leading churches, what happened to the man who sold his soul on eBay? Did attending church lead him to change his mind about God? His descriptions and observations will surprise and challenge, revealing how the church comes across to those outside the faith. After all, who better than a nonbeliever to offer an eye-opening assessment of how the gospel is being presented - and to highlight the elements that prove to enhance or diminish an outsider's churchgoing experience.

Hemant Mehta, a blogger at FriendlyAtheist.com who speaks nationwide about his churchgoing experiences and atheism, currently works with the Foundation Beyond Belief, a charity organization targeting nontheistic donors. He is also a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago.

©2007 Hemant Mehta (P)2012 Pitchstone Publishing

Weirdly detached narrative.

I picked this book up once before and put it down after the first 1/3 or so. I forced myself to get through this time, but I can see why I stopped before. The book takes forever to get started. It’s about half preamble about how/why/where/when Hemant decided to do this “experiment,” as he called it. Then he repeats those same explanations again and again. When he finally gets to the church visits, the descriptions are like yelp reviews—short and perfunctory. I’m not sure why his narrative is so detached from his own emotions, but he would have told a better story without trying so hard for pure objectivity.

Sense and Sensibility

Hemant has sincere intentions, but he does backbends to try to appease religious sensibilities. He’s either unable to understand or reluctant to accept that faith allows no facts, that questions — really deep questions — are unwelcome in religion. He doesn’t seem able to distinguish indoctrination from education. He thinks, I gather, that Science is something to believe rather than to understand. But he tried to bridge a gap so vast that it requires a Kierkegaardian leap … and since atheists require factual evidence, that ain’t gonna happen.

Very interesting

I started listening and couldn’t stop. Hemant presents an open and honest approach in an attempt to understand why the division between the non religious and religious. He promotes a constructive approach to positive dialogue to learn how to agree to disagree. I still think that religion slows down progress and promotes suppression of logic and reasoning and thus not good to encourage its propagation. It’s a great book!!!

loved it

it was really easy to follow, his voice is both cheerful and charismatic. I actually learned a thing or two about church. I myself am going to church meeting new people and trying to understand, why?

Meh....

Others may find the autho's findings interesting; but overall they are nothing to rave about.