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Warfare with Satan, mumbling in tongues, rapturous encounters with the Holy Spirit, healing prayer — the Alpha Course devotes entire evenings to each of these. It is also the most popular introductory Christianity course in Britain, offered globally by thousands of churches across numerous denominations. In spite of the narrow, extreme views that it promotes, Alpha carries a stamp of approval from the Church of England and a reputation for open, evidence-based discussion.
We took up Alpha's offer to explore the meaning of life. Over ten spiritually taxing weeks we listened to the talks, participated in the discussions, and attempted to understand how hardline, fundamentalist dogma has been sold so successfully as mainstream Christianity founded on rational examination of evidence. This book describes what we saw: the centrally planned discussion groups, the evasive responses, the misleading portrayal of evidence, the terrible jokes — all absent from the expensive advertising campaign. In Alpha the usual Evangelical rules apply: yes, they believe in casting out demons and discriminating against gay people, and no, they can't ultimately tell you why, but what does that matter when Jesus loves you? "
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