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Submitted: Nov 10 2018 06:35 PM
Last Updated: Dec 04 2018 06:53 AM
File Size: 576K
Views: 2595
Downloads: 221
Author: James D. Bales
e-Sword Version: 10.x
Suggest New Tag:: Christian Evidences

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Download Bales, James D. - Roots of Unbelief 1.0

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Theology Atheist Church of Christ Biblical Studies Christian Living Living a Christian Life

Author:
James D. Bales

e-Sword Version:
10.x

Suggest New Tag::
Christian Evidences

This excellent reference book on Christian Evidences by
James D. Bales covers the following Topics:

I. THE MADNESS IS IN THEIR METHOD
II. THE CONDUCT OF PROFESSED CHRISTIANS
AS A CAUSE OF UNBELIEF
III. BEGINNING IN THE WRONG PLACE
IV. CONDITIONS OF HEART WHICH FRUSTRATE FAITH
V. CHRISTIAN FAITH IS NOT CREDULITY
VI. THE MORAL NATURE OF FAITH
VII. THEORIES OF SCIENTISTS AND UNBELIEF
VIII. THE BIBLE AND THE INTELLECT
IX. IS CHRISTIANITY IMPRACTICAL AND ANTI-SOCIAL?
X. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
XI. THE UNBELIEVER'S MISCONCEPTION OF EXPERIENCE
XII. YOUTH AND UNBELIEF
XIII. A PERSONAL WORD WITH THE UNBELIEVER
APPENDIX "OF THE SUPPOSED DEFICIENCY IN
THE PROOF OF REVELATION

From 1944 to 1980, James David Bales was a professor of Bible
and theology at Harding University (formerly Harding College)
in Searcy (White County). Both in public and in print, Bales
earned a national reputation as a fearsome debater of theological
issues and political ideologies, becoming especially well known
for his anti-communism stance.

J. D. Bales was born on November 5, 1915, in Tacoma, Washington,
the fifth of eight children. Soon after his birth, the family moved to
Albany, Georgia. Bales was eleven when a train struck and killed his
parents. Bales went to live with his paternal grandparents in Fitzgerald,
Georgia, until 1930 when he enrolled in the Georgia Military Academy
(now Woodward Academy) in College Park, Georgia, where he joined
the wrestling team. Then, in 1932, he went to Georgia Tech High School,
where he graduated in 1933. Bales next came to Arkansas to attend the
small Church of Christ–associated Harding College, where he established
a wrestling team and joined the debating team, winning the state
championship in 1936. He graduated with a BA in 1937 and received a
master’s degree at George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, in
1938. While pursuing his master’s degree, Bales took a course under
Professor Michael John Demiashkevich, a White Russian refugee who
ignited Bales’s interest in communism. Bales then went west to work
on a doctorate in theological studies at the University of California at
Berkeley.

In July 1940, while working on his doctorate, Bales married Mary Smart;
they had six children. After finishing his PhD in 1944, he returned to
Harding to teach Bible classes, quickly developing a reputation for his
sharp wit and dry, self-effacing humor. When Harding’s president, George
S. Benson, created the National Education Program (NEP) to promote
American values such as religious freedom and the free enterprise system,
Bales became the NEP’s chief researcher and pamphleteer, writing
numerous articles warning the nation about the dangers of communism.
The most significant danger, in Bales’s view, was the communist aim of
destroying religious faith. Bales felt that communists, whom he viewed
as the world’s largest atheistic power, were at their insidious best in their
efforts to undermine belief in God. Constantly reading national periodicals,
reviews, books, and articles in order to absorb current political and
philosophical trends, he was ready to fire off daily letters and articles to
newspapers and magazines defending, answering, and challenging any
such attacks.

Bales wrote and published more than seventy books and many more
articles for religious periodicals, among them: Atheism’s Faith and
Fruits(1951), Communism, Its Faith and Fallacies, an Exposition and
Criticism(1962), Understanding Communism: A Study Manual (1962),
Two Worlds—Christianity and Communism (1965), Americanism Under
Fire (1965), and Evolution and the Scientific Method (1976). He also
wrote numerous books on theological issues, cults, and controversies
within the Churches of Christ. While Bales’s style was at times
unabashedly confrontational, bold, aggressive, and often tinged with
biting sarcasm when he felt he had the facts on his side, he was also
committed to fair play and giving his opponent an honest hearing.

Bales was thrifty and sharp with his money. In 1958, the government
of Taiwan invited him to speak, providing him with an open, first-class
plane ticket. Bales decided he could use this ticket to go almost
anywhere and scheduled some ninety speaking engagements in the
Philippines, Korea, Japan, India, and at the World’s Fair in Brussels,
Belgium. Unfortunately, during this world tour he contracted an
amoebic infection which affected his health for years.

Bales, who could not pass up a bargain, often told how not long after
his marriage, he happened into a Toronto, Canada, bookstore just to
browse and ended up buying out the store’s entire stock of 6,500
books when the owner offered them to him at five cents a copy.
Bales shipped the books to Searcy, where he sold some and kept
some. At one time, Bales owned more than 10,000 volumes.

Even though he was often criticized for doing so, Bales participated
in some forty public debates with leaders representing atheism,
communism, Buddhism, evolution, and numerous Christian
denominations and sects. His most famous debate was in Little Rock
(Pulaski County) in 1966 against eminent astronomer Carl Sagan with
Ernan McMullin, R. C. Lewontin, and Thomas K. Shotwell. Jack Wood
Sears, professor of biology and genetics at Harding, was Bales’s debate
partner.

Throughout his tenure at Harding, Bales was famous for his wit, humor,
and numerous stories about his adventures. He once admitted to giving
a list of six items for a listing answer in class and then asking for seven
answers on the test. When students were irate over the test, he said he
would not count that extra answer but had enjoyed reading the fascinating
responses students had offered under pressure to fill the extra space. On
another occasion, he gave a 100-question true/false test with every answer
being false. “Just wanted to test your resolve,” he told the groaning class
after he returned their tests.

After his retirement in the spring of 1981, Bales continued to write, lecture,
and preach. He was a member of the White County Civil War Roundtable,
to which he often brought antique guns and other relics. At the end of his life,
he said he felt as if he “had fought the good fight and had defended the faith.”
Bales died on August 16, 1995, and his ashes rest in the Oak Grove Cemetery
in Searcy, next to his wife, Mary.

What's New in Version 1.0 (See full changelog)

11/10/2018 Add Book "Roots of Unbelief"

Teetop

Nov 13 2018 11:11 AM

A great subject that we seldom hear preached if ever.

Thanks and Blessings.

Virgil

Olaf Bacon

Feb 07 2023 06:21 PM

As last updated Dec 04, 2018, the download option provides only one option, [1] Root_of_Unbelief_Bales.refi 576 K The ".refx" file is no longer available. This "*.refi" is applicable to Apple Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, and also for Windows devices after e-Sword version 11 and later.

After downloading the file, check the Properties. If there is a download warning, "Security: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer." then select the empty checkbox alongside the word "Unblock". This will then change to display a tick mark inside the checkbox, and the "Apply" button will no longer be greyed out. Select the "Apply" button, and the Security warning will be removed. Select the "OK" button. Arrange to copy the filename to the directory folder in which your e-Sword Resources Location files are listed. Restart e-Sword to see the new entry.

You will see this in the Reference Library, which is available under the Tools, Reference Library, option, in e-Sword for Windows since version 12.2.0 and later. This will be listed under "Options", "Resource Settings", "Reference Books" as the entry with the Title "Roots of Unbelief".

The name of the book is THE ROOTS OF UNBELIEF By James D. Bales, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Editor, The Thinking Christian
© 1948 by James D. Bales

Published by
THE OLD PATHS BOOK CLUB

If you would prefer to rename the filename and the Title to agree with the details in the resource, which is "The Roots of Unbelief" by James D. Bales, you can exit e-Sword, then rename the filename, as you prefer. Retain the file type as "refi". e-Sword loads entries and sorts them based on the filename. Exit e-Sword if it is running.
Use the Bible Support Utility, e-Sword Tab Renamer.
Use the "Open e-Sword Module" box to select the changed filename. Change the details in the "Module Title" to the format you prefer, such as "Bales, James D. - The Roots of Unbelief 1948". Select the "Update" option. Exit from the e-Sword Tab Renamer. Re-run e-Sword to see the entry listed under the new Title in the Reference Library.