Leaving Reason Behind: A Review of the Humanist Apologetic by Jeff Olsson

By John Feakes

Jeff Olsson is a Manitoban with an interesting history. Supposedly converted to Christianity as a child, he later became an ordained minister with the Anglican Church of Canada. During his ten year stint in this position, Olsson was confronted with numerous challenges to his faith. These included:

• Cold-hearted hypocrisy in the church
• Numerous evils done throughout history (even recent history, i.e. the residential school programs) in the name of Christianity
• The Anglican (and biblical) position on homosexual behaviour, which Olsson describes as hateful and bigoted
• Apparent conflicts between biblical doctrine and scientific knowledge
• God’s apparent silence in the face of great evil and human suffering – especially suffering inflicted upon others in the name of Christ

Confronted with these challenges Olsson opted to resign from his ministerial position, eventually adopting an atheistic worldview. Today he sits as the President of H.A.M. (The Humanist Association of Manitoba), an organization whose objective, among other things, is to promote Humanism as the superior worldview. His book, “Leaving Faith Behind” is Olsson’s attempt to justify his rejection of Christianity and his acceptance of Atheism/Humanism as intellectually and morally superior. Throughout the book Olsson claims that humanism is more logical than other religious worldviews, and that it is substantiated by an avalanche of scientific evidence.

In this brief evaluation of his book, I intend to limit my critique to what lay between the covers of the book itself. For example, claims made by Olsson throughout the book that evolution is a scientific fact, or that religion is responsible for most of the world’s wars and bloodshed are demonstrably false, but I will refrain from critiquing such claims here. Instead I wish to focus upon the logically contradictory statements/positions made/represented throughout the book itself. In short, this article is not focussed upon Olsson’s humanism as it contradicts other worldviews, but as it contradicts itself! If these contradictions are indeed real and not simply apparent, then it follows logically and inescapably that Olsson’s particular brand of Humanism is invalid. There are 8 major contradictions that I will examine here: