Todd Allen Gates

Todd Allen Gates is an American author of non-fiction books. Gates's books tend to focus on subjects on which matters of history and science converge with matters of philosophy, religion, and epistemology.

Gates's first book, "Why Do We Have to Work?" (2003), traces the nature of the work day from the prehistoric hunter-gatherer to the modern day citizen whose specialized tasks, such as designing video games or working on an assembly line, may seem to have less of a direct link to providing for survival. The book examines how this transformation occurred, and takes a philosophical look at the varied reasons why people do what they do for a living, which include the pursuit of wealth and status to the pursuit of personal fulfillment, inner calling, and spiritual happiness. In this book, Gates traces the link between the work of the two eras, and suggests a guideline for an “alternative measure of success”. In 2006, it was reissued as "Hunting, Gathering, and Videogames".

Gates is also the author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (2006), described as a Socratic dialogue between a hypothetical Christian proselytizer named Chris Proselman (a play on the word "proselytize") and a skeptic named Scott Crates (a play on the name Socrates). In the exchange, the skeptic does not dispute the idea of a Creator, but instead accepts the premise of a Creator for the sake of argument. The skeptic then has the proselytizer detail his reasons for why he believes that non-Christian religions, such as the Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, as well as the now-extinct religions of the ancient Aztecs, Babylonians, Sumerians, and Vikings can all be safely rejected as man-made.The conversation then turns to examining the Christian religion by the same light held up to the non-Christian.

Gates was present at the May 5, 2007 debate in Manhattan, New York between members of the Rational Response Squad and "Way of the Master" founders Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, in which Cameron and Comfort claimed they could prove the existence of God scientifically, without relying on faith or the Bible.

Bibliography

*"Why Do We Have to Work?" (2003; reissued as "Hunting, Gathering, and Videogames", 2006) ISBN 1601450443
*"Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (2006) ISBN 1601450893