I found Lewis’ arguments extremely convincing when I read this book at the age of 15. It kept me a Christian for at least three or four more years. These days I am a Buddhist, and I don’t even remember the arguments I came up with for refuting it. It will be fun to read your essay in greater depth and see whether we took similar paths. it does strike me that your refutations seem to lack nuance, but perhaps it is because I haven’t read them carefully enough. I definitely think you’re over reacting to the toothpaste sequence. It does seem a bit weird and creepy by modern standards, but it contains no implications of African-American inferiority in any way. Some African-Americans are poor, can’t afford toothpaste, and their teeth look good anyway. I doubt the last claim is true, but so what?