LAST CALL: Atheist Chic
Thornbury, Gregory Alan
7 4 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 AMILY VACATIONS ARE OVER, and the children have gone back to school. For many of us, the time...
...seems to be what theyareaskingtheirreaderstodo...
...For many of us, the time is righttoreflectuponthesummerof2007...
...It is hard to tell exactly who is buying all of these books...
...Faith?Hmmm.Nowthere'saninterestingsubject...
...Part of the summer experience is to take the timetoreadacoupleofbestsellers.Thisyear,however, providedpublisherswithaseriesofsurprisehits:books aboutatheismbyatheists...
...Booksbyatheists?Overthepastfewmonths,severalofthetop-sellingtitlesgainedtheirfamebyattacking organizedreligion.TheGodDelusionbyOxfordUniversityzoologistRichardDawkinstopsthelotwithoverahalf amillionbooksinprint.TitlessuchasSamHarris'sLetter to a Christian Nation and Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking theSpell:ReligionasaNaturalPhenomenonhavetogethersoldhundredsofthousandsofcopies...
...It is about figuring out why men commit horrible crimes, and how to find themoralcouragetoopposetheevil...
...Perhaps what is most bothersome about the writingsofHitchens,Dawkins,&Co.isjusthowmuchtheir worldview is simply assumed...
...On the contrary, for example, Christianity is exploding numerically worldwide, especially in the Global South: in Latin America, Africa,andSoutheastAsia.The21stcentury,thesociologiststellus,promisestobeacenturyoffaith.Itissimply amatterofwhichfaithwillwintheday--resurgentIslam or Christianity--not whether traditional faith will yield toatheisticsecularism...
...As for Christopher Hitchens, the enfant terrible of the talk-show circuit, his book is more rant than wellthought out argument, more scare tactic than responsible journalism...
...Bywayofcontrast,justafewdayslaterMcGrathspoketo an Oxford University undergraduate philosophy club where the room was packed with students who were curious about why Christianity offers such a globally compellingstoryoffaith...
...Well over 300,000 hardcover books flew off the shelves over the summermonths...
...I recently heard Oxford-trained biochemist-turned-theologian Alister McGrath recount accepting an invitation to speak at a prominent society of British atheists...
...They claimtobematerialists(i.e.,theviewthattheuniverse arose from the chance interactions of nothing but physical matter), and yet claim to believe in reason...
...Gregory Alan Thornbury is a senior fellow at the KairosJournal.L A S TC A L L AtheistChic Fby Gregory Alan Thornbury...
...My cynical side wonders how many have been soldtopeoplelikeme--Christianswhoarecuriousasto what the beleaguered atheists are up to these days...
...Atheists condescendingly dismiss these developments,andclaimthatonlyenlightenedpeoplewillagree withthem.Butsuchsneeringmostlyisheardfromrich, whitemen,anditcomesacrossaselitistatbest,orracistat worst...
...Take it on faith...
...Last but not least, Christopher Hitchens's God Is NotGreat:HowReligionPoisonsEverythinghasrocketeduptheNewYorkTimesbestsellerlistand,inits15th week, held the number five position as of August 26...
...Hitchens's publisher, who printed only 40,000 initial copies, was taken aback by the response...
...He describes with great seriousness how "religion kills," but amusingly refuses to admit thatthesameargumentworksinreversewhenapplied to the atheistic totalitarian Communist regimes of the 20th century that slaughtered well over 100 million people--far more than the Crusades, the European warsofreligion,andthemuch-ballyhooedSalemwitch trialscombined.Butexplaininghumansufferingisnot about playing a game of "Gotchya...
...Now,thelasttimeIchecked,reasonwasnotmaterialin nature(norarelawsofscienceforthatmatter).No,the atheistssimplyassumethatreason,law,love,morality, and conscience simply exist in a cold and indifferent material universe...
...They take pot shots at the arguments of theists, but blithely pass over how many of their own beliefs are taken for granted...
...He described the "youngsters"inthegrouptobewellintotheirseventies...
...Despite the impressive sales figures, atheism worldwide is sufferingfromdecline.Atheistshavebeenpredictingthe demiseoforganizedreligionforover40years--andthey have been embarrassingly wrong...
...It may, in fact, be jealousy...
Vol. 40 • October 2007 • No. 8
