Dr Paul Allen

The “New Atheism” burst onto the cultural landscape in 2006. For a while, it seemed as if the movement would change the world. But it didn't, it died. Its “four horsemen” — Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and later Christopher Hitchens — presented themselves as the vanguard of a new age of confident rationalism in Western culture, in which the outdated superstitions of religion and absurdities of postmodernism would be thrown aside. Yet even as the movement emerged, there were signs of anxiety about its puzzlingly aggressive rhetoric and ambition. Gary Wolf, the journalist who coined the term “New Atheism”, found its asserted certainties to be arrogant and improbable, amounting to a significant intellectual overreach on their part: People see a contradiction in its tone of certainty. Contemptuous of the faith of others, its proponents never doubt their own belief. They are fundamentalists. Wolf could see the dangers of this overconfidence: “Even those who might side wi...

Paul Kurtz (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Having been failed by reason and science the New Atheism is now, as the humanist Brian Epstein has pointed out with obvious exasperation, reduced to  ‘seek[ing] to shame and embarrass people away from religion, browbeating them about the stupidity of belief in a bellicose god’  Things hit rock bottom on 30 September 2009. This was the date chosen by the Center for Inquiry —which promotes itself as the intellectual powerhouse of American secularism and has close links to the New Atheism—to be the first ever ‘ Blasphemy Day ’. The idea was to use freedom of speech to insult religions and religious people. The Center organized an art exhibition to mark this momentous event and included in the works exhibited a piece entitled Jesus Paints His Nails. It depicted a rather effeminate Jesus applying polish to the nails fixing his hands to the cross. The CEO of the Center for Inquiry, Ronald A. Lindsay , defended this and the other exhi...

Richard Dawkins at the 34th American Atheists Conference in Minneapolis. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many of the New Atheists — Richard Dawkins , Sam Harris , Daniel Dennett , and Christopher Hitchens . These authors have been causing quite a stir in recent years, both inspiring fellow atheists and shaking up the faith of believers.  Unlike more substantive atheists in the academy, this new wave of atheism typically engages in emotional argumentation and rhetorical bluster—often with little substance and plenty of distortion.  God is “not good” and is “a moral monster.” Religion is the chief source of humanity’s problems—“the root of all evil.” One particular point of attack is Old Testament ethical issues, including claims like these: “the Bible promotes owning other human beings,” “the Old Testament demeans women,” or “God commands genocide.”  Q. Some people claim that the Old Testament allows polygamy. What do you say? A.   For one thing, the Ol...

Richard Dawkins at the 34th American Atheists Conference in Minneapolis. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Atheists should drop their easily dismissed scientific, philosophical or historical arguments against Christianity , and instead quiz believers about Old Testament violence and hell, writes John Dickson. As an intellectual movement, Christianity has a head start on atheism. So it's only natural that believers would find some of the current arguments against God less than satisfying. In the interests of a more robust debate, I want to offer my tips for atheists wanting to make a dent in the Faith. I've got some advice on arguments that should be dropped and some admissions about where Christians are vulnerable. Tip #1. Dip into Christianity's intellectual tradi tion This is the 1,984th Easter since 7 April AD 30, the widely accepted date among historians for the crucifixion of Jesus (the 1,981st if you find the arguments for 3 April AD 33 persuasive). Christians have b...