Rise & Fall of the New Atheism?

 

Are all Christians intellectually deficient? 

In his highly-touted book, The End of Faith, Sam Harris (neuroscientist, atheist, author) caustically writes: “Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anybody else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book that he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity that will punish him by fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe and he seems to require no evidence whatsoever.”

Require no evidence? Really?! Harris has evidently never read any of the hundreds of thoughtful evidence-filled texts in AIIA’s Study Center library, or met any of the thousands of sharp, intellectually-discerning, devout Christians who’ve lived on this planet down through time. For instance, can he really be serious in saying what he says when it comes to the likes of C.S. Lewis, Blaise Pascal, and Jonathan Edwards (to name just a few)?

But perhaps Harris does inadvertently make one disturbing point — there may be too few Christians today who actually do engage their minds, demand credible evidence for faith, and are able to competently defend their faith. 

That is precisely why AIIA exists — to promote thoughtful evidence-based belief through effective Christian apologetics. And what we and many others are doing seems to be working. Read on.

Ten years ago we were hearing a lot about an aggressive affront on Christianity known as the New Atheism. Leading proponents included the so-called Four Horseman (Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet). But today that initiative seems to be fading. Hitchens died in 2011 and the arguments of others have grown old and stale after being challenged by skilled learned apologists. In response to Dawkin’s The God Delusion, Alistair McGrath wrote The Dawkins Delusion. In response to Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, Timothy Paul Jones wrote Misquoting Truth. In response to Sam Harris’ noted work, The End of Faith, Ravi Zacharias published The End of Reason. And so on. 

Make no mistake — opposition to Christian truth has not gone away — and never will in this age. It will always inevitably rise in some alternate form. Today one rising form seems to be paganism and witchcraft. But it currently appears that the New Atheism is reeling — on the ropes — due to some serious blows being landed by faithful knowledgable defenders of Christian truth.

Psalm 14:1 says that it is fools who say in their heart, “There is no God.” 

Individual atheists and skeptics come and go over the years. But the truth goes marching on.

Posted in Blog