Philosopher Joe Bissonnette argues against the existence of atheists: Fr. Robert Barron addresses the common misconceptions about the nature of God that lead so many who worship at the altar of science to deny God exists. According to Fr. Barron, the atheist critique hinges on their mistaken understanding of God as “the supreme instance of the … Read more
In the spirit of previous musings on this blog about the nature of “goodness,” here’s a video that asks if there could be such things as “good” and “bad” if there were no God: (Also note that all arguments sound more convincing when made by a person with a British accent.)
I’ve always said that atheism would be a whole lot more popular in America if atheists weren’t such complete jackasses about it. And here’s Bill Walton proving my point, as he very publicly hassles his broadcast partner, who is apparently a Darwin skeptic, about the theory of evolution: “I believe in science,” Walton says, managing … Read more
Justin Taylor points to an article about professional atheist and charter member of the “People You Least Want to Go On a Cross-Country Car Ride With” Hall of Fame, Richard Dawkins: Dawkins has been arrogant for years, a man so convinced of his intellectual superiority that he believes the one domain in which he happens … Read more
From Fox News: In what some might see as an oxymoron, an advocacy group apparently is preparing to ask the Defense Department to appoint a chaplain — for atheists. A source tells Fox News that the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers plans to make the request on Tuesday, floating its president Jason Torpy … Read more
Larry Taunton (“I thought they smelled bad on the outside!”) did a survey of atheists to discover how the arrived at their unbelief: A central theme of the piece was the repeated finding that a Christianity that is disingenuous, lukewarm, and superficial is a woefully ineffective Christianity. Watering down the Bible is a turnoff. Vague messages … Read more
The scene: Adam Gopnik writes an article for The New Yorker condescendingly describing the decline of religion in the West. (I’m not including a quote, because it’s nothing you haven’t heard a thousand times before. The only difference is that it’s in The New Yorker and therefore longer than most such articles and in close … Read more
Damon Linker looks at some human experiences that atheism can’t explain: …when it comes to certain issues, the quality of the arguments doesn’t much matter. The fact is that there are specific human experiences that atheism in any form simply cannot explain or account for. One of those experiences is radical sacrifice — and the … Read more
The re-boot of the series Cosmos (along with the recent slap fight between Bill Nye and Ken Ham) has brought science vs. religion jousting back to the front pages. And the story is exactly the same as it was the last time, and the time before that, and so on, back into infinity (or back … Read more
Natasha Crain responds to comments from a reader who grew up Christian but later became an atheist. In doing so, she offers some good advice to Christian parents whose kids are going to grow up in a world that’s ever more hostile to their faith: Atheist Reader: We no longer live in closed monotheistic Christian … Read more
What’s the relationship between atheism and wealth? Do societies become wealthy because they reject religion? Or do they reject religion because they think they can afford to? …namely, there’s good evidence that atheism and secularism are much more costly, in terms of sheer energy expenditure, than religious ways of organizing society. As I said, this may … Read more
Often times when atheists (or just garden-variety non-believers) reject Christianity, it’s not really Christianity they’re rejecting, but some made-up caricature of Christianity. Misinformation, bad experiences, and the relentless bombardment of negative portrayals in the media (Hi, Phil Robertson!) combine to lead people to believe that Christianity is, at best, the belief system of the dad … Read more
Hey, you know how one of the arguments of atheists, when you say that goodness and morality come from God, is that people can be good people without being religious? Well, this: “I am very conscious that you can’t condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours. Just as we don’t look … Read more
Andrew Klavan and Bill Whittle discuss whether or not a conservative can be an atheist. The answer is a pointed, “Yes, but…” An entirely different, but equally interesting, question would be, “Can an atheist be a conservative?”
David Berlinski–philosopher, mathematician, and atheist–says that, despite the proclamations of many atheists, atheism isn’t necessarily so scientific: (Via Justin Taylor)
From the Catholic Herald UK: I started by reading Pope Benedict’s Regensburg address, aware that it had generated controversy at the time and was some sort of attempt –futile, of course – to reconcile faith and reason. I also read the shortest book of his I could find, On Conscience. I expected – and wanted … Read more
Which group is more vicious toward people who dissent from group orthodoxy: religious believers or scientific secularists? I know where I’d put my money. The Weekly Standard has a profile of one such dissenter: atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel. Though he doesn’t believe in God, he also has the temerity to say that Darwinism isn’t all … Read more
Penn Jillette, magician and avowed atheist, actually does seem to understand what the papacy means more than most commentators I’ve seen on TV. “Well, I think I may be somebody who believes in the Pope’s position more than most Catholics. I really take people at their word. And it seems like all of the cynicism … Read more
What if the godless universe that they pine for turns out to be a bad thing? It’s one thing to catalogue the manifest faults within this or that religious tradition, which the new atheists have ably done… over and over and over again. It’s quite another to claim, as these authors also invariably do, that … Read more
Jean Kaufman at PJ Media looks at the question from a political angle, but it’s something I’ve always been very curious about for other reasons: In the case of deeply held beliefs, what is it that makes some people change their minds? It usually begins with something external, some new information encountered seemingly by accident, … Read more