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irishpatrick
Guest
New atheists shown as sellers of ‘Cerebral Snake Oil’
Some are daunted by the spate of so-called “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation) and Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great).
Many people are upset by this wave of “anti-God” writing and it disturbs them. Practicing Catholics know from the teachings of our Holy Mother the Church that the infused theological virtue of faith is a gift of God, which we receive at baptism.
Without that gift, deep and satisfying faith in God is not possible. That is why practicing Catholics are always taught that through life they should say the Apostles’ Creed (which we say at the beginning of the Rosary), the Nicene Creed (which we say at Mass on Sundays and solemnities) and the Act of Faith each day, asking God to deepen and strengthen the faith He has given us, since without His help, the only thing we can do with our faith is weaken it or lose it.
That being said, many of the new atheists trot out their supposed “proofs” against the existence of God and then challenge believers, especially Christians, to offer their own matching proofs which, of course, we have no intention of doing.
There is an interesting book that I ran on to a few weeks ago that is a delight for people who want to make some answer to those who profess hatred of God (which in my own view is really hatred of their own fathers). The title of it is The Irrational Atheist, published by BenBella Books, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, this year. The book’s author goes under the pseudonym of Vox Day (which I think might be a play on words).
I hesitate to recommend the book, because it is an expensive one, $24.95, but I recommend it to you because its author’s purpose is, as he says in the preface to his book, “… not to defend God, or even to argue for the truth of my particular religious faith. Instead, I intend to defend those who are now being misled into doubting their faith or are fooled into feeling more secure in their lack of faith on the basis of the fraudulent, error-filled writings of these three men. There is simply no more fitting description of the cerebral snake oil that Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens are selling to the unwary reader — and the media — under the false label of science and reason. I am confident that no one, not even the most purely rational, überskeptical agnostic or card-carrying ACLU atheist, will take serious exception to my charge by the time they finish this book.”
This is the claim of the author at the beginning of his book. If you will take my word for it, he fulfills those promises. He exposes the arguments of that unholy trinity of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens by examining the evidence they offer for the non-existence of God such as it is and showing it to be sheer and utter nonsense, and in doing so, he gives chapter and verse for sources where he obtained the information he uses to refute and rebut what they regard as incontrovertible arguments against the existence of our God and Father.
I must confess that some of his arguments, particularly some that are mathematical in nature, are difficult to follow, but nonetheless the author is convincing when he takes the assertions of these atheists so lionized in the secular captive media, and shows the three of them to be mountebanks or charlatans or, in simple terms, liars, for the misuse or misinterpretation of what they cite as fact, and the author is not devoid of a sense of humor.
For those who are proof against this sort of thing and whose faith is intact over time, such arguments and such books do not mean much, but for those who are upset by these writers or are interested in examining the truth of their assertions, it is well worth reading.
observer.rockforddiocese.org/Columnists/BishopThomasGDoran/BishopDoran2009columns/February62009/tabid/1809/Default.aspx
Some are daunted by the spate of so-called “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation) and Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great).
Many people are upset by this wave of “anti-God” writing and it disturbs them. Practicing Catholics know from the teachings of our Holy Mother the Church that the infused theological virtue of faith is a gift of God, which we receive at baptism.
Without that gift, deep and satisfying faith in God is not possible. That is why practicing Catholics are always taught that through life they should say the Apostles’ Creed (which we say at the beginning of the Rosary), the Nicene Creed (which we say at Mass on Sundays and solemnities) and the Act of Faith each day, asking God to deepen and strengthen the faith He has given us, since without His help, the only thing we can do with our faith is weaken it or lose it.
That being said, many of the new atheists trot out their supposed “proofs” against the existence of God and then challenge believers, especially Christians, to offer their own matching proofs which, of course, we have no intention of doing.
There is an interesting book that I ran on to a few weeks ago that is a delight for people who want to make some answer to those who profess hatred of God (which in my own view is really hatred of their own fathers). The title of it is The Irrational Atheist, published by BenBella Books, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, this year. The book’s author goes under the pseudonym of Vox Day (which I think might be a play on words).
I hesitate to recommend the book, because it is an expensive one, $24.95, but I recommend it to you because its author’s purpose is, as he says in the preface to his book, “… not to defend God, or even to argue for the truth of my particular religious faith. Instead, I intend to defend those who are now being misled into doubting their faith or are fooled into feeling more secure in their lack of faith on the basis of the fraudulent, error-filled writings of these three men. There is simply no more fitting description of the cerebral snake oil that Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens are selling to the unwary reader — and the media — under the false label of science and reason. I am confident that no one, not even the most purely rational, überskeptical agnostic or card-carrying ACLU atheist, will take serious exception to my charge by the time they finish this book.”
This is the claim of the author at the beginning of his book. If you will take my word for it, he fulfills those promises. He exposes the arguments of that unholy trinity of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens by examining the evidence they offer for the non-existence of God such as it is and showing it to be sheer and utter nonsense, and in doing so, he gives chapter and verse for sources where he obtained the information he uses to refute and rebut what they regard as incontrovertible arguments against the existence of our God and Father.
I must confess that some of his arguments, particularly some that are mathematical in nature, are difficult to follow, but nonetheless the author is convincing when he takes the assertions of these atheists so lionized in the secular captive media, and shows the three of them to be mountebanks or charlatans or, in simple terms, liars, for the misuse or misinterpretation of what they cite as fact, and the author is not devoid of a sense of humor.
For those who are proof against this sort of thing and whose faith is intact over time, such arguments and such books do not mean much, but for those who are upset by these writers or are interested in examining the truth of their assertions, it is well worth reading.
observer.rockforddiocese.org/Columnists/BishopThomasGDoran/BishopDoran2009columns/February62009/tabid/1809/Default.aspx
Anyhow, I’m really looking forward to reading the book - I love the reviews!