Combating the New Atheism

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(Never Posted Before, but I assume this is the best place for this thread)

I think that the new atheism/secularization is the largest threat to Catholicism and the world at large. I was a very strong atheist for nearly a year (despite being born & raised Catholic), and I just recently had a very strong return to Catholicism:D. Although I am just 16, I think that my experience of atheism has left me better prepared to combat it. Here are some of my general ideas on what needs to be done (some are for the entire church in general, some are for individual use):
  1. Crack down on liberal Catholicism
    While it’s wonderful to have a church of a billion people, no one is helping if they don’t understand and follow church teaching. For example, I recently read a statistic on CNN that nearly 90 percent of Catholics actively use birth control, and there is also the entire “Catholics for Choice” movement :(. If we don’t get the general Catholic population on board with our beliefs, then our position in the public square is very likely to decay.
  2. Use Logic
    The phrase “There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of God” is one that is used by Atheism’s big three. (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris). If we want to fight their movement, then we can’t simply say “well, you just gotta believe I guess”. To get atheists back to the church, especially scientists and college students, we are going to have to emphasize that the existence of God not only makes sense, but is logically necessary. Lighthouse Catholic Media has some great CDs on this subject.
  3. Don’t play God of the Gaps (especially with evolution)
    The intelligent design movement has absolutely demolished the credibility of most religions (including a large chunk of Christianity). I recently listened to a cd with a bonus feature entitled “destroying the Darwinian myth”. In it, there was a Catholic speaker that tried his hardest to distinguish “darwinism” from evolution, saying that to not think that evolution was specially guided by God’s invisible hand is heresy, and was mostly an anti-Darwin smear campaign. The problem I had with it is this: Unless I am horribly mistaken, I remember the Church having but one teaching on evolution, the special creation of the human soul, leaving everything else up to science to discover. This being said, so called “Atheistic Evolution” or “Evolutionism” should really be no more heretical or anti-Catholic than “Atheistic lightning”. Sure, it’s entirely possible that God throws down lightning bolts, but there is no reason to believe that he does, and there are natural explanations that don’t conflict with the Faith, just like Evolution. While this may seem trivial considering that this physical world is insignificant compared to our final goal of eternity in heaven, I can assure you that without acknowledging that evolution does not conflict with Catholic teaching, we will continue to lose battles, especially in the scientific community.
  4. Clear up Misconceptions about misunderstood Church teachings
    This may be the biggest problem that we as Catholics run into. The two most misunderstood teachings that atheists (including myself before I came back) struggle with are teaching on homosexuality and hell. First of all, we need to make sure people understand that the Church does not say that all homosexuals are going to hell. In fact, we must make it clear that the attractions are not sinful at all, only acting upon them. (also, perhaps more importantly, make sure that they know that no one in the church hates gays. That’s another common criticism). Secondly, make sure people understand that God does not “send” people to hell, we choose hell ourselves when we die in a state of mortal sin.
  5. Pray!
    Anything that we can do to convince people to join the Church, God can do better. Pray for him to help them!
Please share any other suggestions, or any disagreements! (I love a good discussion)
Also, share any ideas on how to implement these tactics, or if you do it yourself, say how it’s going.
 
honestly i’m not too worried, muslim rampages and the protestant reformation didn’t destroy the church, neither the our own inside scandals. atheism doesn’t stand a chance either.

i do agree with your points though. though the biggest problem i find is they simply just odn’t even want to listen to you. it is true that it is a new phenomenon; whereas before we dealt with pagans, jews and muslims and protestants, at least they believed in god to begin with. atheism is definitely more difficult in that regard. but with the grace of god, anything can happen
 
Deciding to become Catholic and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior are two different things.

The first is a personal choice, the second is the result of the Holy Spirit calling you.

Faith is God’s revelation of himself, however that may happen. Our response to faith is expressed in religion.

This being all said, you can not make an atheist have faith.

You can’t make them believe. You can present logic on why it’s prudent to believe, but even Einstein, a staunch atheist most of his life, finally came to a logical conclusion that it was better to believe and be wrong, than the reject God and be wrong.

This isn’t faith, it’s merely belief.

Faith involves a relationship with Jesus Christ and it is through the evidence of Christ in your life, that will draw others to Him.

Our call is to help souls come to Christ, not religion, which will come after they receive faith.

If they join a religion, even the Catholic Church, without faith, they will do more harm to the Church than if they remained atheists.

Jim
 
You make some good posts. it is important to know how to talk to them. I find that pointing to holes in their world view is a good way to do it. Asking hard questions and letting them fumble while they can’t explain morality as something that is universally valid without an external source, or proving the existence of beauty and love with science has been my approach. I think that we should never forget that such discussions will not necessarily result in conversions, but they might get people to think about the big questions in a new way. Prayer, of course, is crucial.
 
I think the greater struggle in life is to change ourselves first, faith in God is striving to do something, how can we spread God’s love and kindness in this world. Actions are noticed more than words, preach the Gospel, use words only if necessary.

Blessings

Eric
 
angell1 said:
honestly i’m not too worried, muslim rampages and the protestant reformation didn’t destroy the church, neither the our own inside scandals. atheism doesn’t stand a chance either.

i do agree with your points though. though the biggest problem i find is they simply just odn’t even want to listen to you. it is true that it is a new phenomenon; whereas before we dealt with pagans, jews and muslims and protestants, at least they believed in god to begin with. atheism is definitely more difficult in that regard. but with the grace of god, anything can happen
Click to expand...
Ancient Egyptian religion lasted for 3,000 years, so that’s not a valid argument.
 
I think we’re mainly to be seed-planters for God, and then let Him do the watering. IMO a lot of that can be done by our actions, like others here have said. I know we’re in the information age, and debating seems to be the thing to do on the 'net, but wouldn’t combating atheism and evangelizing be more effective if we’re living our Faith? It’s nice to know the teachings and all the technical stuff to say on the spot, but the proof is in the pudding. Those who’ve inspired me, Catholic or not, have been the ones who have the big three: faith, hope, and love…and are happy about it despite whatever hardships they are facing. I guess what it boils down to is that we need to show them what they are missing.

This is coming from someone who has tried debating and showing where evangelical atheists’ views are lacking, and failed miserably. Seed planting is about all I’m good for, with God’s help. (OK, He’s doing it all. I’m good at messing up. LOL)
 
Robin_des_Bois said:
Ancient Egyptian religion lasted for 3,000 years, so that’s not a valid argument.
Click to expand...
But the ancient Egyptian religion wasn’t true 😃

Jesus promised us that hell would not prevail. I believe him, even when things seem desperate. But given your religion status perhaps this doesn’t mean much.
 
I find that only circumstances will change an atheist. No amount of logic even seems to make headway. In fact they only become further entrenched in their view that Christians are merely religious fanatics. The best one can do is just to model the love of God and be there for them when they do have a life changing circumstance that makes them open to God.
 
I’d go with number 5 and let the Spirit take care of the other 4. If you are called to be a teacher those moments will present themselves. Just living a Christian life in this world will bring opportunities for witnessing.

An Elder of the Church once said that: “Saints are the best answer to Atheism.”
 
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