Over the past several years, there's been a resurgence of aggressive atheistic thought. This isn't the open-minded uncertainty of agnosticism, or even the resigned but gentle atheism of someone who's found that they simply can't find it in themselves to make the leap of faith.
This is an atheist fundamentalism, an "unbelief" that argues every believer is one step away from flying planes into buildings, and that attacks faith itself as an inherently dangerous thing. Authors like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris have pushed books to the top of the bestseller lists. This has caused the usual panicked herd response among many Christians, particularly evangelicals, fundamentalists, and FoxFaith churches. Unfortunately, those strains of the Christian tradition are poorly equipped to do much in response other than to circle their wagons, plug their ears and scream the theological equivalent of LALALALALALA at the top of their lungs, hoping that their heartfelt but brittle faith doesn't lose too many adherents.
Recognizing that most of my fellow Presbyterians are too busy sitting in committee meetings to actually speak up on the issue, I figured that I may as well get out there and get in a few licks for the oldline. This little page is a clearinghouse for my various online sorties against the new breed of atheism. Feel free to peruse and enjoy!
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Here are a series of posts on my primary blog that systematically deconstruct Letter to a Christian Nation, an amazingly short epistle from bestselling atheist Sam Harris:
Not At This Address
Of Course, You Realize That This Means War
The Hobgoblin of Little Minds
Nose Pickin' Baby Killers
With Friends Like These...
The Long Arm of the Law, Part 1
The Long Arm of the Law, Part 2
Fun with Dick and Jain
The Product of Failure
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Here's a post that lays out the basic challenge for atheistic thought: it has no basis for distinguishing between good and evil. Think it does? Take a look:
A Little Moral Algebra
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One of the silliest and most entertaining things to come out of contemporary atheism is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or FSM. It's followers, the Pastafarians, are generally entertaining folks...even if they do have to inhale a tremendous amount of rotini smoke to get to the I-In-I. I like 'em. I can't help it. But for some reason, the more strident amongst the atheistas seem to think that the FSM is a real argument against faith. I respond here:
A Nice Red Wine Goes Well With Spaghetti Monster
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I've had more than a few run-ins with the atheistic "Rational Response Squad," who seem to understand rational discourse as getting together in a small mob, giving one another impressive ego-inflating titles, and then collectively screaming insults at people. They're responsible for banning one of my videos from YouTube, a parody that can be found here:
The Blasphemy Challenge, Part 2
So I challenged them to a debate...Ninja style!
But they wussed out.
So I debated them anyway, through the miracle of cut-and-paste audio editing.
Then it occurred to me...I'm approaching this all wrong. So I did this:
The Forgiveness Challenge
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Some of the more philosophically inclined atheistas have glommed on to one of Plato's Socratic dialogs in the mistaken belief that it's a tool to deconstruct theism. One wonders where they went to school...
The Euthyphro Dilemma Part 1
The Euthyphro Dilemma Part 2
