Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book AwardsNew Atheists Are Not Great
Dinesh D'Souza is skeptical of skepticism and enthusiastic about the faith. by Tony Snow » There are two types of Christian apologetics. One makes the positive case for faith; the other responds to critics. Dinesh D'Souza's delightful book, What's So Great About Christianity, falls into the second category. It sets out to rebut recent exuberant atheist tracts, such as Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great and Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion.
This is a more difficult task than one might expect: Atheist works tend to combine argument with large doses of bitter biography. Every chapter of Dawkins's book, for instance, describes unpleasant encounters with believing dolts—hate-mail writers, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the like. Hitchens recalls murderous fanatics in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and the Levant, and his blood-chilling encounters with a childhood schoolmarm.
While the chief atheists write beautifully, their works share a telling defect. They seethe with disapproval of God. Dawkins captures this trend in describing the YHWH of the Old Testament as "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Such invective clings like chewing gum to atheist polemics and raises the question of why these people are so worked up about a creator they don't believe exists. In any event, D'Souza admirably separates the stickum from the arguments.
Consider Hitchens's complaint that "religion poisons everything." This wild swing places bin Laden, the pope, and Martin ...
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BRS
Christianity was not about war and not about materialism. It was not about empire and eternal war for mankinds salvation. Whatever it is that Snow is trying to say is lost by the actions of the administration he shilled for.
Dan P
I find this to be an incredibly frustrating read. Questions like: "can science explain love?", "why can't logic explain why we are here?" are incredibly pointless. There are things we don't know, and there are things we may never even be able to perceive. Does that mean that the religious answer is at all viable? When it comes down to it, you have to ask yourself: does this make sense? Religion can give you the answer to why we are here. We were created by an all powerful being, we have a personal relationship with him, the universe was created with us in mind. Does this make any sense? Is there any REASON for believing? I was afraid at the lack of meaning of life when I accepted that there was no god, but I soon became incredibly optimistic, because my life is my own. That is in no way selfish, it is the truth. Accept responsibility for your own existence, and be a moral and good person because that's who you are, not because you're afraid of a fairy tale.
chris
i recently read this and was astonished at the outright dishonesty.... putting a positive spin on christian atrocities does not excuse them. unfortunately christian apologetics seldom rises above this level. the claim that the horrors of the 20th century were due to atheism is a common ploy, but communism and and its attendant personality cults can hardly be called atheistic. as a recent atheist "convert" i found absolutely nothing in this book that would steer me back towards faith. i admit that i was half hoping i would find something in it that would, but was left disappointed.