Index	Question	Answer	References
WHY STUDY ATHEISM? A Colleague's Question Worth Considering
Hello Wayne: There was informal discussion around coffee last Sunday about why you - or others - are giving so much additional exposure to books like "The God Delusion" that are very one-sided, even if on best seller lists. I partly agreed with the observation and said that I will read one or two reviews of such books but will not waste my precious reading time with them when other more worthwhile books are clamouring for my attention. Matthew Zachariah Emeritus Professor Faculty of Education University of Calgary
MY RESPONSE: (from Wayne Holst's Colleagues List of 7 December 2007
Dear Matthew and Others Who May be Thinking Similarly: My first reaction, was very much as your's, when the current batch of "atheism books" started appearing two years ago. I read Sam Harris,for example, and he reminded me in many ways of my college years! In every philosophy class (especially as a second year arts/humanities student) there was that brassy, articulate self-styled atheist - and I guess that is where the derogatory term "sophmoric" comes from. My first reaction to Harris, and then Dawkins and Hitchens, was that they were adolescent self-promoters who get a charge out of taking potshots at "sacred cows." My more studied response, however, has been something different. These writers and others like them, are appearing at at time in our culture when "theism" (belief in a traditional view of the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition) is undergoing considerable scrutiny and challenge. Writers like John Spong, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have been signalling this trend for two or more decades. But it is only now - in the wake of crises like the tragic "clash of civilizations" war in Iraq, the priest-destroying child-abuse scandals, the struggles over gay rights, the debates over creationism/evolution, the apparent break-up of the Anglican communion, etc. - that the issue of spiritual authority has once again moved into the centre of public consciousness. Ultimately we are dealing with questions of authority. With "theism" - what kind of God can we believe in? What scriptures or church structures can adequately provide guidance from that God for those of us who still want to believe in divinity? In the past, this debate was largely confined to the academy. Today, however, it has hit mainstream cultures of the West with a vengeance. Traditional Christians usually take a very defensive stance to the often defiant expressions of atheism. People of an "emerging Christian way" will frequently side with atheists against some of the traditional ways of understanding God. This does not mean the latter are atheists. It means they are seeking ways to understand God that also face honestly the meaning of modernity. They want to respect the scientific method, the integration of science and faith; as well as inter-faith and multi-cultural realities. They want to affirm rather than condemn human, God-given sexualities. They want to be serious in their approach to the Bible without being literal about it. All of these issues, and many others too, boil down to the basic human need for a dependable religious authority. Many people believe that the religious authorities they trusted in the past (officials, scriptures, institutions) have lied to them and let them down. When modern atheists express their own disbelief in these authorities ("traditional theism" is a good shorthand term to describe what they hate) a lot of good folk are very willing to give them a hearing. Many books are sold. Much of what contemporary talk-show atheists are saying is actually not very intellectual. They resort to ad hominem putdowns rather than to logic. Christians have found substantial intellectual arguments to affirm their faith. I have come to know such people in most university classes I teach, even though many may not hold membership in an institutional church. To my mind, the biggest challenge "believers" of any stipe face when criticized for believing in God centres on the issue of "theodicy." Theodicy has always been a problem for people of faith because it connects to the storyas old as Job in the Hebrew Bible . It goes back thousands of years and can be summed up simply as "Why do bad things happen to good people?" If God is all-powerful and all-loving as many believe, why does God not control the ravages of cancer, of suicide-bombers, or death from HIV/AIDS, etc?" People of faith have worked hard to find meanings. I have discovered some fairly satisfying ones personally. But when the angry, in-your-face atheist points his finger at me and says "How can you believe in a good, and an almighty God when such evils exist in the world?" he still sets me back, and makes me wonder. All this is to say I believe we need to study the popular atheists today because they force us to think about things we have too-conveniently pushed to the fringes of our spiritual consciousness. These are the issues that will continue to challenge faith, if we are really honest about it. Sometimes it takes a writer we say we have no time for to force us to deal with issues that need our attention. Besides reading the atheists, as painful as that might sometimes be, I suggest we read other books. Consider "There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind," by Antony Flew (co-written with Roy Varghese. Harper One is the publisher.) For many years Flew, an English philosopher, was on the forefront of formulating arguments that effectively denied the need for God. Now, interestingly, in his senior years, he has changed his mind. It is important to learn why he did so. It is also important to read people like John Polkinghorne and Alister McGrath, both of whom were trained scientists of no small significance. They grew convinced that the existence of God and empirical discoveries can creatively co-exist. It is interesting that all the names noted above - Flew, Polkinghorne and McGrath - write from the UK. I suspect this reflects the fact that the debate is to a certain extent more advanced in the UK than it is in North America. We need more articulate advocates for God who have won acclaim in the world of science, but who have subsequently come to faith as well. The matter about which I speak is much larger than that of a sophmoric bull-session in a campus residence. It is an issue that is profoundly permeating our culture today. We can become defensive about it (fearing that God is being threatened, and we have to defend God.) Or we can learn from those who have seen these developments coming for decades and now help us by providing new philosophical, theological and spiritual tools to help us deal maturely with what is taking place in our culture today. Wayne Holst and from Wayne Holst's Colleague's List of 24 November 2007: When Sam Harris published his first of two recent books on atheism, I read it carefully, but put it aside. I told myself I had heard variations on this theme many times before and found much of what he wrote sophmoric; - well-stated, perhaps, but old hat. Apparently many people did not agree. Not only Harris, but others like Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion") and Christopher Hitchens ("God is Not Great") have together sold more than a million hardcopies of their rants against traditional theism in the last couple of years. Current atheism and traditional theism - it is hard not to explode in frustration with something like "a pox on both your houses!" This winter, I am going to direct my exasperation to constructive causes. I am planning to teach courses at the university and the church on contemporary atheism as expressed in Harris, Hitchens and Dawkins. To help balance these ideas (which I have come to view as quaint though interesting) I am going to use a new book by former atheistic philosopher, Antony Flew ("There is a God") - a book the New York Times panned by saying Flew was probably in a senile state while co-authoring it. That, of course, remains to be seen. I will also draw upon the work of former physicist, and now theologian Alister McGrath of Oxford, and his wife Joanna Collicutt McGrath. Their new book is entitled: "The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamaentalism and the Denial of the Divine" You will be hearing more about all five of these titles during the next months. In the meantime, I am noting the esentials below, and suggest you might wish to read several of these volumes yourself!
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