Is Atheism Dead?

[brewer]

No one has point this out, and so, I will; but, here are the credentials of the author, Eric Metaxas, "Is Atheism Dead?":

Metaxas was born in the New York City neighborhood of Astoria, Queens and grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University (1984, B.A., English).[2][3] While there, he edited the Yale Record, the nation's oldest college humor magazine. Metaxas lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.[4] He is Greek on his father's side and German on his mother's; he was raised in a Greek Orthodox environment.[5]

Wikipedia -- Eric Metaxas

As an aside, Dr. William Lane Craig was a communications major at Wheaton College.

What's your point? That both educated and un-undereducated christians think atheists are wrong means very little to me. Certainly not enough to run out and buy a book.

[Jehanne]

No one has point this out, and so, I will; but, here are the credentials of the author, Eric Metaxas, "Is Atheism Dead?":




Wikipedia -- Eric Metaxas

As an aside, Dr. William Lane Craig was a communications major at Wheaton College.

What's your point? That both educated and un-undereducated christians think atheists are wrong means very little to me. Certainly not enough to run out and buy a book.

My point is that if Metaxas, Craig, et al, would take some college classes in calculus, physics, biology, and other subject areas that they are pontificating on, then, maybe, perhaps, they would think differently!

[Mister Agenda]

In the 'for what it's worth' department, you wouldn't know atheism is dead from the continuing increase in the percentage of Americans who identify as atheists:

https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u...apid-pace/

And in case anyone would benefit from knowing this, the difference between a mere insult and an ad homimen is contained herein:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_hominem

[no one]

Yes, but it will resurrect in 3 days.

[Jehanne]

One item that I would like to bring to the attention of the OP is that the book Is Atheism Dead? is very highly rated, much higher than, say, The God Delusion.  On a handful of negative reviews are being made about the book.  Here's the reason:

Atheists are not reading it.

Unlike Professor Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, or Dr. Sam Harris' End of Faith, this book has generated almost no reaction from the atheist community or skeptics at large.  (I subscribe to the American Atheist news letter, and they have not, so far as I know, even commented on the book; I have not heard about it mentioned by anyone, except for here.)  Instead, the people who are reading it are believers, who, like the book's author, Eric Metaxas, subscribe to the principle of "faith seeking understanding".  It's a very old principle:

Fides quaerens intellectum

Eric Metaxas, like many conservative Christian and Islamic apologists, have a modus operandi of an "answer" that is in search of questions, which makes Mr. Metaxas, as with Dr. William Lane Craig, a scholastic:

Scholasticism

Mr. Metaxas has long ago signed his "decision card", and it does not matter at all to him what future scientific discoveries will be made or what progress will be made in understanding any subject whatsoever.  Fortunately, beginning with the Northern Italian Renaissance, and then, with the Enlightenment, scholarship has moved beyond "the scholastic method".

Mr. Metaxas' earnings, in my opinion, fall into the same arena as gambling; he's an entertainer as far as I am concerned.

[Deesse23]

I will just keep frying your ass, Helios. You just called me an idiot -therefore committing an ad hominem yourself. Now get ready to discover the horrible truth.

Nope, calling you an idiot is not an ad hominem, its an insult. An ad hominem would be "you are an idiot, and therefore your claim is wrong".

As you have demonstrated, you do have no clue what you are talking about, and therefore Helios is probably justified in calling you an "idiot". You should stop making his points.

[brewer]

Yes, but it will resurrect in 3 days.

I typically only need a couple of hours.

[no one]

Canines are better than humans in almost every single way.

[The Grand Nudger]

I think that the religious nuts have a more accurate explanation for the precipitous decline of their numbers than any notion that atheism is alive or on the rise. Dawkins et al aren't out there printing new atheists with their books. They alienated themselves from their children when they decided to go all in on the culture war with nosy perverts, white supremacists, and robber barons. At this rate, they're just limping along until the last one of them dies of old age.

The abrahamics have run their course - but there's no viable replacement this time like there was when our previous faith traditions imploded. You could even contend that they'd run their course two centuries ago, when even the believing world became deism-by-default. The next step on that trajectory is none-by-default. There's no movement, no building of inertia against them - it's a bunch of self inflicted wounds. It's always taken an immense effort to normalize and calcify the religious beliefs of a society, in present..but even more so over time - especially as you realize that the arc of belief for all of human history is change.

I think their best shot for a temporary reprieve was back in the 90's with the rise of the buddy christ ideology and an emphasis on youth services - but the aforementioned perverts tanked that right quick. The eventual consensus of religious belief (and there will be one) of gen z and millennials will reflect us, and there's little appetite in either demographic, even amongst the believers in that demographic, for the society or gods of our fathers. It's ironic, because it's never been truer that we live in a fallen world that needs a good steward. Never been truer that we inherit the deadly sins of our predecessors. Never been truer that we need a universal community of faith and commitment.

[Soberman921]

One item that I would like to bring to the attention of the OP is that the book Is Atheism Dead? is very highly rated, much higher than, say, The God Delusion.  On a handful of negative reviews are being made about the book. . . Unlike Professor Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, or Dr. Sam Harris' End of Faith, this book has generated almost no reaction from the atheist community or skeptics at large.  (I subscribe to the American Atheist news letter, and they have not, so far as I know, even commented on the book; I have not heard about it mentioned by anyone, except for here.)  Instead, the people who are reading it are believers, who, like the book's author, Eric Metaxas, subscribe to the principle of "faith seeking understanding". 

This is all true, but it smacks of smugness to let something like this go entirely unchallenged. I detect a general consensus here that the zeitgeist is with the nones so the best plan is to sit back and ignore books and arguments like this. But I think that can be dangerous. I've finished the book now and can see how it would resonate with even those on the fence about their beliefs. There are many grounds for objection. Metaxas misrepresents the science and state of archeology on many occasions. As usual in these types of books, he ignores the best arguments against his positions, favoring the erection of strawmen to create the illusion of easy victories. And his contempt for atheists, whose views he mischaracterizes repeatedly, drips from every page. He even includes a chapter, "Is Atheism Evil?" in which his answer is resoundingly clear. So it's disappointing that there has been a complete lack of response from the atheist community. I get the argument that responding to certain arguments can dignify them and lift them from obscurity. But that's not the case here. This book is not obscure. Within the genre of books of this type, it is a bestseller. And anyone reading it who might be open to persuasion will find nothing out there rebutting it -- only glowing reviews. What conclusions are they likely to draw?