Atheism in England

Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports on Archbishop Rowan Williams’ plea to take it more directly to the new atheists:

Clergy are to be urged to be more vocal in countering the arguments put forward by a more hard-line group of atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who have campaigned for a less tolerant attitude towards religion.

A report endorsed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warns that the Church faces a battle to prevent faith being seen as “a social problem” and says the next five years are set to be a period of “exceptional challenge”.

It expresses concern that Christians are facing hostility at work and says the Church could lose its place at the centre of public life unless it challenges attempts to marginalise religious belief.

The rallying call comes amid fears that Christians are suffering from an increasing level of discrimination following a series of cases in which they have been punished for sharing their beliefs.

An example of which is the following, taken from Jerry Coyne’s blog. Jerry Coyne, a strong atheist, on James Wood’s critique of atheism:

“James Wood is a professor of English at Harvard who writes on literature for the New Yorker. I very much like his literary criticism, but for some reason he’s obsessed with attacking New Atheism (see here and here,with his response to my criticisms here).  His usual plaint is that the New Atheists provide only a cartoon characterization of faith, seeing it as a form of either Christian or Islamic fundamentalism, and ignore the nuances of other beliefs. (“Nuances” is another word that, when you see it, you should run, for faitheism or apologetics are in the offing.)  Although I’m not equipped to psychoanalyze Wood, I do note that while he admits he’s now an atheist, he grew up as a Biblical literalist.  I’ve often found that if you scratch an atheist who argues for the virtues of faith, you find someone who used to hold a faith.”