Euangelion
Graham Veale
New Atheism: A Survival Guide
Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2013.
Available at Amazon.com
This is a good little book on the New Atheists written by an Irish Presbyterian high school teacher. Veale also has a website called saintsandsceptics.org with various apologetics resources including articles and videos.
Veale notes how atheism has been spurned on with new energy by views of religion post-9/11 and by the array of atheists blogs that are around (interesting also he calls blogs “intellectual junk food” which I thought was funny). He seeks to expose in this book that much of what they say is based on caricature rather than reasoned evidence. The New Atheists are very good at spin, media savvy, and full of ad hominem rhetoric, but in fact muster very poor arguments.
Any ways, Veale engages the “dogmatic scientism” of the New Atheists with their caricatures of religion and theology. He covers topics like the Flying Spaghetti Monster, God the Gaps reductionism, intelligent design, miracles, and morality. There is a summary of atheist advocates from books and blogs, he mentions movies, literature, and history along the way too.
In his mind, Christianity passes the “outsider test” in that it can provide evidence for world around us including design, morality, and the resurrection of Jesus. It also passes the “insider test” since Christian theism coheres with spiritual experiences and religious desires.
I won’t say its the best book on the New Atheists I’ve read (see one’s by David Bently Hart and Alister McGrath), but if you are into apologetics, it is definitely one worth knowing about.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In