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<\/a><\/p>\nIs religion, so beat up by secularism in recent years, on the verge of a comeback?<\/p>\n
Ross Douthat, writing in the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, no less, thinks it may be. In his op-ed entitled Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback?<\/a>\u00a0(behind a paywall, but the syndication is available here<\/a>), Douthat cites\u00a0three new books that he thinks may be game-changers in the debates about religion.<\/p>\n He begins by pointing out that the New Atheist<\/a> phenomenon, which was so popular on best-seller lists and online a decade or two ago, was a product of its time.\u00a0 Fear of religious fundamentalism after 9\/11, the Catholic sexual abuse scandals, and the iconoclastic spirit of the internet all contributed to a widespread reaction against religious belief.<\/p>\n But all of that feels anachronistic today. Scientific rationalism has not solved our problems. Humanism has not made us more humane.\u00a0 Instead, says Douthat, we have \u201cexistential anxiety and civilizational ennui.\u201d\u00a0 People are plagued by mental problems, lack of community, an absence of meaning in their lives.\u00a0 And researchers have connected that malaise to a lack of religion.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the \u201cNones\u201d are turning not to the chilly certainties of reason alone, as the New Atheists hoped, but to psychics, psychedelic drugs, astrology, UFOs, and other New Age spiritualities that by any measure are far less rational than Christianity.<\/p>\n Today a number of former secularists have converted to Christianity.\u00a0 Even some of the New Atheists have changed their tune.\u00a0 Richard Dawkins still doesn\u2019t believe the doctrines, but he now considers himself a \u201ccultural Christian<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 And Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whom Dawkins once hailed as the \u201chorsewoman<\/a>\u201d of the New Atheism has gone all the way and now embraces Christianity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Douthat says the world seems \u201cprimed for religious arguments,\u201d not just that religion is culturally valuable but that it is true.\u00a0 He himself , a Catholic convert, says that he has a book on that subject coming out next year.\u00a0 But he focuses on three other recently published books that he thinks could be game changers, \u201ccovering the philosophical, the scientific and the experiential cases for a religious perspective on the world.\u201d\u00a0 Let\u2019s call them New Theists.\u00a0 (Douthat doesn\u2019t use the term, but we might as well.\u00a0 Though it\u2019s been used before<\/a>.)<\/p>\n For the philosophical, he refers to the American Orthodox thinker David Bentley Hart<\/a>\u2018s new book All Things Are Full of Gods:\u00a0 The Mystery of Mind and Life<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a series of Platonic dialogues between ancient Greek deities who meet to discuss the mysteries of consciousness, existence, and mind.\u00a0 In doing so, in the words of the editorial description <\/a>at Amazon,<\/p>\n He systematically subjects the mechanical view of nature that has prevailed in Western culture for four centuries to dialectical interrogation. He argues through the gods\u2019 exchanges that the foundation of all reality is spiritual or mental rather than material. The structures of mind, organic life, and even language attest to an infinite act of intelligence in all things that we may as well call God.<\/p>\n Engaging contemporary debates on the philosophy of mind, free will, revolutions in physics and biology, the history of science, computational models of mind, artificial intelligence, information theory, linguistics, cultural disenchantment, and the metaphysics of nature, Hart calls listeners back to an enchanted world in which nature is the residence of mysterious and vital intelligences. He suggests that there is a very special wisdom to be gained when we, in Psyche\u2019s words, \u201cdevote more time to the contemplation of living things and less to the fabrication of machines.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Douthat comments that the dialogue form allows Hart to let opposing views make their strongest case, and yet his notion that mind\u2013and thus spirit, and thus God\u2013underlies physical existence is very persuasive.<\/p>\n Addressing the scientific is Spencer Klavan\u2019s Light of the Mind, Light of the World:\u00a0 Illuminating Science Through Faith<\/a>.\u00a0 Klavan does something in this book that is long overdue; namely, thinking through the implications of quantum physics for our view of reality.<\/p>\n The post-Enlightenment view of science, premised on rationalistic materialism, assumes that nature consists solely of physical elements interacting with each other in accord with natural laws discernible by reason.\u00a0 But this materialistic order has been disrupted by quantum physics, which shows scientifically<\/em>, that underlying nature and its laws are mind-boggling quantum phenomena that defy the simplistic reductionism of human reason.\u00a0 From Amazon\u2019s editorial review<\/a>:<\/p>\n Surveying\u00a0the\u00a0history\u00a0of\u00a0science and faith from\u00a0the\u00a0astronomers\u00a0of\u00a0Babylon to\u00a0the\u00a0quantum physicists\u00a0of\u00a0postwar Europe and America, classicist and scholar Spencer A. Klavan argues that science itself is leading us not away from God but back to him, and to\u00a0the\u00a0ancient faith that places\u00a0the\u00a0human soul at\u00a0the\u00a0center\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0universe. Reconciling\u00a0the\u00a0discoveries\u00a0of\u00a0science with\u00a0the\u00a0truths\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Bible, Klavan shows how\u00a0the\u00a0search for knowledge\u00a0of\u00a0the natural world can help illuminate\u00a0the\u00a0glories\u00a0of\u00a0its Creator, and how\u00a0the\u00a0latest developments in physics can help shatter\u00a0the illusion\u00a0of\u00a0materialism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Douthat is taken especially by Klavan\u2019s point that, according to the findings of quantum physics, \u201cprobabilities only collapse into reality itself when a conscious mind is there is to measure and observe.\u201d\u00a0 Therefore, says Douthat, we must \u201caccept that there is only one reality and that it\u2019s \u2018created when consciousness gives shape to time and space\u2019 \u2014 created in some sense every time we look upon it, and created fundamentally by the Power that said let there be light in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, if there is any kind of objective reality, there must be an Observer.\u00a0 Not only to create reality at the very beginning, as the Deists thought, but also to keep it in existence at every moment, the richer teaching of Christianity.<\/p>\n I first heard this articulated by a reader and sometimes commenter on my blog, my cousin by marriage, the pioneering engineer Bob Foote:\u00a0 That quantum physics requires a transcendent Observer, whom we know as God.<\/p>\n Addressing the experiential is Rod Dreher\u2019s Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age<\/a>.\u00a0 His point is that the supernatural breaks in upon us all the time!\u00a0 From Amazon\u2019s editorial review<\/a>:<\/p>\n In his trademark mixture of analysis, reporting, and personal story, Dreher brings together history, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, and the ancient Church to show you\u2013no matter your religious affiliation\u2013how to reconnect with the natural world and the Great Tradition of Christianity so you can relate to the world with more depth and connection.<\/p>\n He shares stories of miracles, rumors of angels, and outbreaks of awe to offer hope, as well as a guide for discerning and defending the truth in a confusing and spiritually dark culture, full of contemporary spiritual deceptions and tempting counterfeit spiritualities.<\/p>\n The world is not what we think it is. It is far more mysterious, exciting, connected, and adventurous. As you learn practical ways to regain a sense of wonder and awaken your sense of God\u2019s presence\u2013through prayer, attention, and living by spiritual disciplines\u2013your eyes will be opened, and you will find the very thing every one of us searches for: our ultimate meaning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I would add to Douthat\u2019s list of books Dominion:\u00a0 How the Christian Revolution Remade the World<\/a> by historian Tom Holland, who shows that the beneficent values people prize today\u2013mercy, equality, kindness, peace, the value of each person, rights, freedom, etc.\u2013cannot be found in Greco-Roman paganism and emerged from Christianity and nowhere else.\u00a0 \u00a0This one adds to \u201cthe philosophical, the scientific and the experiential cases,\u201d the historical<\/em> case.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve blogged about Dominion already, so go to that post<\/a>.\u00a0 The main argument of the New Atheists was that Christianity is bad<\/em>, that it has had a baleful, repressive influence on Western culture.\u00a0 Holland\u2019s book utterly refutes that claim and is reportedly a factor in the conversion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali<\/a>.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t read Douthat\u2019s three books yet, but I plan to.\u00a0 (I put them on my Christmas list!)\u00a0 I am working on Holland\u2019s.\u00a0 Have you read any of these?\u00a0 If so, please report about them in the comments.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n