Summary from Goodreads: An accessible discourse written by a trusted expert and scholar critiquing the new atheism on its own merits and claims.
The rise of the new atheism, which includes the manifestos of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, has created a public willingness in today's marketplace to talk about God and religion. Yet the debate up to this point has focused largely on rebutting the new atheist critique of Christianity. Why God Won't God Away moves into new territory by challenging the new atheism on its own grounds. Chapters include discussion on:
- What is the new atheism
- The problem of religion
- The problem of human nature
- Believing only what can be proved
- Dealing with imagined worlds and myths
- The new humanism and the new enlightenment
- Violence and dogmatism
Why God Won't Go Away: Is the New Atheism Running on Empty? by Alister E. McGrathMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I began this book, I had not even heard of the "new atheist" movement. I knew what an atheist was, but I was not aware of the new direction it had taken. I was amazed with how brazen this movement had become and how hostile to religion it is. I am only familiar with tolerant atheists, and this book showed me that new atheism has gone far beyond that. It is kind of funny that new atheism, in a way, has become a religion or a church group in itself. The very thing they are fighting against is what they have become. Which is why new atheism is not the tour de force it once was.
My favorite section of the book was the section that dealt with science. I really did a lot of thinking about science's role in our everyday lives here on earth. Science answers questions like: How did we get here? and the like. What science does not answer is: Why are we here? I think that when the author pointed out that not everything can be answered by reason, he really struck a chord with me.
I appreciated the way in which the author wrote. His style is academic but quite understandable. I suppose that if you are not a theology student, you might struggle to understand some of what he says, but thankfully he deals with the topic in a simple and abbreviated way. His sense of humor often came out at just the right time, which was a nice change. Some theologians don't understand what humor is.
I would recommend this book to anyone who may be dealing with an atheist--new or not. This is one I plan to keep in my library for a long time to come!
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com
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This book is written by a theology professor and Christian apologist who not only has a best-selling book rebutting the new atheist critique of Christianity but has debated Richard Dawkins in Oxford, Christopher Hitchens in Washington, and Daniel Dennett in London.
About the Author
Alister McGrath was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1953. He grew up in Downpatrick, Co. Down, where he attended Down High School. In September 1966 he became a pupil at the Methodist College, Belfast, majoring in pure and applied mathematics, physics and chemistry. He was elected to an open major scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford University, to study chemistry from October 1971, where his tutors included Jeremy R. Knowles and R. J. P. Williams. He gained first class honours in chemistry in June 1975, and began research in molecular biophysics in the Oxford University Department of Biochemistryunder the supervision of Professor Sir George K. Radda, FRS, who is presently head of theDepartment of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at Oxford University. He was elected to an E.P.A. Cephalosporin Research Studentship at Linacre College, Oxford, for the academic year 1975-6, and to a Domus Senior Scholarship at Merton College, Oxford, for the period 1976-8. He also spent three months as a European Molecular Biology Organization visiting fellow at the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands. During the years 1975-8, he carried out scientific research, leading to the publication of a number of peer-reviewed research articles, alongside studying for the Oxford University Final Honour School of Theology. In December 1977, he was awarded an Oxford D.Phil. for his research in the natural sciences, and he gained first class honours in Theology in June 1978. The interaction of Christian theology and the natural sciences has subsequently been a major theme of his research work, and is best seen in the three volumes of his Scientific Theology (2001-3).
As a former atheist, McGrath is respectful yet critical of the movement. In recent years, he has been especially interested in the emergence of "scientific atheism", and has researched the distinctive approach to atheist apologetics found in the writings of the Oxford zoologist and scientific populariser Richard Dawkins. He regularly engages in debate and dialogue with leading atheists, and has made a special study of the iconic role played by Charles Darwin in atheist apologetics, and the appeal to the controversial and problematic concept of the "meme" in recent atheist accounts of the origins of belief in God. He continues to contribute to the conversation begun by the "New Atheism" in 2006.
His main research interest at present is the area of thought traditionally known as "natural theology", which is experiencing significant renewal and revitalization at the moment. He addressed this theme in detail at his Richardson Lectures at the University of Newcastle-upon Tyne (2008), his Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen (February 2009), and his Hulsean Lectures at the University of Cambridge (October - November 2009). The Richardson Lectures were published as The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology(Blackwells). The Gifford Lectures were published in 2009 as A Fine Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology. The Hulsean Lectures were published in 2011 with the title Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology.
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