I while back I stumbled upon this post by Freakonomics blogger Steven Levitt. It describes a phenomenon I first noticed while book shopping during the Christmas season last year: there have been a lot of books published lately which seek to undermine the existence of God: Breaking the Spell, The God Delusion, God the Failed Hypothesis, God is Not Great, Irreligion.
These books intrigue me. I’ve been tempted to read one, just to see what sorts of things they say. Have any of you picked one up, perhaps aiming to give your apologetics skills a workout? What did you think?
This fall, my LIFE Group will be reading through The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller. I’m very much looking forward to it. To be honest, my faith could really use some shoring up right now. I long for belief in an age of skepticism!
September 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
This is a great book. I’m about halfway done, and I’ve really enjoyed it.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Hey Ladies, I am Rinnie’s college friend who lurks on this site on occasion. I read this over the summer and I think it is FABULOUS! It is deep without being too heady and it gives sensible, normal explanations to skeptics questions. It really appeals to me as a Gen X person. Enjoy it!
September 17th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I just ordered this book from Amazon and look forward to reading it.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Hi, Laura. I read your blog here and hope you don’t mind me commenting.
I heard one atheist say of the books you mention that they are to atheism what pro-wrestling is to sports: fun to watch but without much real substance. (Much the same could be said of some Christian books, I suppose.)
Nonetheless there have been a number of direct responses by Christians. For instance, Douglas Wilson debated Christopher Hitchens in Christianity Today:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/mayweb-only/119-12.0.html
This debate is also being republished as a book, and Wilson has published responses to Harris’s and Dawkins’s books as well. See:
http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=5881
And Dinesh D’Souza debated Hitchens in person (giving him a solid spanking, if I were to judge the final product):
http://www.isi.org/lectures/flvplayer/lectureplayer.aspx?file=v000187_cicero_102207.flv
D’Souza has other online video debates with atheists too, which you can find with Google.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Sorry about the two comments. I thought the first one didn’t go through. You can delete this one and the first one.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Hi Lurka, Thanks for your comments!