Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal is a collection of essays that look to respond to the New Atheists. Comprised of atheistic scientists and philosophers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, Daniel C. Dennett, and Victor Stenger, the New Atheists have written a number of bestselling books about religion, which have been the subject of much controversy. A vast number of critics have come from nonacademic backgrounds and therefore many of the criticisms of the New Atheists have been fairly amateurish at best. This is where this book comes in. A group of noted philosophers, scholars and theologians offer their praises, criticisms, and commentary about the phenomenon known as The New Atheism.
The book is broken up into thirteen chapters, each dedicated to exploring a particular facet of this group of atheistic authors. The book includes discussions of the role of the New Atheists and their use of science; their understanding (or misunderstanding, rather, according to several of the authors) of Scripture; the sociological aspects of the New Atheists; and a few essays look at the philosophical underpinning of the New Atheism. Many of these essays are understandably argumentative and attempt to argue for the theistic position; others are more academic and seek to explain the reason for the rise in popularity of a group of atheists, when atheists are currently the most despised minorities in American society, below Muslims and homosexuals.
I enjoyed each of these essays. They are all well articulated, and written by experts in their respective fields. Many of them I believe were right on target with their criticisms of the New Atheists. One in particular that looks at Sam Harris’ claims in his bestselling The End of Faith was particularly interesting and I found myself in much agreement with the author Rory Dickson, a doctoral candidate with expertise in Islam and Sufism.
Other essays, however, were not particularly well-argued in my view. I felt this way in particular about William A. Stahl’s essay that attempts to demonstrate how the New Atheists are nothing more than a mirror image of the Christian fundamentalists they rail against, and Ryan C. Falcioni’s essay explaining his reasoning why he believes the Christian god is not a scientific hypothesis, unlike what the New Atheists, and even numerous theologians believe. As I read this essay I felt that the author was really grasping at straws when trying to defend his thesis. It wasn’t convincing at all.
Each of the essays were interesting, fun to read, and educational. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the phenomenon known as the New Atheism as it provides much food for thought, even the essays I considered poorly argued.
