Sunday, May 23, 2010

Answering the New Atheism

Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against GOD, by Scott Hahn - Benjamin Wiker

By way of disclosure I begin saying that I am neither a theologian nor a scientist. I bought this book to read so that I would be able to answer the many challenges I experience here on the Vine about my faith, and my position and belief in Christianity and Catholicism. Since this book was written as an intellectual rebuttal to Dawkins' book, "The God Dilusion" by Scott Hahn, a best selling theological author, and Benjamin Wiker, a scientist at Franciscan University in Stubenville, Ohio, I an going to present opinions and praises for this book from people who know much more than I do about this growing trend in our schools and country.

* "Rarely, if ever, in my many years as a professor of philosophy did I ever have an opportunity to read such a compelling argument." ~Anthony Flew~ Author of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist changed His Mind
* "Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. Benjamin Wiker show again and again, that atheists like Richard Dawkins are putting forth shoddy arguments, and once those arguments are dismantled by cool reason, there is very little left." ~Dinesh D'Souza:~ Research Scholar at the Hoover Institution, Author of What's So Great About Christianity
* "In a better world than ours there would have been no need for Answering the New Atheism. But under the circumstances, I'm grateful to Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. Benjamin Wiker for their essential service in coolly, rationally taking apart Richard Dawkins' inflamed rhetoric and exposing the absurdities, and the dangers, at it heart. Their final chapter is a particularly chilling, important reminder of what Dawkins' secular faith would lead to if it were more widely embraced." ~David Klinghoffer:~ Author of Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History
* "Answering the New Atheism is a superb exposé of Dawkins' The God Dilusion. Systematically and lucidly, Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker dissect and dispose of the fundamental errors that riddle Dawkins' attempt to demonize the divine. Dawkins has declared a jihad against religion and his main weapons are diatribe and charicature. But the aithors refuse to respond in kind and instead turn to reason, the one tool that Dawkins seems to disdain. As readable and humorous as it is rigorously reasoned, Answering the New Atheism is the best antidote in the marketplace for Dawkinitis." ~Roy Abraham Varghese:~ Co-author with Anthony Flew of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, a book denounced by Dawkins. Editor of Cosmos, Bios, Theos, a work with 24 Nobel Prize winners that was described by Time Magazine as "the year's most intriguing book on God."

Since this book is written by two Catholic intellectual heavyweights, I had to reread most of the eight chapters several times. The book is only 150 pages in length but it is chocked full of answers to help you in serious discussions about atheism.