There is nothing surprising in the recent resurgence of atheist and anti-religious thinking. The wave, which has not yet crested, is greatly a consequence of the massive abuse of religion in recent years.
In the world today, it does sometimes seem that gods have only terror on their minds. To the extent that this is true, atheism and critiques of religion are not enemies of true faith.
To the contrary, the mischief-making false gods seen in much of both private and public religious imaginations need to be smashed; they have usurped the place of the one true God, the ultimate source of human flourishing.
The gods many critics of religion deny deserve denying; they are not the gods in whom believers ought to be believing. It is no accident that early Christians were derided as “atheists.” Along with Jewish prophets, Jesus and Paul, we Christians ought to be the sharpest critics of religion, foremost of our own.
What is a bit surprising about the “new atheism” is how “old” it feels. I have not read all the new critiques of religion, but what I have read feels very much “recycled and repackaged.” With all due respect toward contemporary critics of religion, will somebody tell me what intellectual contribution they are actually making? Are they saying anything that the great critics of religion from the past haven’t already said?And saying it in a more subtle and compelling way? And, notwithstanding all the advances in sciences in recent decades, are they saying it also with a more sophisticated understanding of both religion and reality?
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