Emily Patten
Professor Doering
Faith and Reason
March 24, 2012
God and the New Atheism
The phrase “new atheism” is a peculiar way of thinking about modern day atheists,
because in my opinion atheism is atheism. If one does not believe in God then that is that.
Ancient philosophers used to be able to have intellectual ideas and opinions when discussing the
doubt of a greater being. These modern new atheists make absolutely no connections between
their atheist beliefs and the beliefs of theology. The four new atheists that are spear-heading this
whole idea of atheism campaign is some of the most arrogant and unsound men I have ever had
to read about. Everything they say about religion and theology has a biting sarcastic undertone.
They speak of religion as a place believers go to for a certain kind of “safety net.” They believe
that all believers are the extremist believers and take religion too far, for example, suicide
bombers. The way these new atheists target religion as the downfall of society could not be more
wrong. Without religion there would be no hope, no happiness, and no love. It is almost funny to
think that without religion, more specifically Christianity, they actually would not even have
careers. The main focal point of the new atheists arguments are not to explain to people their
opinions and logically break down why they do not believe in God, but instead to prove to
believers why believing in God or having faith in a religion is “stupid or illogical.” The new
atheists do not once try and explain new found ideas or theories as to why God does not exist,
but instead leech off of the findings and theories of ancient philosophers. In modern days, I
understand that it becomes harder and harder to believe. There are so many things that we, as
humans, cannot explain, and that we never will be able to explain, but that is why God is so
much greater than us. He knows all, sees all, and more than that, loves all. It is so sad to think
that these poor men will never know the love that God has for them because they are unwilling to
budge out of their stubborn human minds. In my opinion, I think it scares them to know that
there is a being (aka God) out there greater than humans and that in all reality we do not control
our fate or what will happen tomorrow; God does. I believe it is actually the complete opposite
of what these new atheists think, I believe not having religion, not believing God is for the naïve
and uneducated. Not believing in God is not allowing one’s mind to explore ideas greater than
human life, which is completely immature and illogical. I believe the main thesis of this whole
book is atheism is a way of showing one’s fear of the truth. It is a way of showing one’s fear of a
greater being than all human race put together. It seems as though most atheists are afraid of
death, whereas most Christians may be afraid of death, but they also understand that with the
death of our earthly bodies come the eternal life with our Lord. When atheists bring up issues
regarding the literalism of the bible, I can’t do anything but shake my head. Obviously, just like
in any collection of stories throughout history there are going to be some metaphors and
symbolism for certain things. Throughout the Bible there are certain contradictions, but like it
says, most Christians learn to take those contradictions in stride and learn from them, not take
every single word in the Bible completely literally. One of the hardest parts for me to understand
about these new atheists is how much emphasis they put on the Bible; they take everything in the
bible as facts and try to disprove them or make them seem ridiculous. I don’t understand how
these atheists put the same exact demands on the Bible that actual believers do. If they honestly
believe that the Bible is nothing but a bunch of made up stories why put so much emphasis on
disproving all of the stories and scripture in it? It seems as though the only thing these new
atheists want to do is play games and tip-toe around actually having to prove these theories that
they have copied from ancient atheists. These new atheists do nothing but try to disprove
everything Christians believe; they want to make Christians feel stupid for believing the way
they do. The new atheists seem as though they have no background in any kind of religious or
theological studies at all. How do they exactly expect to sound intellectual in any way when they
have no way of knowing all of the ins and outs of Christianity? To make a good counter
argument they need to know how to first disprove any of the scripture written in the Bible or how
to argue the faith that all Christians feel in their hearts and souls. They need to be able to explain
how near-death experiences happen or how miracles are possible. The supernatural things that
we as humans have the privilege of seeing on rare occasions, that are just a glimpse of what life
in heaven would be like. I think the saddest part about these atheists is not even the fact of how
mean they are when it comes to religion or Christians in general, but the idea that they can never
change their minds without being considered fickle. If any of these men were to ever go back and
pronounce that they do believe in God they would go down in history as an incredibly fickle
person and a waste of time and effort. Being a believer myself, it is hard to think that after
everything Jesus did for us, after everything God has provided for us there are still people out
there who can’t find anything to believe in. The idea of when humans die they do nothing but lay
in the ground never to be heard of again is completely heartbreaking. I wonder what these new
atheists would say if they were asked what they think happened to their closest family member,
whether it is their mom or grandpa or aunt. Do they truly believe that someone who has touched
their life in such a deep way does nothing but rot away to nothing in the ground? I would love to
ask them that and hear their responses. One very promising thing about being a Christian is
knowing that these atheists are still loved, even through all the hurtful things they say about God
and religion, God still provides for them and will try to help them to believe until the day they
die. In my opinion, these atheists are just very angry men who have nothing better to do in their
lives but try to drag other people into the dark and lonely life of atheism. I can only hope that
someday they might decide to pick up a Bible and actually do some theological studies and
maybe find salvation and know the love of our God and Savior.