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God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens
In "God and the New Atheism," a world expert on science and theology gives clear, concise, and compelling answers to the charges against religion laid out in recent best-selling books by Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion"), Sam Harris ("The End of Faith"), and Christopher Hitchens ("God Is Not Great"). For some, these "new atheists" appear to say extremely well what they...more
Paperback, 124 pages
Published
February 15th 2008
by Westminster John Knox Press
(first published December 31st 2007)
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I read this book because in The Case For God, Karen Armstrong mentions with a sigh that the atheist arguments raised in recent books by Richard Dawkins and others have already been dealt with by theologians such as John F Haught, but she does not say how.
Just to summarise atheism, it consists of rejection of a class of traditional supernatural claims about the universe, specifically that there is a real - not symbolic - invisible being capable of influencing events arbitrarily through will alone...more
Just to summarise atheism, it consists of rejection of a class of traditional supernatural claims about the universe, specifically that there is a real - not symbolic - invisible being capable of influencing events arbitrarily through will alone...more
Jul 30, 2011
BHodges
added it
Haught tackles the "new atheist" question from the approach of theological studies. He feels writers like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris have slighted a great deal of theology by focusing their attack solely on fundamentalist or strawman descriptions of religion. He does a fine job outlining new atheist assumptions and discussing why theology should be brought to bear on them. The book is brief (barely over a hundred pages) and doesn't delve into many specifics from the books it critiques. Instea...more
I understood Haught's arguments for God's existence, but they just aren't that convincing. Equating the "New" (not their word) Atheists as treating atheism like a religion is just rhetoric. How can the unbelief in an entity lead to religious fervor?
Haught is passionate and his book is well-written and jargon-free, which earn him kudos. He makes some good points, such as the apparent selection advantage of god-belief, otherwise why else are there so many theists in our biosphere? But is this real...more
Haught is passionate and his book is well-written and jargon-free, which earn him kudos. He makes some good points, such as the apparent selection advantage of god-belief, otherwise why else are there so many theists in our biosphere? But is this real...more
This books presents a fairly competent response to the recent works by Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens. Haught argues that while each of these authors makes valid points and has some reasonable criticisms of religion, ancient and modern, nonetheless the principal target of these authors is a fairly fundamentalist Christian belief, one that most "thinking" Christians have generally shed. This excerpt (from page xv-xvi) sums up his message:
"However, even though the new atheists reject the God of crea...more
"However, even though the new atheists reject the God of crea...more
This book was disappointing.
I found that the author nibbled around the edges without actually addressing why the "new atheism" is wrong. He addresses the "new" atheism, and at the same time claims that it is not really "new" at all (which, of course, it is not). Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens have repackaged, in a form more apt to be consumed by the modern reader, arguments that have been made since the Epicureans.
He never addresses whether there actually is a god, which is the crux of atheism (ne...more
I found that the author nibbled around the edges without actually addressing why the "new atheism" is wrong. He addresses the "new" atheism, and at the same time claims that it is not really "new" at all (which, of course, it is not). Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens have repackaged, in a form more apt to be consumed by the modern reader, arguments that have been made since the Epicureans.
He never addresses whether there actually is a god, which is the crux of atheism (ne...more
Stumbled across this book at Borders. Haught is Senior Fellow in Science and Religion at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. One of the helpful parts of this book is Haught’s historical awareness of the tradition of atheism. He argues – persuasively, in my opinion – that Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens lack both the intellect and the “guts” of former atheists like Nietzsche, Camus, and Satre: they aren’t willing to follow their epistemological skepticism to its logical concl...more
a good simple reminder of how atheism is a faith just as much as any other . . he leaned on some examples i recognized from another of his books, but they're good illustrations, so i guess i don't fault that . . another similarity to his other book, however, is more of an issue to me: haught does a nice job of defending christianity/theism/evolutionary creationism/whatever--despite this book's last chapter's well put admonition to *not* defend the faith--but i'm not sure that he ever argues for...more
The author is a theology professor, so there is some academic aspects to the writing that I tended to skip over. I also skipped over brief parts where he makes a case for his own theology. His criticism of Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris is much stronger than his positive expository about his own theology. Perhaps that is inevitable because from what I have read of the three "new atheists" their atheism is very smug and intellectually dishonest. I found his critiques to be accurate and written in...more
I liked this book. The author, a theologian, analyzes the "new atheists" and their writings from the point of view of an unabashed theists. He is not anti-science, or even anti-evolution, but views the world and reality in a larger perspective than the Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, the main intellectuals of the new atheism.
Dr. Haught argues that the "new atheism" is not new, not really atheistic, and rather shallow, avoiding any interaction with or analys...more
Dr. Haught argues that the "new atheism" is not new, not really atheistic, and rather shallow, avoiding any interaction with or analys...more
Recently I finished reading and posting a brief critique of John Haught's newest book, "Science and Faith" (2012). I gave it five stars, saying that I rarely give the maximum number of stars. But now I have done it again.
It is hard to imagine how a better book could be written on the subject of this work. As a Christian believer trained in Christian theology and philosophy, I found this book excellent in every way.
It is hard to imagine how a better book could be written on the subject of this work. As a Christian believer trained in Christian theology and philosophy, I found this book excellent in every way.
Jun 15, 2009
Eric
added it
Having not read any of the new atheists, I didn't get as much out of this as I could have. To me the wildest thing about the discussion is that the new atheists have a large enough readership to warrant multiple rebuttals by Christian authors.
This book is a little too much "inside baseball" to be an accessible response to "the new atheists," but for those who have the patience it is a devastating critique.
Better in concept than execution I think. Well laid out, if a bit repetitive. Does a good job of pointing out some logical fallacies of the "new atheist" stance, but doesn't go far enough in replacing them with his own reason. Indeed, at times he seems to make the same errors of incomplete logic he just finished critiquing.
Made me approach Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens' (et al) writing with a slightly more critical eye, but did not win me over to the other side in the least.
Made me approach Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens' (et al) writing with a slightly more critical eye, but did not win me over to the other side in the least.
Haught, a theologian at Georgetown who specializes in the relationship between theology and science, has provided a brief, clearly argued case against the New Atheism.
A wonderfully reasoned and methodic response to the 'new atheism' which leaves behind the culture war, cliche's, and "straw men". I couldn't recommend it more highly.
May 07, 2013
Awake After All
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