I'm not sure why atheists praise me so much. When my book What's So Great About Christianity was published, Skeptic magazine editor Michael Shermer called me a "first rate scholar" whose "thorough research and elegant prose have elevated him into the top ranks of those who champion liberty and individual responsibility." Shermer wrote of me that "although non-Christians and non-theists may disagree with some of his arguments, we ignore him at our peril." As for my Christianity book, "it takes the debate to a new level. Read it."
Then Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, complimented me on the occasion of our first New York debate, saying I was a formidable debate opponent on any topic. Recently Hitchens told me and my wife that I am responsible for one of the big conversions in his life. He informed me about something about which I had no idea: following our debate on capitalism vs. socialism at Georgetown University more than a decade and a half ago, Hitchens said he abandoned socialism. "After that evening," Hitchens said, "I just stopped calling myself a socialist." I was too polite to speculate on what might follow for HItchens from our God v. atheism debates, but of course I was delighted to hear that I helped a friend find his way out of the dead-end maze of socialism.
The latest addition to my atheist fan club is Dan Barker, head of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Barker is a former evangelical preacher who has become a hard-core atheist. Now he heads a group that I would describe as a kind of atheist ACLU (although why we need two such organizations remains a mystery). Basically Barker's group agitates to remove all vestiges of God and religion from American public life, what Barker terms an "absolute separation" of church and state. Recently I debated Barker at Harvard University, after which Barker wrote me to say that of the hundreds of opponents he has faced over the years, "you are clearly one of the best debaters I have encountered." Is he right? You can find out by watching the debate here.
The Harvard debate was sponsored by the Harvard Secular Society and moderated by Harvard's humanist chaplain Greg Epstein. Epstein is himself an atheist, and only at Harvard can we expect to find such a creature as an "atheist chaplain." The format of the debate was interesting: no lengthy opening statements, no formal rebuttals, etc. Rather, a group of Harvard students peppered both Barker and me with questions, and then we got to engage with each other. Our debate was lively and wide-ranging, covering such topics as the existence of God, science and religion, the relationship of theism to morality, and church and state. Following this debate, the student head of the Secular society told me that unlike any religious believer he had previously encountered, I had compelled him to re-think some of his basic positions.
I know that there are some atheists who will respond to my Harvard debate with their usual ritual of abuse and name-calling. In a way I sympathize with them. Never has a group so desperately sought an intellectual victory in these contests, and so far there are no signs that it will come. So the best these atheists can do is to call me arrogant. But even the atheists I debate seem to think that this arrogance is justified.
In reality, as people like Shermer and Hitchens who know me will testify, I'm not arrogant. I am, however, just a little tired of hearing the propaganda about how atheists are the champions of reason while religious believers are the ignorant practitioners of "blind faith." You can see why I relish taking on the atheists with their chosen weapons of reason and science and evidence, and showing that I can not only defend myself but also defeat them on their own terms. At this point the atheists are running out of capable opponents. Many atheists are reduced to what one of their number, the mathematician John Allen Paulos, terms "the argument of the red face and the raised voice."
Is there any doubt why Sam Harris seems to have changed his mind about debating me, and why Richard Dawkins is still hiding under his desk? How come these "brights" seem to have fled into the cover of darkness? Do any of the atheist organizations offer an annual Wimp award?
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 30)
91. Maybe Linda has a position on this from experience - but I don't think that being able to drink and eat and use drugs to one's supposed content would lead that person to happiness.
People do those things because they are unhappy most of the time and are using it as an escape.
TJ at 1:23PM on May 7th 2008
92. The SELF is a viscous monster that i do not think can be tamed. as woody allen said the heart wants what it wants. i think history would tell us there is something terribly wrong with mankind. we could have all been hitler, we all have it within us given the right situation to be rather fowl.
I do not agree at all with------- The SELF is a viscous monster that i do no think can be tamed.
This is the basic lie taught by Christianity. The fall of man myth. Did you accept this idea before you became a Christian or after? I refer to your change of life experience as before or after. Have you always thought of yourself as a viscous monster?
Jerry Brown at 1:25PM on May 7th 2008
93. Every time I see 'viscous monster' I think of that old horror movie, "The Blob!"
not-pboyfloyd at 1:42PM on May 7th 2008
94. colleen, I don't recall David or Moses dying for Jesus. Are you saying Moses and David were christians?
JefFlyingV at 1:44PM on May 7th 2008
95. npbf,
old blob or remake?
Mokele Mbembe at 1:46PM on May 7th 2008
96. LOL.. weren't they both viscous?
I'll go with the Steve McQueen one.
not-pboyfloyd at 1:49PM on May 7th 2008
97. Dinesh, I must disagree with you on one point: You seem to have the idea that atheists live in the light: "how come these 'brights' seem to have fled into the cover of darkness?". Atheists live in darkness. They can't flee "into" darkness when they are in darkness 24/7.
Tom B at 1:52PM on May 7th 2008
98. Tom B- darkness of what? Light of what? Faith? Knowledge? Wisdom? Or are we just throwing metaphors around for the hell of it?
If referring to "darkness" as a lack of faith/god....I really don't think atheists care.
Just like how I refuse to eat certain foods. I know I won't like it, I don't need to try it. I'd rathar it not exist in my life. People who LOVE it tell me "oh, you don't know what you're missing!" and I respond "I'm not missing anything."
I'm perfectly content in my life not coexisting with what you love...just because you cannot imagine life without it...does not mean it's impossible for anyone else.
Strados at 2:02PM on May 7th 2008
99. Osama & Hitlery: Two of a kind eh? This election is gonna be something. Who knows this fighting maybe all be an act to fool the American people. Those Dems have something brewing I just know it. If Hitlery is president and Osama vice or vice versa, we are not going to see 4,000 babies being exterminated from the womb we are going to see 8,000 babies plus your grandmother (euthanized) be eliminated.
We need McCain. I pray he makes it. He will do the job right? He is the most American in this election. I think he should pick Fred Thompson.
Donny Boyle at 2:06PM on May 7th 2008
100. Donny, I still have a hard time voting for an ex-POW. What he lived through in that camp was heroic, but that doesn't make him a hero or the most American.
JefFlyingV at 2:13PM on May 7th 2008
101. Hey Boyle...
FYI, it's not up to the prez to decide how many abortion happen.
It depends mostly on how many slutty little Christian bitches are willing to take the pragmatic route instead of ruining their lives.
Consider this, pin-head... if a Dem gets in power perhaps real sex education will REDUCE the number of unwanted pregnancies.
not-pboyfloyd at 2:14PM on May 7th 2008
102. Donny, we NEED Al Gore. But he had the sense not to run. I'll settle for the next available democrat who won't waste billions on a conquest
Strados at 2:15PM on May 7th 2008
103. "what was it that convinced you quit? What did you do to overcome the desire to continue drinking to excess?"
=======================================================
I knew a couple of years before I tried quitting that I "had a problem". I tried a hundred different ways to quit, but always defaulted back to my drink of choice.
I had to hit what many of us call my "bottom". I was desperate and could not figure out how to stop and stay stopped.
For me, a friend (who had gotten sober) and I went to a baseball game together, and after the game, he told me his story, and suggested that I go to an AA meeting. I was a chicken, so he agreed to meet me at the meeting. AA helped me out a lot in the first few years, because I learned about my disease, and I learned how others managed to stay sober.
As an atheist, I worried that I couldn't follow the steps of AA, but I just used the group as my "higher power", and the odds look good that I will have 23 years of sobriety on Monday the 12th.
Thanks for asking the questions, fan. It's good for me to remember how I got sober.
Linda at 2:21PM on May 7th 2008
104. >>>>Donny, I still have a hard time voting for an ex-POW.
Bush was no soldier. But McCain is. Men need new role models. McCain has a John Wayne approach. Sadly because of American Idol and poor education formation, men nowadays are more efeminate. Men need to be Men and women need to be women. men showing their effeminate side are falling into a feminist trap.
I honestly don't think Obama has a real masculine approach. hillary looks like she robbed it from Bill
Ben at 2:23PM on May 7th 2008
105. Hi Jerry... I don't understand your comment:
"This is the basic lie taught by Christianity. The fall of man myth. Did you accept this idea before you became a Christian or after? I refer to your change of life experience as before or after. Have you always thought of yourself as a viscous monster?"
I thought we all agreed on the experience of 'right and wrong' though people define the particulars in different ways, etc...
Shannie at 2:24PM on May 7th 2008