Frankly the new atheist are boring me, but I still picked
up this book to read because Lennox says things in profound and astute ways. He
has not disappointed. This book points out charitably the foundational failures
of the new atheists arguments, or better still, it points out the “preaching”
of the new atheists have no grounding in reality, because their approach makes
everything meaningless to start with.
Sadly too many secularists are taking their unsupported
opinion as gospel and Lennox brings this out.
What I really enjoyed about the book was how Lennox employs a very careful analysis of the objections of
the New Atheists.. It’s something that many Christians would do well to
emulate. We need to think carefully about the assumptions and implications of
what the New Atheists are arguing.
On pages 46-47 Lennox looks at the consistency of the new
atheists reliance upon Freud and shows it just won’t do the work they assume it
will. Effectively Lennox does an
internal critique of the New Atheists arguments. Speaking in the context of ‘Is
Faith a delusion’ pg 45f Lennox points
out that although Dawkins rejects faith, it is merely his definition off faith
that he rejects. Indeed the Oxford English Dictionary points out a delusion is
‘a fixed false belief held in the face of contradictory evidence.’ What is
crucial here is the falsity of the belief. That’s why the objection you may as
well believe in the flying spaghetti monster or leprechauns doesn’t unsettle
us. Years ago Edwin Orr pointed out the nonsense
of such objections. The Flying Spaghetti
Monster is conceptual nonsense having no substance in the real world, It is as
bad as arguing for a square circle since pieces of spaghetti do not a monster
make and certainly they don’t have the physical constitution giving spaghetti the
ability to “fly”.
Likewise today Alister Mcgrath substantiates that
it is only a delusion when such things don’t exist
pg46. So if God does not exist
then faith in God is a delusion, however
just as true is that if God does exist then atheism is a delusion. This is
where Lennox is at his most stimulating.
Consider then how Lennox applies this to the oft quoted
support of Freud by the New Atheists. He states that the objection that belief
in God is a delusion, a crutch to cope with the real world and its
uncertainties, can be turned on its head and asked of the unbeliever. “Is not
atheism a delusion, a solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice,
murders, we are not going to be judged.”
What we find will happen when we ask this of the
unbeliever, is that she may possibly
return to what matters, the evidence for God, the centrality of the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
From his analysis we see that the argument of
Freud helps no one unless you offer grounds for believing or not believing in
God.
In Christ,
Gary
In Christ,
Gary
