The Twilight of Atheism
Atheism has had its day. Once a robust, confident and attractive philosophy eagerly tearing at religion's 'moth-eaten musical brocade', it is today intellectually dubious, morally bankrupt and socially uninspiring.
So claims Alister McGrath, professor of historical theology at Oxford University, in his recent book The Twilight of Atheism.
Atheism, McGrath insists, is not some vague uncertainty about God's existence, still less a general disengagement with matters spiritual, but rather the determined and principled rejection of God and everything for which he stands. Marshalling a wide range of evidence, McGrath shows that this often cogent and always interesting ideology is in decline.
The scientific and philosophical arguments against God have stalled. The moral case for atheism died 20 million deaths in the Soviet gulags. Atheism's all-encompassing confidence has been unable to deal with postmodernity.
At the same time, the stubborn perseverance of religious belief under atheistic regimes, the transformation of religiosity into spirituality in many Western countries, the re-emergence of religion as a force in international politics, the building evidence that religious adherence is positively linked to human well-being, and the rapid spread of creeds such as pentecostalism - to name only a handful of themes on which McGrath touches - suggest that religious, usually theistic, belief is back to stay.
McGrath - who is speaking on 'the twilight of atheism' at LICC on February 21st -never succumbs to triumphalism, even when recounting the tragic story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, for years the face of American atheism. He curiously omits some important points - such as the consistently low percentage of outright atheists in social surveys even in the UK, one of the most secular societies on earth - but these omissions do not weaken his argument.
That argument has, not surprisingly, irritated many who like the old 'secularisation' narrative, but that does not necessarily mean it bodes well for Christianity. Just because people are less enthused by an atheistic vision of reality, they will not automatically find the Christian one more attractive. Other creeds, like Islam, or spiritual beliefs, like kabbalah or feng shui, may appeal more, as might the gentle, disengaged agnosticism that material comfort seems to foster.
Still, the demise of atheism may serve to encourage many believers in Britain, who sometimes feel as if they are swimming against the tide of history. We are, it appears, spiritual animals - whether we like it or not.
Nick Spencer
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