Defending the New Atheism

When the so called New Atheists began writing their books about religion in late 2005 and going into 2006 and 2007 atheism officially hit mainstream and the countless "closet atheists" finally had public voices of reason allowing them to feel less afraid of "coming out" to their friends and family. These atheist authors also did their best to defend science from the misguided attacks of the ignorant and superstitious. This large publishing campaign hasn't failed to rustle some feathers of some well-known, and not so well-known, defenders of irrationality the faith, however.

After seeing more and more of these books attempting to refute the New Atheists I began to wonder when and if any of the New Atheists would write future books rebutting the counter-arguments of the many theists that came out of the woodwork to cash in on the popularity of the New Atheist movement.

I still find it amazing that a total of only five books (Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion; Sam Harris' The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation; Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great; and Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell) could create such a publishing frenzy by christians and other theists! As of this writing I was able to find with just a quick search on Amazon.com 30 (and I know I've seen several more titles in the past) books arguing against, insulting, and just plain misunderstanding, and misquoting the New Atheist authors.

Can anyone say insecure (in their personal beliefs that is)?

Even though the New Atheists themselves haven't written responses directly to these many individuals there have been several online bloggers and authors who have come to the aid of the New Atheists. To date, I only know of one book that has been written in direct response to the critics of the New Atheists: The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason, by Victor J. Stenger. I've read this book and it is excellent. He clearly shows why these critics are wrong about the New Atheists and refutes their counter-arguments.


I'm going to list as many websites as I can find (and I shall modestly include my own as well) that have come out swinging against these misguided christians with their misguided responses. If you have found any others please write to me and tell me about them and I will add them to this list.

1. Deluding Who About What?, by Dan J. Bye - A short critique of Alister McGrath’s The Dawkins Delusion? - accessed 3-10-10

2. My partial review of The Irrational Atheist, by Vox Day -accessed 3-10-10 My newly completed review of The Irrational Atheist, by Vox Day - 2-25-11 - The most thorough one to date on the net!

3. The author of the Evangelical Realism blog had posted a series of posts about Vox Day's The Irrational Atheist. - accessed 6-4-10

4. My refutation of Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker's Answering the New Atheism - accessed 3-10-10

5. My extensive review of David Marshall's The Truth Behind the New Atheism - accssed 3-10-10

6. My review of David Aikman's The Delusion of Disbelief - accessed 3-10-10

7. Burk Braun's review of Eric Reitan's Is God a delusion? - accessed 3-10-10

8. While Sam Harris hasn't written any book length treatments on arguments against his books he has written a response to various claims and misunderstandings at his website. - accessed 3-10-10

9. Richard Dawkins has also written a response to various arguments and misunderstandings about his book The God Delusion in the preface to the second edition. - accessed 3-11-10

10. Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion is criticized by Jason Giannetti in the Journal of Liberal Religion. However, William R. Patterson responds to Giannetti in another article in the Journal: In Defense of Dawkins: A Response to Jason Giannetti - accessed 3-13-10

11. Bart Klink, at infidels.org, reviews John F. Haught's 2007 book God and the New Atheism - accessed 3-15-10

12. James S. Spiegel has written a book titled The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief which seeks to take a round-about approach to refuting the New Atheists. Spiegel attempts to "show that atheism is not ultimately about arguments and evidence" but is "a scholarly veneer masking the real causes of their unbelief - causes that are moral and psychological in nature." I refute his arguments in my review of his book here. - accessed 5-28-10

13. The girl who went MIA on the Rational Response Squad, Kelly, had also written a series of posts rebutting Vox Day's book. You can find her series of posts reproduced on my blog. Easiest way to find it is to click the Vox Day tag (which I just linked to) and find all the posts.

14. A Slave to Incompetence: The Truth Behind David Marshall’s Research on Slavery by Dr. Hector Avalos - accessed 7-15-10

15. The Irrational Atheist - a review from zarbi.livejournal.com - accessed 2-12-11

16. The Irrational Atheist - a review from x-eleven.livejournal.com - accessed 2-12-11

17. Chris Hallquist reviews Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition - accessed 5-18-11

18. Chris Hallquist reviews Dinesh D’Souza’s What’s So Great about Christianity? - accessed 5-28-11

19. Chris Hallquist reviews David Berlinski’s The Devil’s Delusion - accessed 5-28-11

20. ADD YOURS HERE! OR IF YOU FIND ONE, PLEASE NOTIFY ME