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Are Atheists Afraid of God by Eric Metaxas


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2016 Jun 3, 3:27pm   9,221 views  25 comments

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Are Atheists Afraid of God?

Christopher Hitchens’s fans are incensed by a book that dares to say he took faith seriously.

By ERIC METAXAS
June 2, 2016 6:42 p.m. ET

The question might seem silly, because atheists claim not to believe in God at all. But claims don’t always match behavior, as the reaction to a recent book illustrates.

That book is “The Faith of Christopher Hitchens,” by Christian apologist Larry Alex Taunton, who tells the story of his remarkable friendship with Hitchens, the writer and ardent atheist who died in 2011. The book focuses on two long road trips during which they actually studied the Gospel of John together. (Mr. Taunton drove while Hitch, who had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2010, read aloud and drank Scotch.) But the idea that, contrary to his blunderbuss public attitude toward Christianity, Hitchens was not just friendly with Christians but also open to the idea of faith, has many atheists apoplectic.

Avenging anti-God hordes have crashed the book’s Amazon page, fulminating with one-star reviews that the book is “tripe!” and “dishonest” and “morally reprehensible,” and accusing Mr. Taunton of riding the beloved Hitch’s coattails “to make a fast buck.” It is pretty obvious that none of these Amazon “reviewers” has actually read the book. But why haven’t they, and why are they so outraged?

Do they fear that Mr. Taunton is some Bible-believing Svengali whose nefarious power over their ailing colleague was sheerest opportunism? And are they afraid that actually engaging with Mr. Taunton and his ideas would put them in the same danger as the man they so admired?

How can people so vocal about the importance of “evidence” and “reason” behave like this? Yet there they are, posting their angry one-star reviews, “liking” all other one-star reviews on the page to try to discourage book buyers, and then indignantly clicking away.

But one must wonder: Could it be that, in the friendship between the two men, they detect the possible existence of something they deny but secretly fear might be real? Is God a subject too scary to seriously consider with facts and reason?

The idea that Hitchens was curious about faith and engaged with it intellectually apparently would amount to an intolerable betrayal in the minds of some atheists, so they simply pretend that it never happened, despite the clear evidence to the contrary.

After all, wasn’t Hitchens’s friendship with Mr. Taunton itself evidence that Hitchens actually valued Mr. Taunton and his views?

Consider a recent BBC “Newsnight” interview with Mr. Taunton. Flirting with “Saturday Night Live” parody, the smug host, James O’Brien, ensconced in a gleaming black-and-purple set with his interviewees on remote video, treated his Christian guest with imperious disdain. Failing to fluster Mr. Taunton by insinuating that the author was claiming a Hitchens conversion to Christianity—that’s not Mr. Taunton’s point—the host then turned to atheist activist Lawrence Krauss, who said that Hitchens was not Mr. Taunton’s friend at all, but was only in his company because Hitchens had been paid to debate him. Unmentioned: those two long, voluntary road trips, and the fact that Hitchens had even spent the night at his friend’s house. Of course to know this, one must have read the book.

I have some history with Mr. Krauss. In an op-ed in 2014 for this newspaper called “Is Science Increasingly Leading Us to God?” I discussed the implications of a fine-tuned universe—and stirred up swirling dust-devils of atheist outrage. Mr. Krauss attacked the op-ed in the New Yorker magazine with an essay called “No, Astrobiology Has Not Made the Case for God,” dismissing the idea of a divinely ordered universe as sheer nonsense.

How awkward. None other than Christopher Hitchens himself had taken the fine-tuned-universe argument seriously. In the 2009 documentary “Collision,” about his encounters with evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, Hitchens says: “At some point, certainly, we [atheists] are all asked which is the best argument you come up against from the other side. I think every one of us picks the fine-tuning one as the most intriguing,” adding that “you have to spend time thinking about it, working on it. It’s not . . . trivial.”

If atheist activists want to be taken seriously, they must be willing to engage the facts. The fact is that Mr. Taunton has simply said that Hitchens late in life was “not certain” of his atheism. Unable to tolerate this crack in the atheist facade, Mr. Taunton’s critics reacted hysterically. The response lent credence to what many of us suspect—that atheists really do fear some facts, and, more than that, fear where those facts might lead.

Comments 1 - 25 of 25        Search these comments

1   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jun 3, 4:35pm  

Atheism is their God.

2   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2016 Jun 3, 5:08pm  

Cmon this is just silly.

There's two distinct groups of atheists.

The first is those that simply don't believe in the existence of anything beyond the physical world. This is a perfectly rational position to take.

The second group is those who have some kind of emotional axe to wield against religion due to their upbringing. These are the people who are very vocal in condemning religion and religious oriented people. It's not a position rooted in logic, but rather one rooted in boorish hatred for whatever perceived past slight.

3   NDrLoR   2016 Jun 3, 5:11pm  

Tenpoundbass says

Atheism is their God.

No one is more obsessed with God than atheists.

4   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jun 3, 5:18pm  

dodgerfanjohn says

There's two distinct groups of atheists.

The first one isn't a praticing an "ism", and most of the time they consider them selves non praticing what ever religion upbringing they may or may not have been exposed to.

Or just consider them seleves not religious. They don't cary an axe against every religion, they just don't want to have to sit through a 2 hour sermon. But they will for the promise of a Sunday chicken dinner.

5   Strategist   2016 Jun 4, 6:30am  

P N Dr Lo R says

Are Atheists Afraid of God?

That's like asking....Are the dead afraid of dying?

6   Idiotic   2016 Jun 4, 7:06am  

Dumbest article. Christians are "afraid" of Allah because their God is wrong. See what I did there? I made something up and acted like it's true.

7   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jun 4, 7:08am  

Get back you Idiot, you're not done berating us yet!

8   HydroCabron   2016 Jun 4, 7:22am  

Why take any of this seriously? Hitchens had pickled himself with booze, and was always a loquacious alkie.

9   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2016 Jun 4, 7:25am  

1. What did C. Hitchens think about God?
Might as well just look at what Hitchens said and wrote, rather than what someone else writes about him after he's dead.

2. Did Hitchens respect religious people and thought?
He obviously respected it enough to devote lots of time and energy to the topic. His conclusions are available to everybody to read.

3. Are atheists leaving bad reviews on Amazon afraid of God?
That's a terrible stretch. They obviously share Hitchens' interest in the subject. If someone professes atheism, that doesn't mean that they believe in God. That's like saying that TPB and IronVagina fear that Hillary Clinton is the greatest thing to happen to America and should be president, because they profess such hate and spend so much time arguing against her. Just silly.

As far as activist Atheists go, they are just angry that some fairy tale has such a large impact on their life. They are trying to change things so that others don't suffer this injustice going forward. They are similar to religious evangelists in their desire to change society. But that doesn't mean that their beliefs are based on faith and thus parallel to the beliefs of the bible thumpers.

10   Strategist   2016 Jun 4, 10:07am  

FortWayne says

Personally I think they all miss the most important point of religion, without Christian values or some standard of judging what is better that comes from higher authority, humans have no reason to behave better than primitive beings doing whatever benefits selfish desires of the moment.

My common sense is the best "higher authority" you can get.

11   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2016 Jun 4, 11:39am  

FortWayne says

without Christian values or some standard of judging what is better that comes from higher authority, humans have no reason to behave better than primitive beings doing whatever benefits selfish desires of the moment.

Frankly, this reflects poorly on you. Other humans do have good reason not to be hedonistic selfish assholes. It's in our nature.

12   HEY YOU   2016 Jun 4, 11:46am  

The only proof for the existence of any god is in the minds of the brainwashed.
The believers twist scriptures to suit their needs.

13   Y   2016 Jun 4, 11:53am  

I thought it had to be 80 proof for one to cross the threshold...
HEY YOU says

The only proof for the existence of any god is in the minds of the brainwashed.

14   Y   2016 Jun 4, 11:56am  

Well that explains why Georgie's got turned into one of those parking lot churches...

YesYNot says

Other humans do have good reason not to be hedonistic selfish assholes.

15   FortWayne   2016 Jun 4, 2:04pm  

YesYNot says

Frankly, this reflects poorly on you. Other humans do have good reason not to be hedonistic selfish assholes. It's in our nature.

That nature isn't common. Selfish interest and deviances prevail very often in a society that lost it's way and turned away from gods teachings.

16   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2016 Jun 4, 3:14pm  

YesYNot says

As far as activist Atheists go, they are just angry that some fairy tale has such a large impact on their life. They are trying to change things so that others don't suffer this injustice going forward. They are similar to religious evangelists in their desire to change society. But that doesn't mean that their beliefs are based on faith and thus parallel to the beliefs of the bible thumpers.

Nobody thinks this except those seeking to justify their emotion driven beliefs as somehow being rational.

Christianity and Judaism have had profoundly positive effects on Western society. Far more so than being detrimental. You'll find many of the prominent atheists agree with this. Judeo-Christian beliefs are embedded in our law, financial systems, political systems, and culture...to the betterment of our society.

17   MisdemeanorRebel   2016 Jun 6, 3:59pm  

Earlier this spring, a prominent evangelical Christian named Larry Taunton published a book alleging that Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken atheist, had been, during the last years of his life, “teetering on the edge of belief.” Taunton, who claims to have been one of Hitchens’s friends, cites as evidence two conversations he had with Hitchens during car trips on the way to debates about religion and atheism—debates, it must be said, that Hitchens was paid to attend.

Hitchens’s family and actual friends—people who didn’t pay to spend time with him—know that this claim is absurd. (I was honored to be one of Hitchens’s friends during the last five years of his life.) Hitchens saw Christianity as little more than a social virus with interesting literary overtones. That view never changed during his final year of life—a period during which Taunton didn’t even meet with him. Hitchens loved to engage in generous intellectual repartee, even with those with whom he unilaterally disagreed. His civility, it seems, has been misinterpreted.
This most recent claim, of course, is just the latest in a long line of similar claims about famous atheist conversions. It raises a worthwhile question: Why do evangelical Christians so often seek to claim converts among the dead?

In relatively recent history, the most well-known postmortem Christian evangelist is probably Elizabeth Cotton. In 1915, she declared that, thirty-three years earlier, Charles Darwin himself had revealed to her, on his deathbed, his wish to recant the doctrine of evolution in exchange for Christian salvation. This claim was shown to be false by none other than Darwin’s daughter, Henrietta Litchfield, who was with him at the end. She pointed out that Cotton—like Taunton, in Hitchens’s case—hadn’t actually visited him during his final days. And evangelical Protestants aren’t the only Christians addicted to the narrative of the deathbed conversion. Catholics have made claims about the “long conversion” of Oscar Wilde; the Mormon Church has gone so far as to baptize dead people who haven’t asked for it—pro-bono conversion, as it were...

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-fantasy-of-the-deathbed-conversion?intcid=mod-latest

18   Sharingmyintelligencewiththedumbasses   2016 Jun 6, 4:04pm  

FortWayne says

Personally I think they all miss the most important point of religion, without Christian values or some standard of judging what is better that comes from higher authority, humans have no reason to behave better than primitive beings doing whatever benefits selfish desires of the moment.

As usual, the village idiot is wrong on this thread. In my experience in business, when someone says "you can trust me, I'm a christian" you better have an ironclad contract, and read every word of it.

EVERY study has shown more altruism and generosity from non religious people then devout people.

19   Heraclitusstudent   2016 Jun 6, 4:13pm  

dodgerfanjohn says

Christianity and Judaism have had profoundly positive effects on Western society.

That is, except for the thousand years of dark ages, inquisition, forced conversion of 'savages', general obscurantism, lack of critical thinking, raw superstitions, etc....

Everything good that was achieved could have been done better through other means.

20   HEY YOU   2016 Jun 6, 5:07pm  

The supreme being might be all knowing,all loving,all powerful.
By this definition one cannot do anything that is not known to God.
God would do nothing to harm anyone because he/she is absolute love.
There is nothing that can harm an all powerful being.
Sin with extreme enthusiasm.

Where did people,globally, find all the wimpy gods?
Made up as they get tired of the old beliefs?

21   NDrLoR   2016 Jun 6, 5:12pm  

thunderlips11 says

Earlier this spring, a prominent evangelical Christian named Larry Taunton published a book alleging that Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken atheist, had been, during the last years of his life, “teetering on the edge of belief.”

Yes, that's the subject of this thread.

22   NDrLoR   2016 Jun 6, 5:17pm  

Sharingmyintelligencewiththedumbasses says

EVERY study has shown more altruism and generosity from non religious people then devout people.

Really? And which one specifically? By whom? In the meantime, in EVERY community the Jews and Christians run the benevolencies, the hospitals, soup kitchens, Salvation Army, women's shelters, childrens homes, you name it, they run them. And not to mention local churches where down and out people can get temporary relief..

23   Strategist   2016 Jun 6, 5:19pm  

P N Dr Lo R says

Really? And which one specifically? By whom? In the meantime, in EVERY community the Jews and Christians run the benevolencies, the hospitals, soup kitchens, Salvation Army, women's shelters, childrens homes, you name it, they run them. And not to mention local churches where down and out people can get temporary relief..

Bill Gates
Warren Buffet

24   NDrLoR   2016 Jun 6, 6:56pm  

Strategist says

Bill Gates

Warren Buffet

That doesn't establish anything and they aren't studies. They give out of their wealth, but Jesus noticed and memorialized for all time a social nobody who gave a pittance by comparison because of her devotion. The greater point is that while you treat Christians with nothing but contempt, if for some reason in the future you had a change of heart, you would be welcomed and treated with kindness and understanding by Christians. There are significant examples from the 20th century--some of the greatest examples were atheists. Both Whittaker Chambers and C. S. Lewis were both atheists, and Chambers a communist, into their 30's when both had changes of hearts and lives. Both went on to write--Chamber's one book, Witness, published in 1952, is nevertheless a masterpiece of his leaving of communism and embracing of Christianity. Lewis wrote voluminously and in his 50s in the '50s, married Joy Davidman, a Jewish radical who became a Christian. Lewis was reviled by both the left and the right for his marriage, but it never bothered him at all: http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/node/31

Jon Murray, who joined his mother Madelyn in 1962 to ultimately have the Supreme Court rule that prayer in school was unconstitutional, eventually turned his back on her, his brother and his daughter and became a Christian evangelist. People like these exist by the scores.

25   Strategist   2016 Jun 6, 7:28pm  

P N Dr Lo R says

Strategist says

Bill Gates


Warren Buffet

That doesn't establish anything and they aren't studies.

You asked for examples, and I gave you the best examples. They have committed to giving virtually everything.

P N Dr Lo R says

but Jesus noticed and memorialized for all time a social nobody who gave a pittance by comparison because of her devotion.

If you have a pittance, it's easy to give a pittance, because it's easy to get it back. Try getting back a lifetime of billions. Nevertheless, I admire those who have a pittance, and give a pittance.

P N Dr Lo R says

The greater point is that while you treat Christians with nothing but contempt, if for some reason in the future you had a change of heart, you would be welcomed and treated with kindness and understanding by Christians.

I know. But I believe what Carl Weimer the Noble Prize winner said something like......Good people do good things, bad people do bad things. It takes religion to make a good person do bad things.
History shows he was right.

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