NEW ATHEISM
A survival guide
By Graham Veale
Christian Focus. 128 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 781 913 161
The ‘New Atheists’ are deliberately out to dissuade people from religion by the power of what Graham Veale calls ‘sneer pressure’.
Why? Because sneer pressure is powerful for winning converts and silencing the opposition (and a lot easier than robust debate). So Veale has produced a little book to encourage and strengthen Christians who feel unsettled by the sneers they receive, or indeed to challenge the atheist prone to sneering.
Flying spaghetti
Beginning with the (in)famous parody of the Intelligent Design movement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Veale turns the spotlight of rational analysis on some of the intimidating sounding pronouncements that have emerged from the New Atheist camp and investigates them to see whether they can stand up to reality. In so doing he builds the case for a design argument for the existence of God. His approach is fresh and accessible, but demonstrates both breadth and depth in understanding of the subject.
Critical issues
You might think that was enough to achieve in such a slim book, but Graham Veale wants to go further! The later chapters move on from the mere fact of God’s existence to other issues critical to the Christian faith, primarily the resurrection of Jesus, the reality of religious experience and the problem of evil.
But Veale is not content merely to demonstrate that he is right – he is heading straight for the gospel, which he unpacks with the same clarity and freshness. The book closes by demonstrating that Christianity is not merely a set of truths to think about, but ‘a call to know God personally, and to be transformed by him’ (p.125).
Calling for back-up
There are occasional statements that need more backing up to be convincing (although there are usually footnotes to allow the reader to follow these issues up) – perhaps a little too much background knowledge is assumed here. There are also just one or two statements that are unclear.
But these are small quibbles – this is an excellent little book to give intimidated Christians a shot of confidence, and maybe also be useful as a discussion starter for an atheist friend prepared to ask serious questions of their own faith.
