Atheism is the slavish and simple-minded embrace of ignorance. When people call themselves “atheists” today, what they really mean is Christophobes, people with an irrational hatred and fear of Christianity. The arguments they make against Christianity are both bizarre and silly.
Consider first the macabre atheistic position that only stupid people believe in God (i.e., Christianity) [straw man argument that no thinking atheist makes]. Until the latter part of the 19th century, virtually all great scientists were extraordinarily devout Christians. Indeed, the scientific method itself was created by Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar. Buridan, a priest, perfected the scientific principle of impetus and answered many questions about the revolving of our planet. Ockham created the idea, the heart of modern science, that the most simplified explanation for phenomena ought to be considered the truest.
Science long was exclusively the province of devout Christians, and the greatest scientists, like Newton, Maxwell, and Kelvin, were also profoundly religious individuals whose faith was greater than that of most people of their time. Even through the modern age, important scientists have been Christians.
The contrast with atheism is stark. Until the modern age, there were virtually no atheist scientists worth mentioning [yet, many modern scientists are atheists, agnostics, or indifferent towards religion]. Atheism, instead, proved an obstacle to scientific thought. Most prominent was the wiliness of atheists to lie. Lacking any divine overseer to perceive and punish mendacity, virtually all atheists – Nazis, Soviets, Maoists, fascists and our indigenous atheists – have been willing to lie and to conceal if the subterfuge is deemed in the interest of a greater cause.
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The pattern is clear: atheists are Christophobes who irrationally hate and fear Christians (and also religiously serious Jews) because they hate and fear the idea of a divine and perfect judge of our honor and virtue. Atheists are the dead end of scientific inquiry and rigorous speculative theory because of their phobia. They run from truth as they run from God [if God is chasing atheists, surely he can catch them]. They are profoundly unserious minds whom no one needs to heed.
— Bruce Walker, American Thinker, The Ignorance of Atheism, February 10, 2018
Walker, a chiropractor, lives in Perth, Australia and is on the faculty of Murdoch University.
I see the author is a chiropractor. Hmm…enough said.
Why does he assume that atheists are only atheistic toward Christianity? We are atheistic toward ALL religions. Plus he confuses hating a religion with not believing on a religion. Big difference. There’s more that can be said, but frankly, his arguments bored me.
The claim that atheists only oppose Christianity is a common one among fundies, and shows that they know little of what they are denouncing. Major atheist figures such as Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris have attacked Islam at least as forcefully as Christianity, for example.
He obviously doesn’t know many atheists. In my experience, the reason people are non theists is extremely varied. Many are very open and compassionate, thinking people. To assume, that everyone who is an atheist irrationally hates and fears people of faith sounds very crazy and bigoted to me.
It’s sort of akin to saying that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all the Christians reject reason and science. People are individuals, and can’t be seen as just part of a mindless herd.