RESPONDING TO THE

NEW ATHIESM
RICK MATTSON

Rick Mattson
InterVarsity Staf
Traveling apologist: 40+ campuses
the past three years
InterVarsity Staff, Macalester College,
St. Paul, MN

What to Expect Today

Learn about
Atheist beliefs
Typical objections to Christianity
Tactics the New Atheists use

Gameplan for responding to atheists

Images to use in conversations
Q&A (brief)
Suggested resources
Not today: a full case against atheism

Rise of the New Atheism

Examples of 20th century atheist scholars:
Bertrand Russell, A.J. Ayer, Antony Flew,
John Mackie, Quentin Smith
Postmodernism in the 80s and 90s
lowered the profile of Christian-Atheist
debates by dismantling the power of big
stories (metanarratives).
Atheism made a big comeback in the 90s
and 2000s. See next slide.

Four Horsemen
Richard Dawkins: British evolutionary
biologist
Sam Harris: American neuroscientist
and philosopher
Daniel Dennet: American philosopher
at Tufts University
Christopher Hitchens: (deceased).
Journalist

Posture toward Religion

Religion shouldnt just be tolerated. It
should be attacked, criticized,
defeated.
Religion is harmful. Believers are
delusional.

Naturalism
The natural world is all there is. No
supernatural or immaterial beings
exist. No angels, gods, demons,
ghosts. No soul.
(for newbies: note definitions of
naturalism and materialism.)

The Presumption of
Atheism
Atheism is the default starting
point of every discussion.
The burden of proof is on
theism to show that God exists.
Example: For the claim,
Bigfoot exists, evidence must
be provided.

Verificationism
Only statements that can be backed
up by material evidence have any
truth value.
Yes: Scientific statements: Mercury
levels . . . The rate of decay . . . . The
speed of light . . . etc
No: Faith statements: God exists.
Jesus is the Son of God.

No Evidence for God

Science: no evidence whatsoever.
Philosophy: no good arguments. Besides,
philo doesnt give any material evidence.
History: no secular historical evidence for
Jesus. Evidence from Bible and believers
doesnt count.
Experience: doesnt count as evidence.
Too subjective.

Jesus Christ is a Myth

Christ-Myth is similar to the myths of
pagan religions: dying and rising
gods such as: Attis, Osiris, Baal,
Adonis, Mithris, etc.
Son-of-God was a creation of the
early church.
Jesus of history is different than the
Christ of faith.

The Bible is False

Which Bible? Translations and copy
errors have corrupted the original
texts
Contradictions abound: Geneologies,
empty tomb, chronology of Gospels,
etc.
Archeology: no support for historical
Abraham, Exodus, David, Temple,
etc.

Ethics
Whatever promotes human
flourishing and happiness should be
pursued.
Whatever causes overall human
misery should be eliminated.
Anyone who cant tell the difference
is stupid.
Atheists are morally upright people.

Evolution
The true account of the origin and
emergence of life
Blind Watchmakers Thesis: Evolution
has no built-in purpose.
Intelligent Design and creationism
represent religion, not science. And
thus dont belong in the academy.

Against NOMA
Non-Overlapping Magesteria: Stephen A.
Goulds notion that science and religion
are not in conflict. They have different but
legitimate domans of teaching authority:
Science: the domain of empirical facts
Religion: the domain of ultimate meaning

But the New Atheists say religion has no

meaning.

Character of God
The most unpleasant character in all
of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a
petty, unjust, unforgiving control
freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty
ethnic cleanser . . . capriciously
malevolent bully.
- Richard
Dawkins

Read the Bible Flat

That all texts in the Bible are of equal
weight. If its in the Bible, it applies to
all times/places.
Example: Wearing clothing of two kinds
of material was forbidden to Israel (Lev
19:19); this law stands for all time.
Since these laws are ridiculous, the
Bible is false and believers deluded..

Theology is Meaningless
Theology (the study of God) is a
meaningless exercise. It doesnt
deserve academic respect.
Its a study about nothing. Its like
astrology.

Atheism re-defined
Rather than making the positive
claim that God doesnt exist, many
atheists are describing their atheism
as a lack of belief:
Lack of belief in God
Same as lack of belief in unicorns. Not
active disbelieve in unicorns. Simply
dont believe.

Strict Separation of
Church/State
Politicians who act according to their
religious conscience are in violation
of the public trust.
Public schools should not be allowed
to teach religion, creationism,
intelligent design, etc.
Tax-exempt status for religious
institutions is wrong.

Posture/Attitude of New
Atheists
Often characterized by aggression,
anger, ridicule.
Dismissive
(but not always. Sometimes
respectful, caring, dialogical)

Q&A
3 questions
Please be brief

Common Tactics
Throwing sand in the air: This is the
technique of making a barrage of
objections to Christianity all at once.
Defining Faith as excluding evidence
and reason.
Not staying on topic. Instead, returning
to attack mode on favorite issues.
Ridicule as a form of argument.

 Throwing sand in the air: tell me the logic in believing

inthe infallible inerrant bible? creation 6,000 to
10,000years ago? a flat earth; an earth which is the
center of the universe and around which the sun rotates;
the earth standing still? non-existent archaeological
evidence for Israel in Egypt, Moses and the Exodus?
Joshua leading Israel to destroy all opposing nations in the
Levant?A baby born of virgin? Non-existent prophecies of
Jesus which are no more than lifting verses out of OT
scripture and calling them prophecies; gospels which claim
to be eye witness accounts when said accounts are written
decades even generations later by unknown authors;a NT
for which their are no original copies, copies of copies,
copies of copies of copies of any original manuscripts;
gospelsnever referred to by church fathers until 180 CE;
gospels which are inundated with contradictions,
inconsistencies; a savior jesus who tells lies and makes
promises which are lies . . .

Tactics (cont.)
Objections based on Christians
behaving badly (hypocrisy)
Crusades
Inquisition
Salem witch hunts
Clergy scandals
Religion has been the cause of all the
wars in history

Q&A

Responding to Atheists

Pray
Show love and respect.
Dont match their posture and tone.
Take things one issue at a time. Dont try
to answer all objections at once.
Keep the conversation on topic. Atheists
like to switch the topic.
Respect their objections. Dont assume its
all a smokescreen.

Responding (cont.)
Invite into Christian community
Read books together (from both sides)
Teach the Bible:
Speak the truth in a caring way; trust God.
Advanced: At some point, common ground
is lost. Time to admit incommensurability,
retreat to Christian tribal posture, teach
from true paradigm.

Responding (cont.)
Go on the offensive
Make objections to materialism, unguided
evolution, ethics without God

Challenge sweeping generalizations

about the Bible, connections with
mythical gods, etc.
Ask: How do you know?
Ask: How much do you actually know about
(the Crusades, slavery in the Bible, etc)?

Responding (cont.)
Insist on your own definition of faith,
not theirs.
Faith can, in fact, be backed up by
evidence.
No one has the right to define your faith
for you (e.g.: Faith, by definition, is
believing without evidence . . . )

Responding (cont.)
Things to do together
Read books
Study the Bible
Attend lectures, debates (or watch on
line)
Read articles
Discuss differences in writing (facebook,
email, etc).
Invite them into Christian community

Images to Use
Faith and Evidence
Faith is like skydiving
Faith is like getting married

Hypocrisy
Dont blame the hammer
Imposter police
Joseph Stalin
Science, geography

Images (cont.)
Science and faith
Elephant Traps
The Novelist
The Bicycle
The Bricklayer
The Shrinking Island
The Smoking Gun

Images (cont.)
Historical Jesus
Massive conspiracy of the early church
Muslims remain monotheists

Jesus = Santa Claus, fairies, unicorns

Why believe in Socrates?

Images (cont.)
Problem of suffering/evil
Broken World
Free will defense (not robots)
Dysfunctional family
Big Story
Suffering Christ

Images
IVP book next summer: easy-to-use
images and analogies for talking with
skeptics.
Working title: Faith is like Skydiving
And 40 other easy-to-use images for
dialogue with seekers and skeptics

Encouragement
The vast majority of naturalist
philosophers have come to hold . . . an
unjustified belief in naturalism. Their
justifications have been defeated by
arguments developed by theistic
philosophers, and now naturalist
philosophers, for the most part, live in
darkness about the justification for
naturalism. - atheist philosopher Quentin
Smith.

Tom
Tom grew up Catholic, struggled with
doubts, attended Notre Dame
(philosophy), embraced atheism,
became a lawyer with a deep sense
of skepticism.
Came to Christ through persistent,
caring witness, argumentation (e.g.
Case for Christ), Christian community

Aaron
Long-time atheist
Joined thoughtful Christian community that
engaged the life of the mind.
Remained atheist in this community for five
years.
Appreciated hospitality, care-giving.
Finally the arguments made sense.
Last February gave his life to Christ.
It can happen.

Visiting your campus/church

www.Rickmattsonoutreach.com
rick.mattson@studentjourney.org
Evangelism, training
Stump the Chump
Free for InterVarsity groups
dl.dropbox.com/u/26632378/Presentation%2C
%20the%20New%20Atheism%2C%20Urbana
%2012.pptx

Suggested Resources
Handbook of Christian Apologetics (Kreeft and
Tacelli)
Where the Conflict Really Lies (Plantinga)*
There is a God (Antony Flew)
Contending with Christianitys Critics (ed. WL
Craig)
Letters from a Skeptic (Boyd)
The Reason for God (Keller)
Philosophy of Religion 2 ed (Evans/Manis)
The Jesus Legend (Boyd, Eddy)*
nd