Book Review - The Irrational Atheist

“Religion does not threaten science so much as science threatens itself. By combining increasingly authoritarian arrogance with an encroachment upon intellectual spheres they are manifestly unprepared to invade, scientists and their thoughtless science fetishist followers risk starting a genuine war they cannot possibly hope to win.”
-- Vox Day, The Irrational Atheist

After suffering multiple salvos of illogical atheist preening by the likes of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris, Christians can be refreshed by the return fire coordinated by Vox Day. Like the first chapters of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Vox does not build his arguments on authorities (like scripture) that are disputed by his adversaries. Rather, he carefully constructs logical, factually documented rebuttals to the writings of the Unholy Trinity, showing their arguments to be largely circular, self-promoting and fallacious. That, however, is where the similarity with the Oxford professor ends. Whereas C.S. Lewis’ work might be viewed as an elegant fencing match one would expect of academia, Vox’s book is more of the bare knuckle street brawl appropriate to his martial arts and MMO gaming background.

The result is not pretty for his opponents. “You want to talk Galileo and the Crusades? Great, let’s talk. You want to examine whether the “red” or “blue” population in America is more moral? Fine. You want to look at body counts and the causes of mass destruction and human suffering? Let's look at the Red record.” While the writing is entertaining at times, this is a serious answer to recent atheist bestsellers. It should not be dismissed as either a screed or attempt to financially ride the coattails of Dawkins, et al. Vox chose to fight on atheists’ favorite grounds, and he does so in a way that shows the terrain--reason--actually favors the faithful, not the faithless.

There need not be inherent conflict between faith and science, but the utopian aspirations of what Vox refers to as High Church atheists means the aggression against faith in the name of “science” will continue, necessitating a response:

“All I ask, all the vast majority of the billions of people of faith on the planet ask, is to be left alone to believe what we choose to believe and live how we choose to live. But the Unholy Trinity have no intentions of leaving me alone. Richard Dawkins accuses me of child abuse because I teach my children that God loves them even more than I do. Sam Harris declares that I should not be tolerated and suggests that it might be ethical to kill me in preemptive self-defense. Christopher Hitchens assert that I am a form of human Drano, poisoning everything I encounter. … And now we have a problem.”

Fortunately, the deconstruction of these leading Atheist writers should reassure the Christian that while we may have a problem with these “clowns of reason,” we ultimately have nothing to fear from them. (Romans 8:15) The ball is now in their court. It will be very telling to see what--if anything--they do with it.