Atheist Delusions: Working title David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions is a labyrinthine, convoluted historical essay. Hart has carefully crafted his argument for God while simultaneously discrediting those who oppose his well-founded argument. He proves his point by offering history, facts, and reason onto why and how Christianity has been such an influence on the society of past, present and future. His method of delivery is complex yet genuine. He destroys the delusional atheists’ arguments with a grandiose compilation of philosophy, theory, and logic; he stands up for God. This essay is Hart’s way of decoding and explaining the ideas of the Christian revolution. Those ideas ranging from the thoughtfulness of Christianity to the mistaken …show more content…
As stated above Christianity is good and humans are inherently good due to the huge impact of Christianity. This impact being the devotion, principles of kindness, and advocacy of the Church. Christians are religiously standing up for those who can’t stand for themselves. We Christians clothe the naked and feed the poor without a second guess due to the kind nature that we have been taught through the values presented and practiced by our leaders. We do not demonize other’s choices but embrace their mistakes and learn to coincide with them. This is not solely the modern-day Christian, this has been going on for quite some time now. Pages 79-80 reference witchcraft and the burning of witches during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. “Nevertheless, it was the Catholic Church, of all the institutions of the time, that come to treat accusations of witchcraft with the most pronounced incredulity.” (80) The Catholic Church did believe “a rising tide of Satanism” but the were not quick to accuse. Institutions were eager to rid the world of Satanism and witches but to quick to judge. Christianity says that we should not judge people but their actions and that is exactly what the Christians did with these so-called witches- they didn’t immediately judge the person, they judged their actions. Another prime example of the goodness of Christianity is the willingness to help others in a time of need. A specific …show more content…
The Bubonic plague swept across Europe and Asia claiming over twenty-five million lives. This was a time of doubt for the Catholic Church. Many believed that they were being punished for their sins but could not figure out exactly what they have done. There was widespread hesitation to still trust the Church after the Church could no longer produce a reason onto why the people were suffering from this awful horrendous disease. Throughout all the doubt the Church still stood strong in their values. Priest volunteered to care for the ill and offer hope and support, risking their lives to do what Christian values tell them to do. Many priests did die after the exposure, but the Christian community still pursued on to help the sick. Where was everybody else during this horrid massacre put on by the Bubonic Plague? Well they were busy with themselves. They banished people that showed signs of the Plague in order to keep their community safe. After banishment, they offered no support to the people that they banished leaving them helpless and sick. This is where the true Christians came in the help. They came to help because it was in their nature to care for the needy. Almost in disregard for their own lives, Priest were devoting themselves to the sick in order to help, because Christianity is
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
H.J McCloskey’s article, “On Being an Atheist,” is an attempt to show atheism as a more practical alternative to the Christian belief. McCloskey reasons against the theistic beliefs of the cosmological argument, the teleological argument and design. He references the presence of evil in a world created by God and the absurdity of living by faith. This article is an attempt to reason that God does not exist because He is perfect and the world is not perfect; evil exists therefore God cannot exist. McCloskey’s article labels these arguments as “proofs” and concludes none of these arguments would be evidence of God’s existence. I find McCloskey’s article to lack logic and coherence which only serves to invalidate his arguments. I find this little more than an attempt to justify his own atheistic worldview.
In the book’s introduction, Walter Rauschenbusch has written “It follows that the relation between Christianity and social crisis is one of the most pressing questions for all intelligent men who realize the power of religion, and most of all the religious leaders of the people who give direction to the forces of religion” .
...them to supply them with food and help. Because even at this time, the church started to stop letting people near them in fear of catching the plague. The plague also led to the decline of the church’s power in Medieval Europe, as people started seeing that even the church was powerless in this epidemic.
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski uses clever and unique critiques of militant atheism and its devotion to scientism. Ten in depth chapters shed light on the dogmatic stance of many of today’s popular “new atheists.” According to Berlinski new atheism poses itself as the sole holder of truth through science, “And like any militant church, this one places a familiar demand before all others: Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (10). Berlinski (a secular Jew) approaches ideas with his own mixture of intelligence and thought filled logic; exploring the world as well as important philosophical questions pertaining to “new atheism”. Thus providing the information needed to explore the sides for both and existence and nonexistence of God.
... of the Christian faith front and center by uniting two camps of believers in one reading; a starting point. As illustrated by the authors, “Though we have not, of course, reached agreement, we are satisfied that we have eliminated misunderstandings, that is, that neither of us has misrepresented the other. We offer the result to the reader as a celebration of shared friendship, faith, and scholarship” (xi).
was abandoning them at this time, but the priests were dying too. When the plague
Henry, Carl F. H. The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003.
Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New York: Twelve, 2007. Print.
5. Smith, J. M. (2011). Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from
Not all members of the church stayed truthful to their beliefs but those who did sure made an impact. The Catholic Church did many things to try to help people during the Black Death, but probably the most beneficial thing they gave to those suffering was their presence. No one wanted to be around the plague but those member of the church that reacted to the epidemic by helping their neighbors shows truly what that Catholic Church was really like in the 14th century.
Unnever, J. D., Bartkowski, J. P., & Cullen, F. T. (2010). God Imagery and Opposition to
“Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority[control of the masses].”(Zeitgeist 2007) In this essay, we will explore the different roots of religion and the plagiarism that Christianity and a number of different religions have committed.
The Sudden death of nearly one-third of the population in Europe had major immediate and lasting social implications. One of the most apparent effects of this was that on religion. After an initial outburst of renewed piety, the Black Plague ultimately weakened the role of religion and specifically the Catholic church. When people started dying in droves, the masses looked to religion for comfort and salvation. Many, believing the plague to be the wrath of God, took up such extreme practices such as self-flagellation hoping for forgiveness. Another extreme practice, although born out of perceived necessity, included burying oneself alive on holy grounds because no priests were left or willing to perform last rites . Due to the lack of priests, who had either died helping the sick or refused to see the sick, the Pope eventually had to declare a worldwide
Habermas, G. R. (2008). The plight of the new atheism:a critique. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 813-827.