Session 9 - The Rise and Fall of the New Atheists

Soon after the attacks on 9/11, a plethora of books were published by a group of skeptics called “The New Atheists.” Their first motivation was to attack Islam as a religion committed to violence as evidenced in the attacks that day. But they soon aimed their vitriol at Christianity claiming that it, too, is harmful to both those who believe and society at large. Their attacks revisited old arguments proffered against Christianity from centuries ago but peppered it with contemptuous language that poisoned impressionable minds. But Christianity has more recently seen many unbelievers revisiting the claims of Christ and finding them to be more attractive than the atheists supposed. In this class, we will revisit some of the lessons learned from the debates with the New Atheists