Why God Won’t Go Away

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Atheism is certainly nothing new. In fact, many first century Christians were accused of being atheists because they stopped believing in the pantheistic system of many gods of their culture. The beginning of atheism being the main stream thought in Western Culture began as a philosophic outpouring of the industrial age. The so-called Modern man was too rational and too logical to be bogged down with the superstitious subjects of faith and religion. This full blown cultural shift was brought to bear populously by the Scopes “Monkey” trial and seen its culmination culturally in the Ữber logical Mr. Spock on TV’s Star Trek.

But a cultural shift only lasts so long before it begins to be overrun by the next philosophical upheaval. Modernity was rapidly replaced by post-modernism and the “end of reason” crowd soon told us that “what’s good for you is good for you, and what’s good for me is good for me.” Along with this came a renewed interest in all things spiritual. Not necessarily the religion of your grandparents, but absolutely not the stagnant, cold, unbelieving rationality of your parents either. Gen X began to seek after a new spirituality that was zen and created fung shui.

Coming out of this new postmodern, all things go, mentality, the clerics of atheism began a new atheistic movement, dubbed unoriginally as “New Atheism.”  Targeting not just the illogicality of religion, but taking a much nastier turn than the live and let live of old, new atheism pompously touts itself as the only kid on the block. Men such as Richard Dawkins (the scientist, not to be confused with Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes), Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris do battle with the likes of Ravi Zacharias, Alister McGrath, and William Lane Craig, three of the brightest minds in Christian Apologetics.

McGrath’s Book, Why God Won’t Go Away, answers these critics from New Atheism and delivers a resounding blow to an anti-religion fad that is on its way to the junk piles of history. The book would be suitable for someone that is above average in their knowledge of apologetics, but it is really designed for the individual with an even higher understanding than that. Not recommended as casual reading or for the causal theologian…unless you’re suffering from insomnia. But for the pastor or serious Bible student, this would come as highly recommended.