Catholic Dads

4 Responses to I Don’t Belive In Atheists

1. Rob Kaiser says:

   July 2, 2010 at 12:39 am

   This guy is correct in that these folks are like fundamentalists, but he is not correct in thinking they only attack fundamentalists – they attack all religion & religious. It is also sad that he never paid attention to these jokers until he debated them.

   I also think that his point that those who believe Jesus will come again is "self delusional". Based on this, it seems to me he would lump faithful with "fundamentalists". I could be wrong, but this didn't make me want to read him.

   I think I would stick with a good Catholic on this topic. I am hoping to read Patrick Madrid's new book on the "New Athiests" – The Godless Delusion
2. The Dutchman says:

   July 2, 2010 at 4:19 am

   What I find most interesting about Hedges is that he comes from the same kind of back-ground as Hitchens, Dawkis, and Harris yet he is very much on our side. He's a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School who spent fifteen years as a war correspondent for the New York Times. Whereas I can't expect to get any of my bourgeois liberal friends to take Patrick Madrid seriously, Hedges has the sort of "intellectual credibilty" that they respect. He is religious AND he makes appearances on the mainstream media, whereas you're only likely to see Madrid on EWTN. So people who would never hear Madrid, might just hear and pay attention to Hedges.

   Hedges also argues from an interesting perspective: that atheism is bad for society because it denies original sin and thinks that mankind is perfectible. This is the road to the gulags, as he makes quite clear.
3. Rob Kaiser says:

   July 4, 2010 at 12:31 am

   Perhaps you need new friends if they can't take a serious man seriously.
4. The Dutchman says:

   July 9, 2010 at 12:47 pm

   So almost ten years ago I was at a work-related party when I was introduced to a woman who was supposed to be my opposite. Moira was a radical feminist, I was a traditionalist Catholic. Moira had recently graduated from an Ivy League school, I was working class. She was pro-abort, pro-gay marriage — you get the idea.

   Yet despite our many differences we became friends. Over time she began to see the wisdom of my position, the deep satisfactions of my spiritual life, the sheer joy of having children to love and cherish. And now, perhaps with my help but definitely with the help of the Holy Spirit, she is a believing Catholic, married, and with a beautiful one-year-old son. If it was I who won her over, it was through patience, understanding, and "meeting her where she was" (as John Janson usually puts it).

   Needless to say, this conversion has been poorly accepted by Moira's Ivy League friends, except for Vida. Unlike her other secular friends, Vida comes from a semi-religious family. Her folks were Lutheran and, even in college, Vida would sometimes go to a Lutheran service. She never called herself a christian, never attended regularly, yet she was never stridently secular either. So, when Moira went back for her ten-year-reunion recently, Vida was one of the few who did not scoff at her being a full time mom.

   Of course, as we all do now, Moira and Veda keep in touch via Facebook. And so, when Vida began a "relationship" with Monty, Moira "friended" Monty as a matter of course. Unfortunately, most of Monty's posts were of a virulent anti-religious nature. This went on for a few weeks and then stopped abruptly: Monty had "defriended" Moira and had in fact broken up with Vida. Naturally, at this point, a phone call was in order. Surprisingly, semi-secular Vida had broken up with Monty because of his anti-religious bigotry. After they got off the phone, Moira immediately ordered a copy of "I Don't Believe In Atheists" to be sent from Amazon directly to Vida.

   Now, Vida might not ever find God, and she might not ever even read the book, but do you think if she did read it that she might have to take Chris Hedges seriously? I think the question answers itself. An Ivy League girl is not going to give the time of day to Patrick Madrid, but Chris Hedges has an Ivy League doctorate and fifteen years at the New York Times.

   My buddy John Jansen is always saying "you have to meet people where they are" and Chris Hedges is where a lot of bourgeois liberals are, and Patrick Madrid just isn't.