The New

Religion in

America Larry Isitt

Jan 2013

Dec 5, 2012

Cadet quits, cites

overt religion at West

Point By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A cadet, Blake Page, quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets.

Cadet—AP story 5 Dec 2012

'Jedi' religion most popular alternative faith

Today's Census figures show that 176,632 people in

England and Wales identify themselves as Jedi

Knights, making it the most popular faith in the

"Other Religions" category on the Census and the

seventh most popular faith overall.

--The Telegraph (London) 30 Dec 2012

The human heart is deceitful, desparately wicked—who can know it? Jer 17:9

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1:18

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. 2 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. --Psalm 14: 1-3

5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Luke 8: 5, 11

Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. John 12.37

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Cor 4:4

1) Whatever is held to be true is objectively, transcendentally true;

so that the same standard of ultimate truth is true for everybody.

2) Belief that there is such a thing as objective reality, true for the

whole universe

3) That reality is capable in some sense of being known

1) Objective truth can only be gained by scientific, rational

means

2) Belief in supernatural, or in God, is superstition, outmoded

PRE-MODERN MODERN POST-MODERN

SUPERNATURAL ANTI-SUPERNATURAL

MYSTICAL SUPERNATURAL

AUTHORITY FROM GOD /gods/spirits

AUTHORITY FROM SCIENCE, REASON

NO ULTIMATE AUTORITY

- -

GOD 1. Personal 2. Creator 3. All-powerful 4. loving

UNIVERSE 1. purposeful, not accidental 2. Orderly, God’s laws 3. God-created

MAN 1. Creation of God 2. Sinner, Garden of Eden 3. Christ saved on Cross 4. Life after death 5. Heaven & Hell real

GO 1. erso al or e 2. o -e s e 3. os le o a or 4. d ere

1. e ol ed, a de 2. s rd, w o

r ose 3. Orderly, a re’s laws

1. e ol ed, a de ,

r oseless 2. o a er l e ow

or s re

Origin of Species 1859

Descent of Man 1871

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

The New Atheists from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/

The New Atheists are authors of early twenty-first century books promoting atheism. These authors include Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens.

“THE FOUR HORSEMEN” OF NEW ATHEISM: Sam Harris The End of Faith (2004) Daniel Dennett Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006)

Richard Dawkins The God Delusion (2006) Christopher Hitchens god is Not Great (2007)

The End of Faith (2004). Religions are "all equally uncontaminated by evidence".

Insofar as religious belief fails to ground

itself in empirical evidence, Harris likens

religion to a form of mental illness which,

he says, "allows otherwise normal human

beings to reap the fruits of madness and

consider them holy."

It is "merely an accident of history that it is considered

normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the

universe can hear your prayers, while it is demonstrative of

mental illness to believe that he is communicating with

you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom

window."

PREFACE

[Consciousness Raising #4]

My fourth consciousness-raiser is atheist pride.

Being an atheist is nothing to be apologetic about.

On the contrary, it is something to be proud of,

standing tall to face the far horizon, for atheism

nearly always indicates a healthy independence of

mind and, indeed, a healthy mind. (from the Preface, pp.3-4)

[Purpose: to make atheists of believers]

If this book works as I intend, religious

readers who open it will be atheists when

they put it down. What presumptuous

optimism! (from the Preface, p. 5)

John Stuart Mill was already able to say

[in the nineteenth century]: 'The world

would be astonished if it knew how great

a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of

those most distinguished even in popular

estimation for wisdom and virtue, are

complete sceptics in religion.‘ (from the Preface, p. 4)

50 academics talk about god

CHAPTER 2 The God

Hypothesis

[Religiousness in Atheistic Thought]

The God of the Old Testament is arguably

the most unpleasant character in all fiction:

jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,

unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive,

bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic,

homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal,

filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal,

sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent

bully. Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 31)

[Religiousness in Atheistic Thought]

Thomas Jefferson- : 'The

Christian God is a being of

terrific character - cruel,

vindictive, capricious and

unjust.‘ Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 31) Letter to William Short Jefferson's letter to William Short, from Monticello August 4, 1820. Thomas Jefferson

[Religiousness in Atheistic Thought]

Thomas Jefferson- : In the farsighted words

of Thomas Jefferson, writing to his

predecessor, John Adams, 'The day will

come when the mystical generation of Jesus,

by the Supreme Being as his father, in

the womb of a virgin, will be classed with

the fable of the generation of Minerva in the

brain of Jupiter.‘ Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 97) Letter to John Adams April 11, 1823 Letter to Joseph Priestly April 9, 1803 Jesus, Socrates, and Others; Gospel writers Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803 The Morals of Jesus

[Dawkins’ spectrum of probabilities] 1 Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C. G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.' 2 Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.' 3 Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.' 4 Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.' Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 50)

[Dawkins’ spectrum of probabilities] 5 Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.' 6 Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. ‘ I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.' 7 Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.' Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chap 2, p. 50)

END OF DAWKINS SLIDES

Reviews of God Delusion:

“T e God el s o y e a e s wr er ard Dawkins, is remarkable in the first place for having achieved some sort of record by selling over a million copies. But what is much more remarkable than that economic achievement is that the contents – or rather lack of contents – of this book show Dawkins himself to have become what he and his fellow secularists typically believe to be an impossibility: namely, a secularist bigot. (Helpfully, my copy of The Oxford o ary de es a o as ‘a o s a e or olera ad ere o a o o ew’).

The fault of Dawkins as an academic was his scandalous and apparently deliberate refusal to present the doctrine which he appears to think he has refuted in its s ro es or .”

-Antony Flew

Reviews of God Delusion:

Alvin Plantinga, The Dawkins Confusion - Naturalism ad Absurdum:

“ ow des e e a a s oo [T e God Delusion] is mainly philosophy, Dawkins is not a philosopher (he's a biologist). Even taking this into account, however, much of the philosophy he purveys is at best jejune. You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores; the fact is (grade inflation aside), many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class. This, combined with the arrogant, smarter-than-thou tone of the book, can be annoying. I shall put irritation aside, however and do my best to take Dawkins' main argument ser o sly.”

Christopher Hitchens

Versus The Bible’s Own Claims

GOD IS NOT GREAT:

HOW RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING

Four irreducible objections to religious faith (p.4):

1. Religion wholly misrepresents the origin of man and the

cosmos

2. Religion combines the maximum of servility with the

maximum of solipsism (the theory that the only thing you

can be certain about is your own existence and your

own thoughts and ideas)

3. Religion is both the result and the cause of dangerous

sexual repression

4. Religion is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking.

CHAPTER ONE

Credo (Lat. “I believe”; a statement of beliefs)(pp.5-6):

1. Our belief is not a belief

2. Our principles are not a faith

3. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, but we

distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages

reason

4. We respect free inquiry, openmindedness, the pursuit of

ideas for their own sake.

CHAPTER ONE

1. Heaven and Hell not necessary for morality: We do not

believe in heaven or hell, yet no statistic will ever find that

without these blandishments and threats we commit more

crimes or greed or violence than the faithful.

2. We are reconciled to living only once, except through our

children

3. We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived

without religion.

4. There is no need for us to gather every day, or every seven

days, or on any high and auspicious day, to proclaim our

rectitude or to grovel and wallow in our unworthiness.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

• “Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear

of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing

the dead. First presaged by the rantings of John the

Baptist, the son of god is revealed as one who, if his

milder words are not accepted straightaway, will

condemn the inattentive to everlasting fire” (176)

• “Even a glance at the whole record will show that

person for person, American freethinkers and agnostics

and atheists come out the best” (180)

Hitchens’ “god” is himself, scarcely disguised

as the tolerant seeker of the secrets and

wonders of the universe, taking his

nourishment of soul in humanism, and

believing in a “salvation” to he had in the

wisdom of the apostles of physics, biology,

evolution, and literature.

ISITT CONCLUSION:

END OF Hitchens SLIDES

Old Vs. New Atheists

Old New 1) Focused on rational arguments

against the TRUTH of Christianity

2) Christianity did have some

beneficial effects in history.

3) Christianity has had some positive

effects on science.

4) Books written by/for scholars; very

academic; never bestsellers.

5) Generally respectful of their

opponents.

6) Somewhat tolerant of Christianity.

7) Directly took on the classical

arguments for God.

1) Focuses on the pragmatic effects of

Christianity

2) There are no benefits to religion, it has

poisoned everything.

3) Christianity has and will be an

impediment to science.

4) Books written by laymen for the masses.

Written simply and easy to read.

Bestsellers!

5) Has brought a harsh tone to the debate

between atheist/Christian.

6) Seeks to eradicate any faith based belief.

7) Seem almost ignorant of the basic

philosophical arguments for God.

Old Vs. New Atheists

Old

New

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Heb 6:4-6