Why God Won't Go Away: Engaging with the New Atheism by McGrath Alister

Author:McGrath, Alister [McGrath, Alister]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: SPCK
Published: 2011-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

those that can be established by empirical observation;

those that can be established by logical deduction;

those that cannot be proved in either of these ways.

The first two categories concern what can be known reliably through the natural sciences on the one hand, and what can be proved through logic and mathematics on the other. The third category concerns the values and ideas that have shaped human culture and given human existence direction and purpose, but cannot be proved by reason or science.8

What sort of values and ideas? Here’s one. In 1948 the United Nations ‘reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights’. The statements of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’ cannot be proved, logically or scientifically; nor can the belief that democracy is better than fascism, or that oppression is evil. But many noble and wise people make upholding such things their life’s work, trusting that they are, in the first place, right, and in the second, important. Nobody thinks they’re mad for doing so. As the literary critic Terry Eagleton rightly points out, ‘We hold many beliefs that have no unimpeachably rational justification, but are nonetheless reasonable to entertain.’9

The philosopher Alvin Plantinga made this point years ago with reference to the perennial philosophical problem of ‘other minds’.10 To explain briefly: while I have direct knowledge that I have a mind, I can’t absolutely prove that you, the reader, have a mind, and you can’t absolutely prove that other people have minds. But nobody’s unduly bothered about this. It’s a safe assumption for us to make and chimes in with the way things seem to be. Plantinga argues for a parallel between proving the existence of ‘other minds’ and proving the existence of God. Neither can be verified, and good arguments can be raised against both – but to their defenders, both seem entirely reasonable.

The New Atheism refuses to confront the inconvenient truth that every world-view – whether religious or secular – goes beyond what reason or science can prove. That’s just the way things are. The ‘ultimate questions’ about value and meaning won’t go away. Both the New Atheism and Christianity represent and rest upon convictions. Both are based on what they know cannot be proved, yet nevertheless hold to be trustworthy. As has often beenpointed out, that’s how world-views and belief systems – whether religious or secular – work.

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