When an Atheist observes the failings of some Atheists

(Image from here)

I was alerted to a lengthy book review/opinion piece thanks to a friend on the 'UK Apologetics' Facebook page, and after having read it, I wanted to share it, as well as distill some of the pertinent points into a short blog post. For the sake of propriety, though, you can read it, title 'The Dark Age Myth: An Atheist Reviews 'God's Philosophers''. 

Whilst I would encourage you to head over and read the whole thing, here are a few of the aforementioned golden nuggets;

"So, alongside the regular airings of the the hoary old myth that the Bible was collated at the Council of Nicea, the tedious internet-based "Jesus never existed!" nonsense, or otherwise intelligent people spouting pseudo historical claims that would make even Dan Brown snort in derision, the myth that the Catholic Church caused the Dark Ages and the Medieval Period was a scientific wasteland is regularly wheeled, creaking, into the sunlight for another trundle around the arena"

Amen.

The author goes on to share the image below, which he calls;

 "The Most Wrong Thing On the Internet Ever"

(image from the article here)

Many people ask me about what I think of the conflict between religion and science, and I tell them I don't, because there isn't really one. So it was nice to read this:

"In the academic sphere, at least, the "Conflict Thesis" of a historical war between science and theology as been long since overturned. It is very odd that so many of my fellow atheists cling so desperately to a long-dead position that was only ever upheld by amateur Nineteenth Century polemicists and not the careful research of recent, objective, peer-reviewed historians. This is strange behavior for people who like to label themselves 'rationalists'"

And, just in case you want to talk about Galileo, the author makes another rather helpful observation;

"The proponents of the idea that the Church stifled science and reason in the Middle Ages have to wheel him out, because without him the actually have absolutely zero examples of the Church persecuting anyone for anything to do with inquiries into the natural world. The common conception that Galileo was persecuted for being right about heliocentrism is a total oversimplification of a complex business, and one that ignores the fact that Galileo's main problem was not simply that his ideas disagreed with scriptural interpretation but also with the science of the time"

The article, then, is an immensely helpful review of a book I would now really rather like to read and review myself! I probably don't have time at the moment, as my reading stack(s) present something of a hazard in my study. But in the meantime, why not check out a few of my other Apologetics posts? I'd particularly recommend my review of a book aiming to disprove Jesus' Resurrection, a post on 'Literal Creation', and also 'How the Bible Came to Be'. Specifically engaging Atheism, I would love you to read 'Reasonable Faith', which is a brief post on what we as Christians actually mean by faith, and 'On Atheism', another brief post about why I think the only good argument for atheism is personal...

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