Atheists’ debate won’t sway faithful
The Four Horsemen: The discussion that sparked an atheist revolution Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel C Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, Penguin Random House, $27 .. .. .. .. ..
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel C Dennett and Christopher Hitchens are called the New Atheists. Stephen Fry, who writes the introduction, is a comedian, actor and writer.
The result is a slim and rather wandering discussion about religion and its place in modern life.
The book is mostly transcripts of a conversation that you can find on YouTube from back in 2007. There are essays from the three surviving men — Hitchens died several years ago.
They discuss religion’s reliance on ancient writings and the giant flaws in all religious beliefs. Hitchens even argues that religion should continue because he wants a sparring partner. No doubt he will now have discovered if heaven exists.
Like most outspoken atheists, the arguments are pretty scathing, but equally valid, and they discuss the “intellectual and moral courage” of atheism.
If the Bible or the Quoran isn’t a magic book, then those two religions vanish.
Can they really be the “perfect word” of an omniscient deity, they ask? Just being in a “holy book” doesn’t cut it any more.
This might spark a discussion, but I doubt the faithful will change their minds. — Linda Thompson