David Bentley Hart - The new atheists and an ugly God

In an interview with CPX (a Christian organization based in North Sydney, Australia), extremely erudite Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart shares a few thoughts on the "New Atheist" movement.

His book, Atheist Delusions, can be purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Delusions-Christian-Revolution-Fashionable/dp/0...

A rough idea of what the book is about is enshrined in the following article (below which was a lively combox discussion):

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/04/believe-it-or-not


[note: CPX is the original creator of this video, not me. I am reposting it for others' edification. For more information, please go to www.publicchristianity.org]

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• philosophy
• christianity
• religion
• interviews
• theologian
• David
• Bentley
• Hart
• Eastern
• Orthodox
• crusades
• witch
• hunts
• inquisition
• slavery
• atheism
• theism
• Richard
• Dawkins
• god
• delusion
• Christopher
• Hitchens
• is
• not
• great
• Sam
• Harris
• letter
• to
• christian
• nation
• Daniel
• Dennett
• breaking
• the
• spell

[astroboomboy]

@jorgekluney Do you believe in the Aphrodite? And if you don't, then is your heart filled with hate? Can you never know love? Do you believe in Buddha? And if you don't, does that make you kill?

[jorgekluney]

@astroboomboy So you didn't get it. Okay: you said atheism is a non-belief (whatever that is) & since it has no positive content it can't motivate actions (such as Stalin or Mao, despite their being atheists). "I don't believe in God". I said, "I don't believe there is beer in the fridge" is the same (both negative beliefs).But, clearly it can motivate action "I'm going to buy beer". So, a negative belief (since 'nonbelief' is hogwash) can motivate actions.Beliefs are representational states.

[astroboomboy]

@jorgekluney You made that comparison, which is just a really bad argument for action and the belief in god. A belief that there is no beer in the fridge is not negative, I can measure it: there is beer, or not beer, and if I want beer I get more. It doesn't apply to god. I can't say, ok there is no god, therefore I will go get some god.

[jorgekluney]

@astroboomboy Not certain how you came to that conclusion. Either you got what I was saying and you're making a joke (ha....ha). Or, you really think that the comparison was with God's existence... In that case: :(

[astroboomboy]

@jorgekluney So you're comparing the belief in god with the belief that there is beer in your fridge? Well, I guess it's a good comparison, but beer is much more important.

[jorgekluney]

@astroboomboy It's not a matter of what I wish or not:atheism entails a certain metaphysics. That's not debatable. You made the error in thinking a negative belief is the same as a non belief, and that's foolish. My negative belief that there is no beer in the fridge could certainly motivate a behavior: go to the store and buy more. So clearly a negative belief can still impact behavior. The fact that you'd make such a fundamental mistake with respects to negative and non beliefs is very odd

[astroboomboy]

On all videos discussing atheism, religious people are always trying to create a connection between communism and atheism. It is merely a logical fallacy, as communism was not grounded on atheism, but on a dogmatic ideology. This is much closer to religion. Every religion is dogmatic, and every religion has an ideology (even though this changes as power changes).

[astroboomboy]

@Ubiwator You are right. People tend to think that atheism entails a view of life, and it does not. And this jorgenkluney seems to think that there is a difference between ideology and religion. Religion is ideology.

[astroboomboy]

@jorgekluney You may wish that atheism entails certain metaphysics, but that does not make it so. There are atheist nihilists, humanists, spiritualists, fatalist, materialist, physicalist, etc. Atheism does not entail one or the other of these views. Religion however has a clear dogma (bible, quran, Avestan, etc). Now try again.

[astroboomboy]

@jorgekluney That's a religious view. Those that are non-religious are viewed as going to hell, being inferior, etc. Atheism does not entail any metaphysics, it is just non-belief. If atheism is metaphysical, it would state that all humans are of the same matter, so they are completely equal (but this is a logical fallacy as atheism, like I have pointed out, is only non-belief). In either case, all these dictators ruled in countries with a majority of religious people that did not stop them