Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back, y’all! We recently reviewed a 2019 book by Christian Smith, Atheist Overreach. In it, he developed a thesis that he felt merited atheists’ attention: that Catholicism–er, sorry, religion represented some humongous value to humanity that they needed to accept for humanity’s own good. In short, he argues for compliance with religious leaders’ demands, not […]
Atheist Overreach (2019 Book)
Posted inReligion
The Truth About Christianity
Reading Time: 11 minutes Hi and welcome back! As many people do now, I feel disquiet and dread when I check out what Christians are doing lately. And I’m not just talking about the obvious ones shooting protesters and screeching about their worship of Donald Trump. To me, the range of behavior we see in Christians reflects the cardinal […]
Posted inReligion, Science
‘Atheist Overreach’ Thinks Secularization Will Fail
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. We’ve covered the three questions that Smith asked and answered in his book. Now, let’s look at the conclusion he draws from his work. Namely, he thinks secularization will ultimately fail — making religion dominant once again across humanity. So […]
Posted inReligion
‘Atheist Overreach’ and the Appeal to Consequences
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. In it, he poses three questions he thinks are super-important. And he asks these three particular questions for a reason. See, he thinks that if humans abandon religion forever, then we’ll bring much suffering upon ourselves. Today, let’s check out […]
Posted inGeneral, Religion, Science
‘Atheist Overreach’ Asks If God-Belief Is Inevitable
Reading Time: 13 minutes Now we move to Smith’s third question: Is god-belief inevitable, something humans will never really escape? Today, let’s explore that question.
Posted inReligion
Utility vs. Truthfulness in ‘Atheist Overreach’
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Christian Smith’s 2019 book, Atheist Overreach. In it, he seeks to make a case for Christian dominance as a force for good in the world. But he does it in such a strange way. He doesn’t argue that we should follow Christianity’s rules because a real live god […]
Posted inReligion
‘Atheist Overreach’ and Being Good Without Gods
Reading Time: 9 minutes In this book, the author expresses great concern over “how human societies might best be organized.” That’s certainly an innovative way to obfuscate a theocratic agenda, isn’t it? Indeed, a solid chunk of the book frets about how on earth societies can possibly function without adopting the rules that religions have set in place for their adherents. Today, let’s examine the argument from morality that he offers — and see what really makes it tick.
Posted inReligion, Science
What ‘Atheist Overreach’ Gets Wrong About Meaning and Purpose
Reading Time: 8 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. In it, he makes three central arguments. Up to now, we’ve been talking about his attempt to negate science as the only real source of knowledge humanity’s ever discovered. But today, we dive into why he had to do that. He […]
Posted inReligion
Deconversion: How Reality Drained My Faith Pool
Reading Time: 10 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about a Christian book called Atheist Overreach. In particular, yesterday we discussed the ways that Christians mangle and negate science — and even deny reality itself — to make their claims look more valid. That line of thinking led me to memories of my own deconversion. Today, […]
Posted inReligion
Evil, Nasty Scientism in ‘Atheist Overreach’
Reading Time: 8 minutes Hi and welcome back! Of late, we’ve been checking out Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. One of the ways he feels atheists ‘overreach’ involves what he refers to as ‘vulgar imperialistic scientism.’ Oh my, what oh what can scientism possibly be? Today, we’ll find out — and then we’ll see why our author likes this accusation […]