Bill, we've been watching the demise of the new atheists for some time now.

It doesn't necessarily mean that atheism is going away, but there seems to be some changes.

Justin Breyerly talks about this in his new book, and in this article, he says, quoting,

I knew something had changed when in 2018, I received an unexpected email from atheist

thinker Peter Begozion.

I couldn't quite believe what I was reading.

At the time, Begozion was a professor of philosophy at Portland State University.

When he joined me for a podcast debate on faith in 2014, he had been as anti-religious

as they come.

His book, A Manual for Creating Atheist, was a set of strategies for talking religious people

out of their beliefs, which he claimed were akin to a mental delusion.

However, four years later, when Begozion responded to an invitation to a fresh dialogue, he

told me that he was no longer participating in debates against Christians.

Indeed, he now felt quite differently about people of faith.

You might be surprised at how much I have in common with you now, he wrote.

His focus had shifted to countering a far more pernicious threat.

Begozion's change of heart is, one among many stories, the culture wars have shifted

the ground in the dialogue between Christianity and atheism in recent years.

A couple of things to talk about here, Bill.

We did a podcast several years ago on Peter Begozion dealing with his definition, or we

should say faulty definition of faith, and the street epistemology that several of his

followers were doing.

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