Unbelievable? 2 Oct 2010 - The New Atheism - Alister McGrath & Caspar Melville

Unbelievable?

Premier Unbelievable?

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2014

⏱️ 81 minutes

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Summary

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett & Sam Harris are all figures at the vanguard of the "New Atheism". The books have sold well, but where does this form of confrontational and outspoken atheism have to go next? Alister McGrath is Theology professor at Kings College London and regularly speaks and writes against Atheism. He says that there's nothing "new" about New Atheism and that it exhibits all the signs of being a religious form of belief itself. Caspar Melville is editor of the UK's New Humanist magazine. He says that "New Atheism" has been good for business and is provoking a debate that needs to be had. They debate whether there is a historical naivety to the movement, Dawkins' claim that "I just believe in one less god than you" and much more besides. For Alister McGrath see http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mcgrath/ For Caspar Melville see http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/ For more Christian/non-Christian debate visit http://www.premier.org.uk/unbelievable or get the podcast at http://ondemand.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/AudioFeed.aspx or via Itunes If you enjoyed this programme you may also enjoy: Unbelievable? 14 Nov 2009 - Alister McGrath on Atheism, theology and defending the faith Unbelievable? 12 Dec 2009 Richard Dawkins debate on "Atheism is the New Fundamentalism" - review with interviews Join the discussion at the Unbelievable? group of the Premier Community. http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable

Transcript

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0:30.1	Hello and welcome along to the program wherever you are however you're listening I'm Justin Briley your host for the next hour and a half with unbelievable the show that brings together Christians and non-Christians for discussion and debate every week and we're really looking at one of the issues that has
0:44.2	been at the forefront of this program for the last few years today the new atheism.
0:48.4	Today we're asking the future of atheism is it a bold new world of course the new
0:55.4	atheism has been around well really I would say it launched when Richard
0:59.9	Dawkins published the God Delusion four years ago. He and others including
1:03.6	Christopher Hitchins, Daniel Bennett and Sam Harris have been at the Vanguard of the
1:07.9	new atheism. Well we're asking today is it a bold new world what is the future
1:12.4	for it?
1:13.0	Alisto McGrath joins me, he's a theologian and philosopher at Kings College London.
1:17.5	He's author of course of the best-selling book in response to the God Delusion,
1:20.9	the Dawkins Delusion. He's going to be in conversation today with
1:23.9	Casper Melville, who's editor of New Humanist magazine, also CEO of the
1:28.6	Rationalist Association, and we'll be asking, are the new atheist historically naive?
1:34.6	What is the future of atheism?
1:36.4	And why does Alisto McGrath believe that atheism is in its twilight years?
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