The Twilight of AtheismAtheism is considered to be one the most important movements in modern Western culture, it has played a very important role in culture for more than two hundred years. In the period of time described in the book the author traces the roots of atheism that was engendered by the main events of the epoch, especially by The French Revolution. Later on atheism was developed due to works of Darwin and Freud who are considered the prime expressions of the atheism in the European culture after the French Revolution. In his book The Twilight of Atheism Alister McGrath researches the development of atheist dreams and tries to explain the reason why religion and faith are to play a central role in the twenty-first century. The author finally states that renewal of faith is natural and necessary response to atheism s failures. It is not a work of apologetics, but an attack on atheism from a theistic position, not always obligatory Christian. He estimates that atheism is in decline and he believes that it is the result of the influence of modernism movements, which could theoretically extinguish religion. However, such extinguishing failed and one of its results was the development of religious fundamentalism practically all over the world. The author treats it like a response of theism to atheism and that permits to conclude that he interprets the growth of fundamentalism, along with the failure of modernism in extinguishing religion, as quite effective arguments in favor of his position. Furthermore, he speaks about organized atheism but at the same time he predicts its failure because according to him atheism is too obsolete and consequently it is unable to oppose to the return of people to religion. He believes that atheists would turn to religion and according to his point of view it is as natural process as failure of atheism since both of them are extrapolated from one group. For McGrath god is the natural condition, atheism is seen as a reaction to theism, but all anti-theistic movements are not the same even if they all are called atheism. The author suggests the idea, that if to define faith as belief lying beyond proof," both Christianity and atheism are faiths. But the aim of the author is not so much to analyze atheism as to destroy its intellectual credentials, and he does succeed in it. His main idea is that atheism is in a twilight zone, it has faded to shadows of society. The flourish time of it is when the religion is oppressing, but it is withdrawn when spirituality is an asset to the lives of people. So, the conclusion is that now it is downtime for atheism. McGrath states: "The future looks nothing like the godless and religionless world so confidently predicted forty years ago. Political opportunities and cultural sensitivity have led to religious beliefs being treated with new respect. The atheist agenda, once seen as a positive force for progress, is now seen as disrespectful toward cultural diversity." McGrath believes that atheism has reached its limits and people in postmodern society try to "explore...the forbidden fruit of spirituality." The other evidences of limitation of atheism the author finds in many American Christians or Islamic radicals. Overall, the main idea of the author is that atheism has deep roots in the history of humanity and that it has started to fade as an ideological and spiritual (when it can be called so) movement. Are You Free of the Opinion of Others Hypnotherapy The Answer To Phobias
|
|