God Is. How Christianity Explains Everything

By Douglas Wilson

Book Overview

The most hard-hitting response to atheist Christopher Hitchens available! Continuing his series of responses to the recent atheists, Doug Wilson reaches a level of wit and insight rarely found among... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0915815869
• ISBN13: 9780915815869
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: American Vision
• Length: 105 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Who knew dismantling Hitchens' arguments could be this much fun?

_God Is._ constitutes a brief (~100 pages) critique by Douglas Wilson of Christopher Hitchens' book, _God Is Not Great_. In my estimation, the slim length of the book is just about right given the inanity of Hitchens' grievances against Christianity in particular and religion in general. I've been telling people for a couple of years now that Hitchens is not that bright when it comes to matters of philosophy (epistemology, metaphysics, etc.). Write? Few can match Hitchens. Out-think Christianity or other non-naturalistic worldviews? Few can be found in print who have been a more abject failure than Hitchens. All Hitchens has to offer is what Wilson refers to as AIBM, "the Argument for Infidelity from the Bon Mot" (p. 29). So poorly put together are Hitchens' arguments that I would as a common courtesy insist to anyone planning a critique of atheism that they leave _God Is Not Great_ out of the mix. It does for atheism what Pamela Anderson does for PETA - very little in the way of substance and intellectual fortitude, and that's being polite about it. Wilson not only dismantles Hitchens arguments, he does so in the same way Hitchens attempts to dismantle religion - using liberal doses of wit and humor. Here are some samples: - "Religion poisons everything. 'So? Does this offend anyone whose opinion should matter to me? Is there some kind of rule against poisoning everything? Who made that rule? And who died and left that particular busybody king? Get your moralism outta my face, Hitchens.'" (p. 5) - "I am perfectly willing to loan him a fixed scriptural standard so that he might enjoy the pleasure of disapproving of hysterical believers who go off like bottle rockets whenever an atheist is naughty in public. Because that is the only way he is able to enjoy such spectacles - with borrowed standards." (pp. 8-9) - "When you compare abominable theistic societies and abominable atheistic societies, the variables are probably not the thing you want to appeal to in order to account for the constant, horrific result. We need to look for the constant. What might that be? People. People poison everything. The Scriptures give us the reason for this, which is that people are sinners." (p. 12) - "I am glad he chose this argument--since religion poisons everything, let's talk about DDT and malaria. Let's talk about which religious group it was that succeeded in banning a substance that would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Was it the Vatican, or Muslim imams, or....No, it was secularists who in one of their periodic and recurring enviro-panics decided to consign countless thousands in the Third World to misery and death. Was this a religious bonehead move? No? Can we still count it, or does it have to go into another book?" (pp. 19-20) - "After the publication of my Sam Harris book, I had occasion to drop in at Richard Dawkins' blog site and say a few things. This involved reading some of the other posts, and it occurred to me that just becau

A Good Response to Hitchens

This is an excellent response to Christopher Hitchens. Wilson is witty and lucid as usual. And he takes Hitchens to task in a serious way. Since this is a response to another book, I'd obviously recommend that you read "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens before reading this (if you are able to stomach it). If you haven't read "God is Not Great", you will get some great tidbits, but of course its never very good to read a critique without reading what it is critiquing. Kudos to Wilson for taking on Hitchens!

God Is and Everything Requires Him

Pastor and apologist Douglas Wilson makes even the basic elements of life and thought look designed and enthralling in this brief apologetic response to Christopher Hitchens atheistic polemics. "God Is" is a breezy, nonetheless erudite, exposition of the author's rundown of the underlying entities and rational a priori truths that require Christian theism. Deny CT and one fails to account for the changeless universals all men take for granted and must utilize: even the New Atheists! The subtitle is "How Christianity Explains Everything; A Reply to Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." That subtitle is a grand claim, nevertheless Wilson demonstrates, with great wit and apologetic ingenuity, the truth of his assertion. Wilson is quite nimble in his epistemic application as he establishes the ultimate resiliency of CT in explaining all of reality forasmuch as it alone can be the ground and fount for rational and moral necessities. This little volume is a solid, insightful, risible, and penetrating page-turner. Wilson's presentation can be employed to refute not only Hitchens, but the whole axis of the new atheism. The Kindle makes it very useful. Letter to an Atheist Nation: Presupositional Apologetics Responds To: Letter to a Christian