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C.S. Lewis was right: Atheists cannot be too careful of their reading.
Broadly speaking there are two types of atheism. One is, or can be, truly noble; the other is, and always will be, truly ignoble.
The noble sort of atheism is that which is genuinely interested in the quest for truth and pursues it in a disinterested way, as something that is worth doing because it is a good thing to do. Chesterton pays tribute to this sort of noble atheist in his novel, The Ball and the Cross, depicting Turnbull, the atheist character, as being as honest and honorable as the Catholic character, MacIan, with whom Turnbull wishes to fight a duel. This noble atheism can be not only good in itself but can be good for Christianity also. Its insistence on the legitimacy and indeed the necessity of reason helps to expose those heretical forms of Christianity which have turned their back on reason, treating reason with suspicion or even contempt. Since Christian orthodoxy has always insisted on the inextricable and indivisible union of faith and reason (fides et ratio), it has always condemned fideism, which is the heretical belief that faith is independent of reason or even that faith and reason are enemies and are therefore mutually exclusive. One of the great weaknesses of Islam, apart from its rejection of the divinity of Christ, is its tendency towards fideism, and one of the great weaknesses of certain types of fundamentalist Protestantism, in spite of the insistence on the divinity of Christ, is this same tendency towards fideism. Insofar as the rational questions of the noble atheist highlight the irrational nature of fideism, the atheist is a natural ally of Christian orthodoxy, albeit an accidental and an uncomfortable one.
Continued below.
There Are Two Kinds of Atheism, and These 5 Books Will Help You Debunk Both
Broadly speaking there are two types of atheism. One is, or can be, truly noble; the other is, and always will be, truly ignoble.
The noble sort of atheism is that which is genuinely interested in the quest for truth and pursues it in a disinterested way, as something that is worth doing because it is a good thing to do. Chesterton pays tribute to this sort of noble atheist in his novel, The Ball and the Cross, depicting Turnbull, the atheist character, as being as honest and honorable as the Catholic character, MacIan, with whom Turnbull wishes to fight a duel. This noble atheism can be not only good in itself but can be good for Christianity also. Its insistence on the legitimacy and indeed the necessity of reason helps to expose those heretical forms of Christianity which have turned their back on reason, treating reason with suspicion or even contempt. Since Christian orthodoxy has always insisted on the inextricable and indivisible union of faith and reason (fides et ratio), it has always condemned fideism, which is the heretical belief that faith is independent of reason or even that faith and reason are enemies and are therefore mutually exclusive. One of the great weaknesses of Islam, apart from its rejection of the divinity of Christ, is its tendency towards fideism, and one of the great weaknesses of certain types of fundamentalist Protestantism, in spite of the insistence on the divinity of Christ, is this same tendency towards fideism. Insofar as the rational questions of the noble atheist highlight the irrational nature of fideism, the atheist is a natural ally of Christian orthodoxy, albeit an accidental and an uncomfortable one.
Continued below.
There Are Two Kinds of Atheism, and These 5 Books Will Help You Debunk Both
