Its my kind of day. Visibility is about 1 mile with drizzle and fog. The forecast calls for an ice warning beginning at 6 p.m.. I wish the forecast called for snow, but will be content with ice. However, I do not want to lose power. I grew up with a fire place and have found them to be woefully inadequate when it comes to heat. I guess the "cake and eating it to" idea might apply in this instance. If I don't blog for a few days , you can assume that the power is out.

Since 2005 there have been several bestsellers written attacking christianity and denying the existence of God. In fairness to the authors, the books actually attack all religions but the primary target appears to be christianity and the God described in the Bible. To appreciate the anger they have for christianity, we need to see a few of their quotes.

Sam Harris, author of the first major attack upon God and the christian faith, says "If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion."

Richard Dawkins in his work THE GOD DELUSION writes that christianity has much in common with the Afgan Taliban.
The Afgan Taliban and the American Taliban are good examples of what happens when people
take the scriptures literally and seriously."

Religion (again christianity as primary example) is so dangerous that parents should be prevented from teaching it to children even in their own home. Dawkins quotes approvingly from his colleague Nicholas Humphrey the following statement: "In short children have a right not to have their minds addled by nonsense, and we as a society have a duty to protect them from it. So we should no more allow parents to teach their children to believe, for example, in the literal truth of the Bible...than we should allow parents to knock their children's teeth out or lock them in a dungeon." The Bible's pretty dangerous and that makes you and me dangerous, doesn't it. Guess what would happen if Dawkins had political power and not just a bestseller.

Christopher Hitchens has written the latest in the trinity of atheism published since 2005. GOD IS NOT GREAT is his work and according to the cover it discusses "how religion poisons everything. Hitchens goes so far as to question that Jesus ever lived. He thinks religious faith is a mental disorder: " The connection between religious faith and mental disorder is, from the viewpoint of the tolerant and the multicultural.. very obvious?.. To him, it is clear that religion is a product of ignorance and fear: "One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody...had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species.."

Dawkins sums up his view of the God revealed in the Old Testament in the following words:
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Wow I bet you didn't know all of that, did you? Some of these authors, especially Dawkins and Dennett(whose book I have yet to mention) refer to themselves as "brights". Who are we "dims" to disagree with "brights"?

The story of the atheists would be humorous if it were not for the fact that many take their word as difinitive and scientific while religious writers are ignorant and filled with hate.

In coming blogs I will interact with some of their primary arguments. Their arguments must not be ignored but addressed. In addressing the arguments we must not behave as "brights" but as believers prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within us.