Book Review
By Dr. Paul Miller
Alister McGrath, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the
Modern World
New York, London: Doubleday,
2004. 306 pp. $35.95 Cdn.
The
thesis of The Twilight of Atheism may surprise people who think that belief in
God is in decline. After all, isn't " No Religion" the fastest growing
"religious" category in every census? On the contrary, says Alister McGrath. Far
from being the wave of the future, atheism has had its day. The elimination of
transcendence from Western consciousness is a failed enterprise. Paraphrasing
Nietzsche, McGrath argues that atheism, once the greatest "empire of the modern
mind", is now merely the withering creed of declining modernity.
McGrath offers a readable and informative history of modern atheism from its
origins in the European Enlightenment and French Revolution. In the 18th
century, atheism was viewed as the bold casting off of the shackles of dogma and
superstition. To deny God was considered an act of courageous and high-minded
rebellion. However, McGrath points out that atheism was a reaction against the
abuses and corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church and never functioned as a
general explanatory principle. The Enlightenment was not really an atheistic
movement. As Peter Gay has suggested in his classic study The Enlightenment: An
Interpretation (New York, 1966), the Enlightenment represents "the rise of
modern paganism," the revival of the gods rather than their rejection. Most of
the philosophes were not atheists but Deists who believed in a "God" that could
be fully encompassed within the horizon of human reason.
So
atheism was an attempt to effect social, intellectual and political liberation
from all oppressive structures, including the Church. However, atheism's promise
to deliver Utopian freedom has proved empty, McGrath argues. Wherever the
atheistic project has been pursued to its logical conclusion, it has led to the
destruction of freedom. The French Revolution was the original case in point.
"To those who suggest that religion is responsible for the ills of the world,"
McGrath writes, "the Revolution offers an awkward anomaly." Far from embodying
the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, the Reign of Terror ended up
mimicking the worst vices of the Catholic Church it sought to destroy.
Furthermore, 18th century atheism planted seeds in the intellectual soil of
Europe, which have spawned more systematic human suffering and injustice in the
ensuing 200 years than was ever caused by religion in general or Christianity in
particular.
McGrath provides good summaries of the "Big Three" atheistic thinkers of the
19th century: Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Feuerbach ("God as
Invention") argued that the concept "God" is merely the projection of the human
longing for immortality onto an eternal backdrop and religion is an elaborate
form of escapism. Marx ("God as Opiate") with his radically materialistic
presuppositions, saw religion as a tool of class conflict, used by the
bourgeoisie to control the proletariat. Freud ("God as Illusion") regarded
belief in God as a form of infantilizing neurosis. In spite of serious
challenges to their work, McGrath argues, Feuerbach, Marx and Freud have exerted
enormous influence and contributed to the West's deep-seated hostility to
religion.
McGrath devotes a chapter to the most popular argument in favor of atheism, the
supposed conflict between science and religion and the innate superiority of the
former as a criterion of truth. He challenges the assumption that warfare is the
best way to describe the relationship between science and religion. He offers a
helpful reassessment of the impression, popularized by Bertrand Russell and
others, that Christianity has always been the implacable foe of truth and
progress. His treatment of the famous Huxley-Wilberforce debate of 1860 reveals
that there is more legend than fact to the popular version. Wilberforce was
hardly the closed-minded dogmatist that the mythology of atheism has made him
out to be and Huxley's supposed demolition of his ecclesiastical adversary has
little basis in historical reality.
McGrath acknowledges, however, the persistence in western culture of three
beliefs: 1) that science leads to liberation from superstition; 2) that science
deals with provable facts and religion with unprovable "mysteries"; 3) that the
Darwinian theory of evolution and belief in God are mutually exclusive views.
McGrath draws on the work of Michael Polanyi and others to argue that science
and religion both rely on "faith" in the sense that they rest on unproven
hypotheses. While their methods may differ from those of theologians, scientists
must often make what amounts to "leaps of faith" in their pursuit of truth.
The
proponents of atheism have done much to discredit their own cause, McGrath
suggests. The greatest horrors of the 20th century were not caused by religion
but by atheistic communism and Nazi paganism. His chapter on the life of Madalyn
Murray O'Hare, the champion of American atheism, tells a tawdry tale of
corruption, bigotry and pathological vanity. Even in purely human terms, atheism
has proven to be a bankrupt option. It has led to the utter impoverishment of
the imaginative dimension of human existence. Its view of the world has been
unremittingly bleak. The longer atheism has had to take root in Western
consciousness, the more its terrible emptiness has been exposed.
The
history of Western atheism can be framed by two events, the storming of the
Bastille in 1789 and the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, according to
McGrath. He summarizes the significance of this phase of modern history as
follows: "The fall of the Bastille became a symbol of the viability and
creativity of a godless world, just as the fall of the Berlin Wall later
symbolized a growing recognition of the uninhabitability of such a place."
McGrath's argument is that atheism has failed because human beings cannot
ultimately live without the hope that belief in God and a transcendent
dimension provides.
On
the whole, I would recommend this book to the serious non-specialist who wants
to better understand the origins of our contemporary situation. McGrath writes
lucidly without dumbing down, and he held my attention throughout. (One quirk
that I found annoying was the complete lack of any bibliographic reference for
his numerous quotations. I understand not wanting to clutter up a book with
footnotes, but I would have appreciated being able to go to locate the
quotations in their larger context.)
While McGrath's book is an excellent introduction to the subject of atheism for
the non-specialist, one must ask, however, whether his conclusions are
necessarily good news for Christian churches. While it is true, as he suggests,
that religion is alive and well around the world and that hard-core atheists are
an embattled and shrinking minority, the real challenge faced by the Christian
church is not atheism but paganism; not the denial of God but the proliferation
of false gods. Christianity is rooted in the sovereignty of God over human
history; in the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ; in the ongoing presence of
God through the Holy Spirit; and in God's eschatological redeeming of creation.
While this God is the creator of the world and lovingly involved in the world,
God is never to be confused with the world - either the realm of nature or the
realm of human aspirations. Post-modern paganism tends to deify aspects of human
existence, obliterating the distinction between God and ourselves. The demise of
atheism is certainly a good thing;
but,
from a Christian point of view, the flourishing paganism that has taken its
place may not be any improvement. Furthermore, McGrath notes the explosive
growth of Christianity in many parts of the world, but it is not a form of
Christianity which liberal Protestants will welcome. The future of Christianity
is with indigenous churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America, many of which are
Pentecostal or have incorporated elements of local customs and culture into
their ethos.
Christians should read
McGrath's book for its intended purpose: as a summary of the brief history of
modern atheism. They should not seek consolation for the inevitable triumph of
the Christian church. What is required of us is not that we defeat one ideology
or another in mortal combat, but that we remain true to the Gospel and leave the
rest to the grace of God.
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