David Bentley Hart on the New Atheist Myth of "Secular Progress" (p1)

Is the world guaranteed to become a paradise - or at the very least a vastly better place - without "religion"? In particular, is Western civilization guaranteed to become better once it has been purged of all Christian influence? Or is the post-Christian age of "secular enlightenment" simply an atheist delusion? Contra Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, et al., prominent philosopher and Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart, winner of the prestigious Michael Ramsey prize for theological writing, joins Mr. Terry Sanderson, president of the UK's National Secular Society, in a debate/conversation hosted by Justin Brierley of www.premierradio.org.uk.


[The following is from an interview with Reform magazine, after Hart won the Michael Ramsey prize for his book, "Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies"]

Reform: "In praising your book, Atheist Delusions, Rowan Willliams pointed to its illumination of 'how the most treasured principles and values of compassionate humanism are rooted in the detail of Christian doctrine.' Is that what you set out to show?"

Hart: "Well in part, yes I think so. One of the odd things about a great deal of the New Atheist literature and the literature that has cropped up in its margins is an unawareness of the contingency of cultural values -- it's peculiar. People like Richard Dawkins -- asked, if the world was purged of all religious belief, what would it be like, he says, it would be a paradise.

And as he goes on to explain why he thinks this, it's obvious he believes that there are, just out there in the world, a set of values that are independent of any historical tradition; that are recognisable and available to every reasoning mind; and that society would naturally happen upon if it weren't distracted by the idiocies of religion and dogmatism.

Yet if the cultural experience of late modernity has proven anything, it has proven that this sort of bland moral optimism rests upon nothing at all. And many of the moral truths people like Dawkins take for granted are available to them because they happen to live in a society whose history was shaped by beliefs that they now abominate."





Dr.Hart's book, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, can be purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Delusio...




Also of great relevance is his broad account of Christian history, The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith, available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Christian...




[note: This audio clip belongs to www.premierradio.org.uk, not me. I am merely re-posting it here for others' intellectual benefit and to bring Dr. Hart to a slightly wider audience. The mp3 file and many others can be downloaded here: http://ondemand.premier.org.uk/unbeli...]