"The Twilight of Atheism" by Alister McGrath

[Rayado]

Anyone else read it? I picked it up Monday and read it all in a day (it's a relatively short book). Got any thoughts on it if you have?

[Captain Ochre]

Anyone else read it? I picked it up Monday and read it all in a day (it's a relatively short book). Got any thoughts on it if you have?

I've got it, but I read on a chaotic rotation and McGrath's book has been jockeying for prominence against Pearcey's Total Truth and Bellairs' The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost (creepy!).
Comments later, maybe.
One thing I like about McGrath is that his writing style brings some subtle pizazz to potentially dry topics. His enthusiasm spills over even though he still writes in an essentially "dry" expository style.

[Sacrificial Ram]

Anyone else read it? I picked it up Monday and read it all in a day (it's a relatively short book). Got any thoughts on it if you have?

I haven't read it, but here are some reviews on amazon about it

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...283155&s=books

[Rayado]

Of the 500,000 reviews of the book there at Amazon, about 499,950 are by unnecessarily hysterical atheists who seem not to have paid much attention to his points. They aren't that helpful.

[Sacrificial Ram]

Of the 500,000 reviews of the book there at Amazon, about 499,950 are by unnecessarily hysterical atheists who seem not to have paid much attention to his points. They aren't that helpful.

Well, if there are 499,950 atheists who read his book, they certainly aren't in danger of demise.

I put the demise of atheism around the same as I put the demise of Christianity.. it isn't going to happen any time soon.. no matter how much
some people try to convince themselves it is happening.

[Calvinist4Him]

Anyone else read it? I picked it up Monday and read it all in a day (it's a relatively short book). Got any thoughts on it if you have?

I havn't bought it or read it. I thought about buying it. What is your opinion of it? Wow, that makes like three sentences in a row all ending with the word "it".

[Rayado]

SR, what I meant was that there seemed to be an inordinately high number of very low ratings amidst a few higher ones. And it focuses more on an institutional form of atheism, rather than the entire scope of it.

I'll see if I can collect my thoughts on the book sometime later, A4H. But in a very short summary, it's mildly provacative to any who read it.

[Impresario]

Curious here if Atheists can view this thread?

[sylas]

Curious here if Atheists can view this thread?

Everyone can view threads in any forum.

I've not read the book. The title sounds dubious; but I have no idea what he means by that or what argument he gives. To support the title as stated he would have to look at actual trends in what people believe; rather than an analysis of arguments made for or against God.

Rayado -- is that what he does?

I'd be interested to read it. McGrath himself sounds like an interesting fellow.

Cheers -- Sylas

[Captain Ochre]

The idea of the book (I can't remember if I finished it or not) is that atheistic worldviews have failed to provide sufficient answers, so atheism is on the decline as a philosophical position--which is not exactly the same as saying that it is declining in popularity.
Postmodernism has eroded the essentially Positivist outlook, so the field for a dominant ideology is wide open.

I can't guarantee that the above is anything like a comprehensive overview of the book, or even necessarily the central idea, but that's what I took away from it as being McGrath's thesis.

I remember reading reviews of the book by atheists who relied on increases in the numbers of folks who identified as atheist/agnostic as undermining McGrath's ideas, and thinking that they had missed the point.