Bóg nie jest fantasmagorią. „Nowy ateizm” jako wyzwanie dla Kościołów chrześcijańskich

Abstract

In this paper, the author deals with the question of the informal movement called ‘New Atheism’ Best-selling books by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Denett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris have drawn an extraordinary amount of attention. They introduce into the public discourse the radical atheism. It has been called ‘atheist fimdamentalism’ and ‘militant atheism’ The first part of the article presents the genesis and goals of ‘New Atheism’ The second part discusses the main anti-religious arguments formulated by the new atheists (science leads to atheism, faith is infantile and irrational, religion is false and harmful, the idea of God is the ‘virus of mind’). The author tries to give a critical response to these objections. The final part of this paper shows some conditions of a rational discussion with the representatives of ‘New Atheism’ The author draws attention to the necessity to engage the Christian Churches in a vigorous, but respectful dialogue between religion and science.