<DIV>Oh GOOD, more bigoted material from our anti-Christians on the V.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for the article Hansen.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Best,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Donovan<BR><BR><B><I>Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">>From today's (June 9, 2007) Spokesman Review -<BR><BR>http://tinyurl.com/yojg6g<BR>"Essayist Christopher Hitchens' book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion<BR>Poisons Everything," climbed to the best-seller lists soon after it was<BR>published last month, and his debates with clergy are drawing crowds at<BR>every stop."<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Atheists fight back <BR>Books critical of faith climb best-seller list<BR><BR>Rachel Zoll <BR>Associated Press<BR>June 9, 2007<BR><BR>The time for polite debate is over. Militant, atheist writers are
making an<BR>all-out assault on religious faith and reaching the top of the best-seller<BR>list - a sign of widespread resentment among nonbelievers over the influence<BR>of religion in the world.<BR><BR>Christopher Hitchens' "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything"<BR>has sold briskly ever since it was published last month - reaching No. 1 on<BR>The New York Times' nonfiction list last week - and his debates with clergy<BR>are drawing crowds at every stop.<BR><BR>Sam Harris was a little-known graduate student until he wrote the<BR>phenomenally successful "The End of Faith" and its follow-up, "Letter to a<BR>Christian Nation."<BR><BR>Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the<BR>Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" struck similar themes - and sold.<BR><BR>"There is something like a change in the Zeitgeist," Hitchens says, noting<BR>that sales of his latest book far outnumber those for his earlier work that<BR>had challenged
faith.<BR><BR>"There are a lot of people, in this country in particular, who are fed up<BR>with endless lectures by bogus clerics and endless bullying."<BR><BR>Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent<BR>evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., says the books' success reflect a<BR>new vehemence in the atheist critique.<BR><BR>"I don't believe in conspiracy theories," Mouw says, "but it's almost like<BR>they all had a meeting and said, 'Let's counterattack.' "<BR><BR>The war metaphor is apt. The writers see themselves in a battle for reason<BR>in a world crippled by superstition. In their view, Muslim extremists,<BR>Jewish settlers and Christian right activists are from the same mold, using<BR>fairy tales posing as divine scripture to justify their lust for power.<BR><BR>Bad behavior in the name of religion is behind some of the most dangerous<BR>global conflicts and the terrorist attacks in the United States, London and<BR>Madrid, the atheists
say.<BR><BR>As Hitchens puts it: "Religion kills."<BR><BR>The Rev. Douglas Wilson, senior fellow in theology at New Saint Andrews<BR>College, a Christian school in Moscow, Idaho, sees the books as a sign of<BR>secular panic. Nonbelievers are finally realizing that, contrary to what<BR>they were taught in college, faith is not dead, he says.<BR><BR>Indeed, believers far outnumber nonbelievers in America.<BR><BR>In a 2005 AP-Ipsos poll on religion, only 2 percent of U.S. respondents said<BR>they did not believe in God. Other surveys concluded that 14 percent of<BR>Americans consider themselves secular, a term that can include believers who<BR>say they have no religion.<BR><BR>Religious challenges to teaching evolution are still having an impact, 80<BR>years after the infamous Scopes "Monkey" trial. The dramatic growth in home<BR>schooling and private Christian schools is raising questions about the<BR>future of public education. Religious leaders have succeeded in putting
some<BR>limits on stem-cell research.<BR><BR>And the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a national ban on a<BR>procedure critics call "partial-birth abortion" - the first federal curbs on<BR>an abortion procedure in a generation - came after decades of religious<BR>lobbying for conservative justices.<BR><BR>"It sort of dawned on the secular establishment that they might lose here,"<BR>says Wilson, who is debating Hitchens on christianitytoday.com and has<BR>written the book "Letter from a Christian Citizen" in response to Harris.<BR><BR>"All of this is happening precisely because there's a significant force that<BR>they have to deal with."<BR><BR>Some say liberal outrage over President Bush's policies is partly fueling<BR>sales of the latest books, even though Hitchens famously supported the<BR>invasion of Iraq.<BR><BR>To those Americans, the nation's born-again president is the No. 1<BR>representative of the religious right activists who helped put him
in<BR>office. Bush's critics see his Christian faith behind some of his worst<BR>decisions and his stubborn defense of the war in Iraq.<BR><BR>Fuller's Mouw says conservative Christians are partly to blame for the<BR>backlash. The rhetoric of some evangelical leaders has been so strident, he<BR>says, they have invited the rebuke.<BR><BR>"We have done a terrible job of presenting our perspective as a plausible<BR>world view that has implications for public life and for education,<BR>presenting that in a way that is sensitive to the concerns of people who may<BR>disagree," says Mouw.<BR><BR>"Whatever may be wrong with Christopher Hitchens' attacks on religious<BR>leaders, we have certainly already matched it in our attacks."<BR><BR>Given the popularity of the anti-religion books so far, publishers are<BR>expected to roll out even more in the future.<BR><BR>Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor for Publishers Weekly, says religion<BR>has been one of the fastest-growing
categories in publishing in the last 15<BR>years, and the rise of books by atheists is "the flip-side of that."<BR><BR>"It was just the time," she says, "for the atheists to take the gloves off."<BR><BR>------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR><BR>******************************************<BR><BR>"People walking up to you<BR>Singing glory hallelujah<BR>And they're trying to sock it to you<BR>In the name of the Lord."<BR><BR>- Joe South (from "Games People Play")<BR><BR>******************************************<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR>http://www.fsr.net <BR>mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>=======================================================<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p> 
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