REVIEW - THE NEW ATHEISM AND THE EROSION OF FREEDOM by Robert A. Morley 1986 P & R Publishing. ISBN 0-87552-362-5. (No relation to the actor of the same name). Morley's book is a gem of
bad arguments against Humanism. A guide for Evangelical Christians. The idea is that when they come upon a Christian who is raising doubts about religion, or Christian teachings, (an early sign of the kind of apostasy that might lead someone to reject faith for atheism altogether) the evangelical can trot out these arguments and use them to talk him or her out of it. Such arguments may also be used in attempts to convert
atheists to Christianity. Morley describes Humanists he has met. His Economics
teacher was a Jew who survived the concentration camps during WW2, and who was a committed Marxist denouncing
religion for its links to capitalism. His chemistry teacher was a hippie, often stoned on drugs whilst teaching, and telling the children, in relation to sexual practices of the If it feels
good do it. school His Spanish teacher was a flagrant homosexual, and atheist. A pattern emerges are always immoral, amoral, unchristian people who advocate drugs, left
wing politics, free-sex, hedonism and homosexuality. That Humanists can be right wing politically, opposed to drug taking, strong in their belief in monogamy and quite moral and ethical in their life-choices, is beyond Morley's ken. Humanists generally support gay rights, even when not personally gay, so it soon becomes apparent that Morley sees Humanism as responsible for all and everything and everybody he hates. He claims that Humanists force people to give up their religion citing evidence the Stalinist forced closure of the Churches in Russia. Stalinism may have been atheistic, but it was not Humanistic. There are bad atheists, and good atheists, just as there are bad Christians (Hitler for one) and good Christians. On evolution, Morley is a creationist. Many questions from Humanists are simply answered with a Biblical quotation, as though that endeth the lesson. It does. Morley isn't worth reading for Humanists, or he wouldn't be if so many impressionable, but doubting Christians were not likely to find his book presented to them as a way of changing their minds about us. It's vital therefore for Humanists to know these rag-bag accusations and recognise the best ways to refute them with sensible, rational answers.
More reviews about the THE NEW ATHEISM