NOTE: Father Thomas has just returned from a two-month special assignment. Today, he resumes his weekly e-column, With Good Reason.

You have probably noticed among the best-sellers being snapped up for summer reading the following titles: God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens, currently at number four on the New York Times best seller list; Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris; and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, now at number 29 on the NYT bestseller list, (below Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth, which is number 24).

Each of these books, as evidenced also in their reviews and their own promotional material, is self-consciously hostile to religion in America. They are written with an evangelical zeal for converting believers into nonbelievers. Note, for example, a jacket endorsement included on Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation:

I can’t sign my name to this blurb. As a New York Times best selling author of books about business, my career will evaporate if I endorse a book that challenges the deeply held superstitions and bigotry of the masses. That’s exactly why you should (no, you must) read this angry and honest book right away. As long as science and rational thought are under attack by the misguided yet pious majority, our nation is in jeopardy. I’m scared. You should be too. Please buy two, one for you and one for a friend you care about.
—Unsigned, New York Times best selling author

As for myself, I am reading both Pope Benedict and Richard Dawkins simultaneously. I am intrigued by the wide popularity of both books, a phenomenon which well illustrates, it would seem, the secular-religious divide or the “one nation—two cultures” ethos of contemporary America (to quote the title of Gertrude Himmelfarb’s 1999 essay).

I am only 55 pages into The God Delusion. In his antipathy toward religion and toward God, Dawkins pulls no punches: “I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.”

Dawkins twice asserts (without benefit of quoting any source) that “atheists in America are more numerous than most people realize.” He therefore expresses his hopes that his book might occasion a great “coming out” of atheists across the country, a group he characterizes here and there as “lonely,” “downtrodden,” politically un-influential, and—with breathtaking hyperbole—as the victims of something on a par with racial prejudice and discrimination.

Now, Dawkins prizes himself on being a thinker who diligently brings every assertion and proposition “before the tribunal of reason.” I was aware of this, and precisely for that reason I have taken up his challenge—as a believer—to read the book and see if Dawkins can make an unbeliever of me by the end. But 55 pages into it, although I am promised reasons (“in the chapters to follow”), I’ve found no arguments so far—only loads of sarcasm and ridicule meted out to religion.

So, what’s going on here? Why is apologetics for atheism such a hot cultural topic this summer? (Publishing houses are cashing in on the phenomenon: according to the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Hitchens will edit a compilation of essays for release this fall called “The Portable Atheist.”) This is particularly intriguing if you consider that a majority of Americans think that a robust presence of religion in our nation’s public life is a good thing.

A 2006 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found, for example, that most Americans would describe the U.S. as a “Christian” nation—understood that the proposition is open to multiple interpretations. While the same survey shows that this view has been trending upward over the last decade, it also suggests that a majority of Americans believe that religion’s influence on public life is in decline, and view the decline as a bad thing.

My take is that this summer’s public enthrallment with a few books that exalt the secular-atheistic-naturalistic world-view is a clear indicator of where we are culturally—much like recent presidential elections and controversial ballot amendments on issues ranging from gay “marriage” to embryo-destructive research have revealed. As Americans, we hold deep and often painfully divergent convictions with regard to morality, the place and role of religion, and the place and role of scientific endeavor.

Is the complexity of our situation well-served by trite and utterly gratuitous assertions like “science and rational thought are under attack by the misguided yet pious majority?” No. Rather than calm, open and reasoned discourse, we are given vitriolic tirades. As for The God Delusion, I’ll keep reading to see if the tribunal of reason makes an appearance.

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