McGrath's interpretation seems consistent with my observation as an student at MIT that many physical scientists are religious, and it is the social science and liberal arts curriculums which are more hostile to religious than the sciences.
McGrath's writing is very readable, yet wrestles with ideas and thinkers at a high level. He makes a number of observations which seem startling to me, such as seeing parallels between Calvinism and Islam. This is certainly one of the best books I've read from a theistic perspective in some time.
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Article comments
1 - Alex Knapp
Communism wasn't based on atheism--it simply rejected religion. So does, by the way, Ayn Rand's Objectivism, which is about as far from Communism as you can get.
2 - Harald
Isn't capitalism atheistic/agnostic too? Not much god in there when I last checked...
3 - rickheller
Communism didn't just reject religion, it persecuted it. Atheism was a key postulate of Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
Some capitalists are atheists, but it's not mandatory, as it was under Communism. This is the 100th anniversary of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber saw the roots of capitalism in Calvinism.
4 - Tony Dalmyn
Good review.
In response to the comment that suggested that Marxism and communism were not atheist, I would say Marxism was a complex materialist philosophy which was certainly atheist in theory as well as anti-religious in practice. It was a virtual state religion in the countries in the former Soviet block. It has declined in popularity as its failings as an economic and political theory have been exposed by the collapse of communism, but it hangs on as a philosophy. It is still a popular liberal intellectual position.
McGrath is a professional theologian who started his academic career in science. He is a good writer and summarizes complex philosophical debates in clear language. Many of his earlier books are devoted to showing that Christianity is consistent with science. He has made the points, in previous books, that science does not disprove the existence of God, and that science and the scientific method are not based on the atheist philosophical and political ideas (liberalism, humanism, modernism and post-modernism) that have dominated intellectual life in Europe and America since the Enlightment and the French Revolution.
He believes that science is and should be neutral on religious questions.
In his other books, he has treated humanism and atheism as emotional positions, as if they were religious systems. It seems that he his project in the new book is to undermine the claims of atheists that their view of the world is more sound than the view of someone who believes in a Creator.
I like his approach. He is trying to earn respect for his religious views by logical discourse.
5 - Mark Saleski
marxism is a 'popular liberal intellectual position'?
6 - Mac Diva
If I up and suddenly decide to become religious, it will have to be deism. I see no evidence of an 'interested' God in human affairs at all. When abuses are curtailed or stopped, it is the result of humanism. A group of people decides that doing X to another group of people is wrong and curtails or stops the behavior.
However, I think agnosticism and atheism may arise naturally, i.e., through reason. I first began to doubt religion when I was nine or 10 years old. Sunday school lessons seemed more and more like the sci-fi I was reading. I'm going to hazard a guess that many doubters arrive at the same place because they simply don't see any reasonable evidence suggesting supernatural intervention in our lives. This is long before most of us have any grasp of political theories such as communism or capitalism. We may not have even heard of Darwin yet. There is an innate impetus for a questioning sort of person to doubt religion, I suspect.
7 - rickheller
Mac Diva,
It sounds like you were precocious in your philosophical speculations. I was mostly thinking about Hot Wheels when I was 10.
It seems that, for you, skepticism was intuitive. Sometimes children of agnostics are drawn to faith. It may have something to do with temperament. Which intuitions are correct are still an open question--more open perhaps that it was twenty years ago.
I wouldn't equate liberalism with Marxism, but some elements of Karl Marx's writings, particularly his "religion is the opiate of the people" argument have had influence beyond those who go by the label of Marxist.
8 - aiSia
Atheism may have been mandatory under various Communisms, but deny that some communists are theists is nonsense. Graham Greene comes to mind, for a start.