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Being a young economist in this new age where the study has been moving away from the Neo-Keynsian School of Thought to a “new, modern” Classical approach, I find myself oddly (or maybe not so oddly) drawn to any new way of approaching the “Dismal Science” as it has so cleverly been tagged. The one new age economist I have found to really admire and enjoy reading any of his publications is Steven Levitt out of the University of Chicago and co-author of the widely popular Freakonomics. Recently Dr. Levitt (presume he has his Ph.D.) and Stephen Dubner released a new edition of Freakonomics and have also started a blog which I have been fortunate enough to find. A post recently on the website caught my attention with the title Cut God Some Slack
I find the posting to touch on something so true and that is why are anti-God books so popular. So, why are anti-God books so popular? I am not much of a Christian, though I once was and even though I sometimes despise the thought of organized religion, I never find the urge to pick up a book that tells me why I shouldn’t believe in God. I agree with Dr. Levitt when he says:
I’m just not that interested in God. I’m definitely not interested enough to go out and buy books explaining to me why I shouldn’t believe in God, even when they are written by people like Dennett and Dawkins, whom I greatly admire. If I were religious, I think it would be even more likely that I would go out of my way to avoid books telling me that my faith was misplaced.
Now I understand that religion is very polarizing, especially for different sects of religion but do people who don’t believe in God really hate the idea of God so much that they run out and buy these books to remind them? (okay so this again was from Dr. Levitt but I wanted to sound smart!)
I don’t have an answer nor any idea on the answer to this and like I said, I am an inactive Christian. I believe in the idea of God but not how a church would present the idea. The one reason why I wanted to open this blog on this forum is because I know that people who read (or run) this blog have strong opinions on religion but mainly geared towards politics and religion. I look forward to others insight.
Oh by the way, I encourage everyone to read Freakonomics. It is an new and enlightening way to view the world and provides a breath of fresh air to the study of economics.
Santini
I have read one of these anti-God books, Dr. Dawkins’s The God Delusion. I read it for a number of reasons.
First of all, Religion and Philosophy are my favorite hobbies, second only to video games and music. I’ve read many spiritual and theistic books and I wanted the atheistic perspective as well.
Secondly, I spend a lot of time on ReligiousFreaks.com, which is frequented by atheists. I found myself in agreement with them on a vast majority of philosophical and political issues. So I wanted to learn more about that world view. Also, The God Delusion has nearly become required reading for that group.
Thirdly, I wanted to challenge my own deism. Do my reasons to believe stand up to the harsh and brilliant critiques of Dawkins? I continuously want to refine my beliefs and philosophy based on the best information and arguments available.
Fourthly, I read it as a reaction to the creep of fundamentalist religion into politics and culture. I find fundamentalism to be very dangerous to democracy and freedom. Reading an anti-God book helped me to clarify and refine my anti-fundamentalist arguments.
It is this fourth reason that I think the book became a best-seller. American atheists, non-believers, and nominal believers sense the threat that increased fundamentalism represents. They are eager to seek out differing points of view; the more different, the better. For atheists, in particular, the books have become rallying cries that help unify their position and protect themselves from encroaching theism.
All statistics indicate that atheists are a larger minority then Jews in America. Yet, politically atheists have no influence and are feared and hated whereas Jews have great influence thanks to well organized lobbies. These books are helping them realize it. In fact, Dawkins has started the Out Campaign in hopes of better organizing atheists.
One thing I would add is simply the fact that the books are “loud”, so to speak. I would bet that more religious people buy a book like The God Delusion than you would expect, simply to be able to attack what it says. Also, people just want to know why others care. So, the kind of “coffee house intellectuals” out there will want to know what’s going on.
As a note, I’m an agnostic who’s basically an atheist and have not, nor really intend to, read any of these books. I’m not a polemicist, as you’ve probably gathered.
I read Letter to a Christian Nation: A Challenge to Faith since I was under the impression that to some degree he was writing to me. I found it shrill and that definitely hurt him more than it helped him. He had some excellent criticisms and I would have been more receptive if the man just wasn’t so darn angry. Maybe he has cause, maybe not. Both ideas could be argued. I think that’s my problem with the “anti-god” books. It’s a bit like watching Fox news. You have a segment of the population that gets ignored to the point that they decide to have their own media outlet and when they get their “pulpit” they scream and rant rather than engaging in positive discourse.
There is definitely something to what you said, Scott. I often say that there is a big difference between being right and being effective. Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation probably does contain too much anger to be effective at influencing Christians, even though he may be right in some of his arguments. I have not read it and have no plans to. His first book, The End of Faith is still on my reading list, though.
I found a recent article that talked a bit about the success of The God Delusion and God Is Not Great.