Category Archives: collecting fleas

Review: Becky Garrison’s The New Atheist Crusaders

Posted by Chris Hallquist on May 23, 2009 Comments Off

I’ll say this about Becky Garrison’s The New Atheist Crusaders: it isn’t as bad as Terry Eagleton’s book. Other than that, it’s pretty lousy. When the book originally came out, Hemant interviewed her, and she responded to a lot of criticisms by basically saying “hey, I’m a satirist, so I can’t be held responsible for [...]

On Terry Eagleton’s new book

Posted by Chris Hallquist on May 15, 2009 Comments Off

If you’re curious about what can be said in response to the criticisms of religion launched by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, don’t read Terry Eagleton’s new book Reason, Faith, and Revolution. As I’ve said before, I’ll take even Lee Strobel and William Lane Craig over most of the “why the New Atheists ™ are [...]

The Last Superstition, part II: ditching Aristotle’s metaphysics

Posted by Chris Hallquist on March 10, 2009 6 comments

Edward Feser’s claim that there can be no morality without Aristotelianism is silly. But should we continue to accept Aristotle’s metaphysics in the face of modern science anyway? The answer is no–and understanding why will help us understand modern science. Aristotle’s theory of change Aristotle’s metaphysics has two key components: his theory of change, and [...]

Review of Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition Part I: Morality

Posted by Chris Hallquist on February 25, 2009 3 comments

Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition is possibly the most entertaining and original of the various anti-atheist books that have come out in the past two years, if for no other reason than that it’s thesis is so radical: that rejection of Scholastic Aristotelianism is responsible for atheism, same-sex marriage, bestiality, necrophilia, the coming fall of [...]

Review: Keith Ward’s Is Religion Dangerous?

Posted by Chris Hallquist on February 13, 2009 1 comment

These reviews of Dawkins’ Fleas are pretty routine by now, so let me do a run down of major contacts: Literalism: Ward hits the literalism issue hard, in a way that most writers don’t. Within this topic, there’s a strong emphasis on what anthropology tells us about whether religion was originally taken literally or figuratively. [...]