The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail: The Misguided Quest to Destroy Your Faith [Paperback]

Becky Garrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008

A challenge has been issued on matters of faith and Becky Garrison meets it head on in this witty yet poignant answer to the Anti-God gurus Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett.

Becky Garrison, religious satirist and senior contributing editor for The Wittenberg Door, is taking a stand. Where most Christians assume the character of the Cowardly Lion chanting, "I do believe, I do believe, I do believe," Garrison refuses to simply thrust tracts at these self-proclaimed infidels.

Instead, Garrison steels her pen and takes on the ungodly program of the New Atheists, skewering each argument with her sharp satiric wit. Garrison turns aside the atheists' assault without ignoring its real criticisms, namely, the church's inadequate response to war, evolution, medical ethics, social justice, and other important issues in the post-9/11 world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Garrison has long wielded wit against the buffoonery of the Religious Right in her articles for the Christian humor magazine the Wittenburg Door and at the blog God's Politics. Now she turns her satirical glance against the New Atheists, among whom she sees a similar obscurantist self-seeking at work. The result is an uneven book. It is occasionally witty, as when she compares Sam Harris to Anne Coulter, or Daniel Dennett to the pot-smoking professor in Animal House. At times she scores what could be devastating points against the New Atheists: if imposing religion on the young really is child abuse, why do these young people not show the medical symptoms of abuse victims? Garrison is also adept at pointing to places where radical Christianity is transforming society. But these successes are often lost amid informal writing, sentences like Simply put, I need to pay attention here because when my gut starts acting up, something ain't right, and paragraphs that end with single words like Kewl and phrases such as  'Nuff said. Finally, Garrison's turn to her own story—a minister father, dead too young of alcoholism—is touching at times, but it sits awkwardly beside the casual witticisms. (Jan.)
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About the Author

Becky Garrison serves as Senior Contributing Editor for The Wittenburg Door, the oldest, largest, and only religious satire magazine in the United States. Her additional writing credits include work for The New York Times, The Tonight Show, Relevantmagazine.com, and Christian Retailing. Garrison also contributes to The Ooze and blogs on God's Politics. She has a dual Master of Divinity/Social Work degree from Yale University and Columbia University, and an undergraduate degree in theater arts from Wake Forest University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 084991972X
• ISBN-13: 978-0849919725
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 5.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,283,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

On the same day that Princess Di was brought into this world tiara in hand, this Yankee gal with an accent befitting a Southern debutante was born breech first. Ever since my upside down birth, I have always viewed life from a unique perspective. "Becky, only you see it that way" is a frequent comment made by friends and relatives alike. I began writing for The Wittenburg Door in 1994 and contribute to a range of outlets including Washington Post's On Faith column, The Guardian's Belief section, Killing the Buddha, Geez, The Revealer, American Atheist magazine, Believe Out Loud, and The Religious Left.

The first video highlighted on my Amazon author site came from the documentary The Ordinary Radicals (wwww.theordinaryradicals.com); the second and third videos are from http://www.altervideomagazine.com (props to Travis Reed); and the fourth is from the documentary Nailin' it to the Church (http://www.nailinittothechurch.com)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Garrison picks apart the new atheists June 6, 2008

By Ed Cyzewski

Format:Paperback

Reporter, writer, and satirist Becky Garrison who ably wields her MDiv from Yale steps into the ring to take on these atheist crusaders, who have set out to undermine religion, in her book The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail. Garrison is a Christian writer who contributes to the God's Politics blog, serves as contributing editor to the Wittenburg Door, among other projects. Though not a scientist, Garrison is an able researcher who carefully steps through the various levels involved in this issue: science, religion, politics, and some pretty flimsy, overblown accusations the new atheists level against Christians.

Keep in mind that while Garrison is fighting the new atheists' writings toe-to-toe, she's not setting out to attack them personally. By adopting a kind of zany, light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek tone, Garrison avoids a combative tone, opting instead to kind of playfully slap around the views of the new atheists. She doesn't deal a knock-out blow, but carefully picks them apart with a wide smile, revealing the foolish bits of their arguments, while never leaving behind a bloody opponent on the mat.

You could call it a humane mercy-killing of the new atheists.

In addition, Garrison uses her journalistic expertise to assemble a carefully chosen group of scientists and religion experts to stand in her corner. She even finds atheists who want nothing to do with the closed-minded new atheists, but rather want a friendly, civil discussion about whether or not God exists (201). With friendly atheists, theologians, God-believing scientists, and Christian activists in her corner, she unleashes round after round of exploration and analysis of the new atheists. While the new atheists may dismiss Garrison because she's not credentialed into the academic elite, I assure you this book is a knock-out blow to the new atheists brand.

Garrison isn't so much concerned about debunking all atheists though. She presents plausible explanations about God that will make any atheist think twice, but she isn't concerned so much with winning a fight to prove God once and for all. I stress this because many apologetic Christian books can adopt a combative, us vs. them tone. Garrison isn't up to that here. Rather, she's picking apart the sensational, absolutist claims of the new atheists who misrepresent God and religion.

From: www.inamirrordimly.com (search for Garrison)

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Witty, but Utterly Fails February 10, 2008

By K.H. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I like Becky Garrisons blogs on Belief.net and her writings for the Wittenburg Door. She is a talented satirist and she does in this book make a point or two. Unfortunately, she often gets sidetracked and her book suffers greatly for it. Because she is so committed with sounding "witty," "satirical," and "open-minded" she goes on short red-herrings that should have been devoted to stronger, more tightly constructed arguments.

I'm sure her sarcasm is natural, but it reads as if it is forced - it just happens too often. She is so bent on appearing fair minded by showing the sins of Christianity that she spends too many moments taking quick pot-shots at Ann Coulter, Jerry Fallwell, John Spong and even President Bush. Her message would be more constructive and logical to make the connection that Christ and his teachings must logically be based on the teaching itself (or better yet, Christ himself), not the aberrational sayings and actions of some of its members. She does take some time to write about the good things Christians have done (the logical conclusions of following Christ), but I am not so sure it adds up to the writings where she attacks the failings of many who claim Christ. By her own arguments, Dawkins may just have a case after all.

Overall, the book fails because it spends too much time on side issues of the debate (centering prayer for one) and not enough going after the heart of the debate - logical and theological reasons to believe and why it is not delusional. I hope she writes more, but I hope she stays more focused on the task at hand.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Right on Target July 9, 2010

By L. L Teuling VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There has been a lot going on about how "bad" religion is in general (and Christianity in particular) and Becky Garrison's book provides a refreshing rebuttal. Ms. Garrison is a satirist and yes, she can come across as a smart-aleck; she admits it herself. But through the whole book you can see a caring person who really does take the Christian message seriously.

Ms. Garrison does not just take the atheists to task -- in fact, in Appendix B in this book she has a cordial, friendly interview with Hemant Mehta, who calls himself the "friendly atheist." Both of them show the same exasperation with a the pushy attitude displayed by many Christiands AND atheists. As in her book RED AND BLUE GOD, BLACK AND BLUE CHURCH, she also takes other Christians to task for providing fodder for the "new atheists" by the way they act. In other words, she tells Christians to shape up and start practicing what they preach. And she's not afraid to share some of her own shortcomings, too.

She presents some good, solid arguments for believing the Christian faith, and she takes the "new atheists" to task for constantly picking on the "lunatic fringe" people who call themselves Christians, and who actually irritate their fellow Christians! I'll leave it to you, the reader to decide whether or not you agree with her, but through the book you will read excellent thoughts concerning the credibility of Christianity.

A nice extra about the book -- you learn a lot about the Bible itself! In fact, she gives an explanation of the much-misunderstood admonition of Jesus to "turn the other cheek." She gives it in a cultural setting that will show how assertive that command actually is! That one page alone was worth the price of the whole book. But I'll leave it to you to read it!

It's a worthwhile book to read.