Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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)

Prominent atheists like Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins (known as the "New Atheists") have made quite a stir in recent years by attacking Christianity head-on, in part through a number of bestselling books.

Becky Garrison makes quite a stir in the Christian world through her work as senior contributing editor for The Wittenberg Door ("Pretty Much the World's Only Religious Satire Magazine"). Most often, the targets of her biting satire are poufy-haired televangelists, Religious Right fundies, and even the occasional milquetoast, mainline liberal. Considering the way she lavishes her wit and sarcasm on the faithful, you can just imagine what she has in store for an assortment of atheists when they begin treading on her turf.

Only you don't have to imagine that at all, since Garrison takes aim at said assortment in THE NEW ATHEIST CRUSADERS. And she does so with her usual gusto. Using their own words against them, Garrison skewers their arguments, pokes fun at their ignorance and exposes their distortions. And you can tell she has a lot of fun doing all that. But she also wisely points her finger where it often belongs --- leveled straight at Christians who give atheists too much fodder and pointing right back at herself when she behaves badly.

"When confronted with aggressive atheists," she writes, "some Christians assume the mantle of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz chanting, 'I do believe, I do believe, I do believe.'" Garrison goes on to describe the atheists' stepped-up efforts to dismantle the Christian faith. "As long as people continue to buy into the anti-God game, this junk is gonna come down the pike. Time to put an end to this. So, I guess I gotta put on my satirical shorts, get into the ring, and put up my dukes."

Garrison aims her punches at her adversaries on such matters as their faulty theology, oversimplification and reliance on medieval clerics in an effort to try to prove their point --- as well as their many sins of omission. She takes them to task for sniffing out Christianity's lunatic fringe and positioning them as mainstream, and failing to acknowledge the tremendous amount of good done by Christians throughout history and in contemporary society. Amid all this scuffling, Garrison provides poignant anecdotes from her own life that offer glimpses into her journey of faith and activism.

The book also features a witty timeline of atheism, an interview with Hemant the Friendly Atheist and extensive notes, some of which are a hoot. Readers familiar with Garrison's writing style (she is also the author of the equally satirical RED AND BLUE GOD, BLACK AND BLUE CHURCH) will be well prepared for her casual, sassy and slangy way with language. If playing fast and loose with English offends you, well, you may need to gear up for a wild ride.

--- Reviewed by Marcia Ford

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.

I was intrigued and entertained by this book. Clearly she is a thinker with a great grasp of the issues. Becky is witty, insightful and a great writer. I enjoyed it immensely. Jeff Sherman. NYC, NY

Whether you agree with Ms. Garrison's premise or not, this is great, roller-coaster of a read, funny, insightful, opinionated and always provocative (as are all of her books). It's definitely worth the cover price and more.

An atheist used to just be a person who didn't believe in God. Becky Garrison does a good job showing us that today's New Atheists are in an all out war against religious faith. As contributing editor for the Whittenburg Door, her background is in religious satire. She has studied both sides of the reason vs. faith argument, and often quotes from many sources, ranging from atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, theologians such as C.S. Lewis and N.T. Wright, to South Park, Monty Python and House M.D. She asks the tough questions, but is not afraid to poke a little fun at atheists and the faithful alike when they deserve it. I wrote a complete review which is hosted by the Internet Monk at [...]. I highly recommend this book as an eye opener to the battle lines drawn between your faith and their reason.

Becky Garrison takes aim at outspoken atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins with her usual gusto. Using their own words against them, Garrison skewers their arguments, pokes fun at their ignorance and exposes their distortions. And you can tell she has a lot of fun doing all that. But she also wisely points her finger where it often belongs --- leveled straight at Christians who give atheists too much fodder and pointing right back at herself when she behaves badly.

Garrison aims her punches at her adversaries on such matters as their faulty theology, oversimplification and reliance on medieval clerics in an effort to try to prove their point, as well as their many sins of omission. She takes them to task for sniffing out Christianity's lunatic fringe and positioning them as mainstream, and failing to acknowledge the tremendous amount of good done by Christians throughout history and in contemporary society. Amid all this scuffling, Garrison provides poignant anecdotes from her own life that offer glimpses into her journey of faith and activism.

The book also features a witty timeline of atheism, an interview with Hemant the Friendly Atheist and extensive notes, some of which are a hoot. Readers familiar with Garrison's writing style will be well prepared for her casual, sassy and slangy way with language. If playing fast and loose with English offends you, well, you may need to gear up for a wild ride.

([...].)

Believing that if you telepathically tell an ancient jewish magician that he is your master, he will remove a blood curse from your soul that he himself put there because a talking snake convinced the only woman in the world to eat an apple from a magical tree IS a delusion.

Everything else is just talking around the point and trying to avoid reality, which is another aspect of delusion. Peace and goodness are possible when a person invests in this life and in the real world, instead of being convinced that he will be given 7 virgins if he blows himself up, or in the case of american christians, that he is being like the kind of people that will live forever if only he tithes, and hates gays, and votes against all welfare and in favor of more killing machines (and has no problem paying taxes that employ even more of the christian-psychos who are willing to kill indiscriminately without ever questioning anything). Apparently, God wants a small govenment with huge prisons and a brutally efficient military that costs as much in one year as fifty years of social programs. (God always seems to want whatever the upper class wants). Fake christians are delusional in so many ways. So why don't you pick up a book that participates in a search for truth, rather than one that tries to hang on to destructive crap that has already been disproven?

Why write a review like this? Because this is the way she wrote the book. There are no real arguments grounded in logic or evidence It's just snarky, vaguely insulting, nonsense. The biggest problem? She doesn't have the truth on her side. She is peddling lies and pretending it is a virtue-- the Christian way-- except she tries to capture some of the new-atheist snark and employ it as a tool for recruiting people into her cult. Christian authors make a lot of money... much much more than the confused, clinging-to-a-lie-they-can't-quite-believe-but-are-too-afraid-too-reject, followers they routinely con out of their money, dignity, and mental health.

Ms. Garrison suggests that if Christians follow the example of people like Peter Rollins and try to live the Gospel then whatever it is that is getting their goat: atheists or whomever, that they will be more a peace and not so stressed. What she says is simple... Hey you Christians just focus on following Christ, living the Gospel... and amazingly whatever annoys you will go away. The New Atheist Crusaders and their Holy Grail is a great book that encourages you to laugh away your issues and come out ahead and closer to what your faith really is.