Appendix C: The New Atheist Arguments: Summarized and Answered

Richard Dawkins — The God Delusion (2006)

Main argument: The Ultimate Boeing 747 — God would need to be more complex than the universe and therefore requires explanation.

Response: God is not a composite physical system. The complexity objection applies to physical things, not to a simple, necessary, immaterial being. Plantinga: "a rookie mistake."

Christopher Hitchens — God Is Not Great (2007)

Main argument: Religion has caused enormous harm.

Response: The argument from harm is not a truth argument. The 20th century's worst atrocities were carried out by explicitly atheist regimes. The question of God's existence is logically independent of the behavior of religious people.

Sam Harris — The End of Faith (2004)

Main argument: Religious faith is irrational — belief without sufficient evidence.

Response: Harris's claim that only scientific evidence warrants belief is itself not a scientific claim. It is a self-refuting philosophical position. The cumulative case for theism meets the standards of evidence Harris applies in other domains.

Daniel Dennett — Breaking the Spell (2006)

Main argument: Religion is a natural phenomenon explicable by evolutionary and cognitive science.

Response: Explaining how beliefs arise does not address whether they are true. The genetic fallacy: the origin of a belief is irrelevant to its truth value. Dennett's account of consciousness — that it is an illusion — is self-refuting: an illusion requires a conscious being to have it.