Calmly engaging the philosophical arguments posed by best-selling authors Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, and to a lesser extent, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, Gregory Ganssle’s A Reasonable God is a nuanced, charitable, and philosophically well-informed defense of the existence of God. Eschewing the rhetoric and provocative purposes of the New Atheists, Ganssle instead lucidly and objectively analyzes each argument on its own philosophical merits, to see how persuasive they prove to be. Surveying topics including the relationship between faith and reason, moral arguments for the existence of God, the Darwinian theories of the origin of religion, he pays particular attention to, and ultimately rejects, what he determines is the strongest logical argument against the existence of god posed by the new atheists, put forth by Dawkins: that our universe resembles more of what an atheistic universe would be like than it does with what a theistic universe would be like.
Editorial Reviews
For anyone teaching media and religion, communication, or popular culture and religion, this slim volume examining the leading public intellectuals who argue for atheism is a valuable resource, accessilbe for all levels of study, from beginning to advanced.
Communication Research Trends
Ganssle respectfully presents the ideas of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens and patiently and often confincingly shows where they have made serious mistakes in their arguments, doing so in a restrained and intellectually serious way.
Tikkun Magazine Review
The ‘New Atheists’ have made quite a splash, with easily digestible bestsellers full of arch humor and incendiary rhetoric. However, anything of lasting value in them depends upon the almost entirely philosophical arguments at their core. Greg Ganssle has produced an excellent guide to the philosophy in these books―a sensible, even-handed assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. The writing is as accessible as that of the popular authors he discusses; but Ganssle displays more philosophical subtlety, and his measured tone is that of a philosopher, not a bombastic culture warrior. He never takes a cheap shot or overstates his case.The book will be welcomed by anyone intrigued or incensed by the works of Dawkins, Hitchens, et al.; but who wants to assess their claims coolly and rationally.
Dean Zimmerman, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University
