Justin Brierley: Why new atheism failed and new thinkers are taking faith seriously again

Richard Dawkins and the new atheists began a popular anti-God movement in the mid 2000s. But why did the movement sputter out? And could we be seeing the start of a new conversation on God?
Re-Enchanting co-host Justin Brierley becomes the guest in this edition of the show as Belle Tindall and Graham Tomlin interview him about his new book 'The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why new atheism grew old and secualr thinkers are considering Christianity again.'
For the book: justinbrierley.com/the-surpri...
For Re-Enchanting: www.seenandunseen.com/podcast
There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

Пікірлер: 118

  • @gillianshaw9403
    @gillianshaw94037 ай бұрын

    On Justine's recommendation I've just checked out the debate between Holland & Grayling from 2019. Quite simply astonishing---never seen anything quite like it! Surely, debate at its best!

  • @troygallaty4361
    @troygallaty43617 ай бұрын

    Our church went from nearly empty to nearly full after hamas attacks perhaps it’s peace that breeds non faith

  • @brianruane8505

    @brianruane8505

    7 ай бұрын

    Hmmmm - the world is still waiting for the "prayers" to take effect.......

  • @troygallaty4361

    @troygallaty4361

    7 ай бұрын

    I wasn’t implying that they want peace for others . Was thinking along the lines of they are scared and were seeking peace for themselves ?? 🤷 what do you reckon?

  • @brianruane8505

    @brianruane8505

    7 ай бұрын

    @@troygallaty4361 Completely correct!!

  • @bengreen171

    @bengreen171

    7 ай бұрын

    @@troygallaty4361 don't you find it significant that people were looking for something in Church, rather than taking to the street and demanding a peaceful resolution to the conflict? It seems to me that Christians fall prey to superstitions about the End Times. They're not going to Church for peace - they're gathering at the fire doors because they think the place is going to burn down. They want to be noticed in the Queue so they don't get turned away to burn with everyone else.

  • @ileanamuntean7338

    @ileanamuntean7338

    7 ай бұрын

    ....and painkillers.

  • @margaretinsydney3856
    @margaretinsydney38567 ай бұрын

    First-time visitor here -- thank you algorithm. I listened to a very similar discussion a few days ago on the channel Rune Soup, which is usually all about magic and shamanic practices. The video was called The Surprising Resurgence of Christianity. So there's some evidence that what you say is true! I've been noticing this trend for a few years now, that Jesus is spoken of with respect in surprising places and that Christianity itself has become respectable in intellectual and academic circles. (I've just subscribed to your channel. Some of your other talks look wonderful too!)

  • @NN-wc7dl

    @NN-wc7dl

    7 ай бұрын

    Ans what academic circles would that be?

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    @@NN-wc7dler… that would be any academic circle worth mentioning. I went to the University of Cambridge and most serious philosophical or academic discussions of any weight included religious and implicitly Christian minds in the mix. Christianity is never going away - for obvious reasons.

  • @NN-wc7dl

    @NN-wc7dl

    5 ай бұрын

    @@matthewstokes1608 And what "obvious" reasons might that be?

  • @johnhaynes9910
    @johnhaynes99107 ай бұрын

    Stimulating and engaging, sure I'm a practising Christian but this is a very good format :)

  • @williamoarlock8634
    @williamoarlock86343 ай бұрын

    'New thinkers' read 'fringe idiots'.

  • @larrycarter3765
    @larrycarter37657 ай бұрын

    Atheism will never fail.

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    Christ said it wouldn’t!

  • @Native_Man123

    @Native_Man123

    2 ай бұрын

    lol

  • @maxdoubt5219
    @maxdoubt52197 ай бұрын

    Other apologists have sounded the death knell of New Atheism. Yet the 4-Horsemen lit a fire that still burns through the Xian superstition. Atheism is still growing fast. So what do we call it now? New New atheism? Neo-atheism?

  • @ubersheizer5398

    @ubersheizer5398

    7 ай бұрын

    @@yaboi4831 Islam is growing faster than Christianity.

  • @masterjose8483

    @masterjose8483

    5 ай бұрын

    I always see maxdoubt spreading atheism by trying to post comments all over apologetics channel like if it works 🤣🤣

  • @1255Kathy

    @1255Kathy

    3 ай бұрын

    Post-Modern Atheism. LOL

  • @tomlabooks3263
    @tomlabooks32637 ай бұрын

    As a catholic who keeps himself informed about statistics about christianity in the West, I can confirm that, sadly, there is no resurgence of belief in God in the West. So I really don’t know what “rebirth” you guys are talking about, unless you are referring to the healthier state of christianity (and the catholic Church) in some third world countries. It would be more useful to have some figures and facts.

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    Soon to be 3.5 BILLION Christians on Earth. Not bad for a flock that follows the very Creator who told us He had come to divide us against each other, is it?? Everything is going perfectly - it goes without saying. The right people will choose the right path.

  • @Native_Man123

    @Native_Man123

    2 ай бұрын

    wrong

  • @tomlabooks3263

    @tomlabooks3263

    2 ай бұрын

    @@Native_Man123 I repeat, for those who listen a little slower: christianity is growing only in third world countries. In Western countries, it’s declining. Not my opinion, these are facts, and as a catholic, I’m sorry about this state of affairs.

  • @Native_Man123

    @Native_Man123

    2 ай бұрын

    @@tomlabooks3263 How old are these statistics you are looking at? In the last 18 months, a huge resurgence in young people has occurred in the TLM and many more are going back to Church. Statistics won't verify this new revival for years to come.

  • @araucaria5173
    @araucaria51737 ай бұрын

    Believe in whatever you choose to believe in.

  • @userricksanchez

    @userricksanchez

    7 ай бұрын

    Do you genuinely believe that?

  • @markaurelius61

    @markaurelius61

    7 ай бұрын

    I don't think we choose our beliefs

  • @araucaria5173

    @araucaria5173

    7 ай бұрын

    Yes i do believe that is the case. Personally i am glad that i returned to my christian belief, be it on my own terms. @@userricksanchez

  • @jeromedavid7944

    @jeromedavid7944

    7 ай бұрын

    ​@@markaurelius61We don't it was a blessing before our conception! My Lord said He knew me before I was in the womb. Compared to everything else the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has achieved the lesser one is a "Gimme"!!!

  • @markaurelius61

    @markaurelius61

    7 ай бұрын

    @@jeromedavid7944 I don't understand your point.

  • @michelangelope830
    @michelangelope8307 ай бұрын

    I am tired and I need to rest in peace knowing future generations know the atheist logical fallacy. I am a psychologist and I want to know what do you understand when I say "to end all the wars in the world and atheism and religion the discovery that atheism is a logical fallacy has to be news". Obviously, and goes without saying, if the discovery that atheism is a logical fallacy has not been news is because I am suffering the most severe and devastating censorship in history in a social media era for many years. Would you memorize and understand the atheist logical fallacy to preserve knowledge useful for future generations that would understand I am a hero? The greatest knowledge of all time is atheism is a logical fallacy that assumes God is the religious idea of the creator of the creation to conclude wrongly no creator exists because a particular idea of God doesn’t exist. If you don't know God is the creator of the universe is because they have deceived you manipulating the information with disastrous eternal consequences. I think logically it is impossible the existence of the creation without the creator and humanity should be cautious and not live lying shamelessly defending an idea without any arguments destroying God’s creation deceiving innocent and vulnerable children. I am a poet that writes prose to be understood better, all my work is poetry. Wisdom is not "spam" to be destroyed. I hope i would not be compelled to go to Ukraine or Gaza to explain to ukrainians or palestinians that the war is bad because nobody benefits and everyone gets hurt. I hope this loving poem ends in the hands of innocent and vulnerable children. They would understand an injustice is being committed. I offer money for your help, what else can i do for you? Emergency, lives were lost while I am talking.

  • @NN-wc7dl

    @NN-wc7dl

    7 ай бұрын

    What's your argument for the claim ("atheism is a logical fallacy")?

  • @michelangelope830

    @michelangelope830

    7 ай бұрын

    @@NN-wc7dl I think this is check mate, again and again for many years. The king is naked and defeated with clothes only a fool can not see. All the cards are on the table for everyone to see I won a you lost. You know I know you know the truth is atheism is a logical fallacy that assumes God is the religious idea of the creator of the creation to conclude wrongly no creator exists because a particular idea of God doesn’t exist. Why the greatest knowledge of all time that saves most lives is censored? I only talk with people who understand what is the meaning of "to end all the wars in the world and atheism and religion the discovery that atheism is a logical fallacy has to be news". I want a better future for beautiful, innocent and vulnerable children. Are you moved with emotion? Or you don't care? I am the greatest psychologist of all time and i don't charge you for helping you to live better because you are I, literally, Time and Space, the first uncaused cause that caused all the rest, everything that ever existed, exist and would exist, God.

  • @williambranch4283
    @williambranch42837 ай бұрын

    I wasn't worried about faith in America, but I am pleased to see rebirth of interest in traditional English faith from near eclipse.

  • @oscargr_
    @oscargr_7 ай бұрын

    What do you mean new thinkers are taking Christianity seriously again ?? And again Christians believe a book.

  • @gloryholetoanotherdimension
    @gloryholetoanotherdimension4 ай бұрын

    I find Justins arguments to be pretty misrepresentative of reality (25m in thus far). You offer a pretty solid response that it's circular logic to suggest that atheism came from monotheists, and then he just sort of repeated the claim. Further, he seems to purport that morals come from Christianity, rather than general humanism. Not sure if he covers some of his claims that "discoveries in science are opening up rather than closing down the argument for/against god," but it reeks of quantum woo. Generally so far much of what he's claimed, he's fundamentally misattributing it to christianity when it can/should be attributed to other things, and the arguments are limp non-falsifiable apologetics. Certainly find him to be a kind, caring person, but his positions seem very poorly defended so far and it's pretty grating when he seems so resolute in them in spite of very direct and valid concerns. Edit: guess I stand corrected, not 3 minutes later and the chauvinism of claiming that Judeo-Christian values are unique rears it's ugly head. That's pretty shit.

  • @dalsegno1251
    @dalsegno12517 ай бұрын

    Lol

  • @brianruane8505
    @brianruane85057 ай бұрын

    Atheism dying out..???? What world do these folk live in?? My down country of Ireland has changed from being almost 100% catholic in the 1960's to now being about 10% practising catholics!! Repeated surveys of young people show them to be mostly atheist.... A few evangelical catholic preachers does not indicate a resurgence of religion!!

  • @user-lr2sq5qx2r

    @user-lr2sq5qx2r

    7 ай бұрын

    I saw a video recently put up by Ken Ham showing how church after church after church i America has been converted into liquer stores or theatres or others uses and how Christianity is dying in the West

  • @user-lr2sq5qx2r

    @user-lr2sq5qx2r

    7 ай бұрын

    the falingI don't believe atheiesm is dying out. What my be happening is Christianity rising and then falling, rising and then falling until it's gone forever

  • @williambranch4283

    @williambranch4283

    7 ай бұрын

    EU Socialism is the one true faith? ;-)

  • @brianruane8505

    @brianruane8505

    7 ай бұрын

    @@williambranch4283 You clearly do not understand the EU - nor do you understand faith. Very briefly, the EU is real. Faith, also defined as belief, does not require evidence (this is a very difficult word and concept for the religiously deluded) - you can have faith in anything you wish (like, Trump being an honest man) but you lack any evidence. Belief in a god lacks any evidence, but you are free to believe there is such an entry in spite of the absence of evidence!

  • @williambranch4283

    @williambranch4283

    7 ай бұрын

    @@brianruane8505 Political arrangements are political fictions.

  • @TheMahayanist
    @TheMahayanist7 ай бұрын

    No thinker is taking faith seriously.

  • @williambranch4283

    @williambranch4283

    7 ай бұрын

    Humans don't think ;-)

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    😂😂😂 ok, “Sir”!

  • @leonrobinson8180

    @leonrobinson8180

    2 ай бұрын

    That's the lie of atheism. That they're all the smart kids and Christians and other religious people are dummies. Hate to break it to you, but I know atheist basement dwellers and Christian professors.

  • @vanishingpoint7411
    @vanishingpoint74117 ай бұрын

    Arr Justin . Still trying to pedal the confirmation biased view point that your fiction sky daddy is a real thing . I tend to think that Justin is a fraud and that the only reason he keeps panhandling this crap is that he realises he’s invested so much time in this career and that to make a U-turn now would put him out of a job

  • @masterjose8483

    @masterjose8483

    5 ай бұрын

    Explain and show me proof of why he is a fraud 🤔

  • @vanishingpoint7411

    @vanishingpoint7411

    5 ай бұрын

    @@masterjose8483 think 🤔 you didn’t read that comment fully. I said I think 🤔 he’s a fraud, it’s speculative point . But your right Justin is to stupid to understand the lack of evidence for a god .

  • @lauracaruso2524
    @lauracaruso25247 ай бұрын

    I can't even start to imagine the bloated sense of self that can make people talk about Christianity as if it where some specimen in a petri dish.

  • @jeromedavid7944

    @jeromedavid7944

    7 ай бұрын

    "Woe to the spirit that relies on the flesh and woe to the flesh that relies on the spirit."

  • @brianruane8505

    @brianruane8505

    7 ай бұрын

    @@jeromedavid7944 Its a good thing that someone ignored this ridiculous phrase - and went on to understand and learn about the reality of the world; had they relied on this stupid meaningless phrase, the people of the world would still be living in caves and behaving like savages since that was what their god (non existent) told them!

  • @emeraldtier1750

    @emeraldtier1750

    7 ай бұрын

    ​@@brianruane8505you know everyone believed pretty consistently in a God till 200 years ago. How would that project onto your presumption that progress is a conflicting value? Most of the social progress we made happened before the "death of god". Racism, sexism and slavery were the norm prior to Christian hegemony and those things carried through getting gradually less gratuitous by Christian influence.

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    @@brianruane8505all modern science came from the bright wellspring of original societies and institutions and illuminated minds of unique and unequalled genius that were Christians, you epic neanderthal.

  • @ggunnelspct
    @ggunnelspct7 ай бұрын

    It’s totally weird how survey after survey shows a decline in Christianity yet this guy thinks otherwise based on his feelings.

  • @Marc010

    @Marc010

    7 ай бұрын

    I know! Hilarious. It's like the used car salesman convincing you the 1971 Pinto is still popular cause there are still cars on the road.

  • @markosborne53

    @markosborne53

    7 ай бұрын

    Justin's perspective on Christianity is not traditional so quite possibly See's a revival due to his definition of Christianity having a broader net. encompassing a wider range of belief.

  • @ggunnelspct

    @ggunnelspct

    7 ай бұрын

    @@markosborne53 Ok, but do these people in this wider net say believe in all the traditional tenets of Christianity (the Nicene creed, etc.). If not, then it’s changed so much it is no longer Christianity. Also, this seems like an incredibly desperate way to seem relevant.

  • @markosborne53

    @markosborne53

    7 ай бұрын

    @@ggunnelspct I agree that it is a perversion but I don't see it as desperate more a deliberate watering down of the faith until it is no longer Christianity.

  • @thensaidJacob

    @thensaidJacob

    6 ай бұрын

    When did he say that Christianity is growing? You totally misconstrued what he said lol

  • @samael5782
    @samael57827 ай бұрын

    No matter how much you pretend that new atheism failed, it doesn't make your imaginary friend real.

  • @stealths15

    @stealths15

    7 ай бұрын

    I agree with you I rather believe that nothing did it than the imaginary friend.

  • @NN-wc7dl

    @NN-wc7dl

    5 ай бұрын

    @@matthewstokes1608 The Cambridge guy, huh? No person with an education would make such a ridiculous remark. I think it is far more possible you've taken a course in Lying for Jesus than attended any real schools.

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    @@NN-wc7dl sorry to disappoint you but you’re wrong!

  • @NN-wc7dl

    @NN-wc7dl

    5 ай бұрын

    @@matthewstokes1608 Sure I am. I know a clown when he shows up and you are undoubtedly one.

  • @matthewstokes1608

    @matthewstokes1608

    5 ай бұрын

    @@NN-wc7dl 😘

  • @karldubhe8619
    @karldubhe86197 ай бұрын

    Cope harder...

  • @wickyb123
    @wickyb1232 ай бұрын

    You lie

  • @michaelbyrnee9584
    @michaelbyrnee95847 ай бұрын

    Where did you pull your "facts" from??? Atheism sputtering out? I don't think so. If any theists show definitive proof of a god - and please don't insult us by quoting the bible - most of us would reconsider. We are waiting.

  • @emeraldtier1750

    @emeraldtier1750

    7 ай бұрын

    I believe what he may be referring to is the leaning towards faith based beliefs is supposedly atheist individuals. Gender Identity is a good example. There is no proof of such a differentiated concept of gender outside one's sex, yet people believe in it as if it was an innate characteristic you can observe like sex or race. They believe on faith in their informed priest class, gender doctors and psychologists. If that's not a qausi-religion, I don't know what is. The new atheist types split on this issue for a reason.

  • @williambranch4283

    @williambranch4283

    7 ай бұрын

    Das Kapital

  • @nicksibly526

    @nicksibly526

    7 ай бұрын

    .....and yet here you are looking for answers to why we live in a cosmos rather than a chaos.

  • @williambranch4283

    @williambranch4283

    7 ай бұрын

    @@nicksibly526 We do live in a world of complete chaos … called the US.

  • @cazkelly

    @cazkelly

    7 ай бұрын

    We aren’t here to impress your little cult. When every city in Europe and the USA has the atheists equivalent of a church we might go and listen to what you have to say, if you had something to say, but you don’t. So stay quite non believer.

  • @NN-wc7dl
    @NN-wc7dl7 ай бұрын

    BS

  • @JohnKerr-bq3vo
    @JohnKerr-bq3vo7 ай бұрын

    low subscribers... low thumbs up...low views ... low comments... and rightly so.....no one is listening JB