{"id":2903,"date":"2008-09-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/fr-what-a-waste-takes-on-the-atheists.html"},"modified":"2008-09-03T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T12:00:00","slug":"fr-what-a-waste-takes-on-the-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/fr-what-a-waste-takes-on-the-atheists.html","title":{"rendered":"“Fr. What-A-Waste” takes on the atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Regular readers will recall that is Katie Couric’s nickname<\/a> for this dashing TV priest and moral theologian, Fr. Thomas Williams, who works as a Vatican consultant for CBS News. <\/p>\n

The good father has a new book out, “Greater Than You Think,” an extended argument against atheism. And Elizabeth Scalia has a review of it over at Inside Catholic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A snip: <\/p>\n

His small book…is meant to rebut the recent string of best-sellers promoting a “new” intellectualist atheism over the same-old knuckle-dragging faith in the “fairy tale” of a Creator God. Responding to noted New Atheists — Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, and most especially Christopher Hitchens — Father Williams has produced a quick read that manages to point out flaws in simple reasoning and clear errors in the more complex arguments that are often blindsided by the atheist’s own prejudice.<\/p>\n

Father Williams’s book will be unlikely to convince his opponents, or even silence them, but it may well help both believers and unbelievers to step away from a spiritual precipice — believers because they may consider how their own behavior helps create atheists, unbelievers because it gives them a means to make a thinking choice (and therefore permission, if it’s what they are looking for) to believe.<\/p>\n

“Greater Than You Think” manages to make short work of the often over-long arguments of the bestsellers, sometimes by foregoing niceties for clarity. Father Williams writes in his introduction: <\/p>\n

My own limited experience indicates that atheism — especially in its more passionate strain — always has its causes. All the convinced atheists I know do not merely disbelieve in God; they hate Him. He becomes for them an object not of simple indifference, but of the most visceral animosity . . . [which is] always motivated by one of two things: a deep injustice suffered, for which they blame God and cannot forgive Him; or a deep injustice they have committed, for which they cannot forgive themselves.<\/em> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest of the review right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regular readers will recall that is Katie Couric’s nickname for this dashing TV priest and moral theologian, Fr. Thomas Williams, who works as a Vatican consultant for CBS News. The good father has a new book out, “Greater Than You Think,” an extended argument against atheism. And Elizabeth Scalia has a review of it over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\n"Fr. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}