{"id":5904,"date":"2010-04-02T14:04:59","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/advising-atheists-loser-letter-1.html"},"modified":"2010-04-02T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:04:59","slug":"advising-atheists-loser-letter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/advising-atheists-loser-letter-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Advising Atheists (Loser Letters) 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LoserLetters.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters<\/a>\"\" ,<\/strong><\/em> is clever fiction; it’s satire and it takes on the issue of the problem of “those obnoxious Christian convert traitors,” those who have left the Brights (atheists and atheism) for the Dulls (believers in God).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Like Alister McGrath (by the way: The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>). Eberstadt’s letter writer calls him “a total traitor enemy combatant Loser-lover guy” (Loser means God in this satire).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What do you think of this “who has more converts?” issue? Yet, how many conversion stories of former atheists have you read that clearly strengthen your faith and compel your mind? Like the story of C.S. Lewis or Elizabeth Anscombe?<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
She admits to her “BFFs”: this makes us look like “losers (lower case “l”) because they get so many more converts. She says they have too many on the Brights side who are just young punks drinking Red Bull and eating cold pizza.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Instead, they’ve got CS Lewis and Evelyn Waugh and Malcolm Muggeridge and G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers …<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
And the worst of all, G.E.M. (Elizabeth) Anscombe, that brilliant Bright philosopher (her book is Intention<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>) who became a vocal Dull.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Francis Collins. Antony Flew, and she criticizes how they’ve managed to say mean things about him and gravitated toward the worst form of journalism — that he was old and senile and the like.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Where are our numbers?, she crying out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters , is clever fiction; it’s satire and it takes on the issue of the problem of “those obnoxious Christian convert traitors,” those who have left the Brights (atheists and atheism) for the Dulls (believers in God). Like Alister McGrath (by the way: The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvising Atheists (Loser Letters) 5 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/advising-atheists-loser-letter-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advising Atheists (Loser Letters) 5 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters , is clever fiction; it’s satire and it takes on the issue of the problem of “those obnoxious Christian convert traitors,” those who have left the Brights (atheists and atheism) for the Dulls (believers in God). Like Alister McGrath (by the way: The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/advising-atheists-loser-letter-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-02T14:04:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/LoserLetters-thumb-250x196-12358.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advising Atheists (Loser Letters) 5 - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/advising-atheists-loser-letter-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advising Atheists (Loser Letters) 5 - Jesus Creed","og_description":" Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters , is clever fiction; it’s satire and it takes on the issue of the problem of “those obnoxious Christian convert traitors,” those who have left the Brights (atheists and atheism) for the Dulls (believers in God). 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