Atheism Kills: The Dangers of a World Without God – and Cause for Hope

290 Pages·2017·1.57 MB·English

by  Barak Lurie

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Atheism Kills / Barak Lurie —1st edition ISBN: 978-0-9995139-2-7 (e-book)
For my father and mother, Ranan and Tamar Lurie
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Dennis Prager
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I: THE NOT VERY GOOD, THE PRETTY BAD AND THE
REALLY, REALLY UGLY
F S
IVE TORIES
M N
URDER BY THE UMBERS
The Atheist Killings
Atheism and the Birth of the Abortion Culture
Guilt by Association?
P
ROGRESSIVISM
E
UGENICS
CHAPTER II: THE BATTLEGROUND
W T B I N A
HAT HIS OOK S OT BOUT
T A A
HE RGUMENT FOR THEISM
T A A A
HE RGUMENT GAINST THEISM
The Great Internal Irony of Atheism
The Unbearable Impossibility of Being
I Do Not Think That Book Says What You Think It Says
God’s Hostility to Science?
Yeah, But Other Than That, What Has Religion Ever Done for Us?
The “God of the Gaps”
Taking Things Literally
God—The Guarantor of Only Good Things?
To Dream the Impossible Dream
CHAPTER III: THE FIGHT AGAINST GOD WITHIN US
T G I
HE OD MPULSE
The “Isms” Whack-a-Mole Game
W M M
HAT ATTERS OST
A C A
NSWERING THE ALL OF NYTHING
M M H G
AN AKES IMSELF OD
N H P
O IGHER OWER
CHAPTER IV: SEE? I TOLD YOU NOT TO TURN SKYNET ON
G B G
ODLESSNESS AND IG OVERNMENT
B G B E T
IG OVERNMENT AND IG VIL HINGS
W R I V
HO EALLY MPOSES ALUES
T C C P C M M
AKE A OUPLE OF YNICAL ILLS AND ALL E IN THE ORNING
T H Y F
O ELL WITH OUR REEDOM
F D WHAT?
REEDOM TO O
“C D ”
HINA FOR A AY
T , J … A A W
RUTH USTICE ND THE THEIST AY
A W Y W
ORD ABOUT OUR ORD
CHAPTER V: ATHEISM ON THE ONE HAND; HUMANS ON THE OTHER
T B F W
HE ATTLE FOR REE ILL
T U I B —P T
HE NBEARABLE MPOSSIBILITY OF EING ART WO
P
URPOSE
T G F M T
HE REAT ICTIONS OF ORALITY AND IME
T D U
HE ANGERS OF TOPIA
CHAPTER VI: STANDARDS
W D O N S C F ?
HERE OES UR EED FOR TANDARDS OME ROM
W W H S A
HY E AVE TANDARDS AT LL
W M A Y I ?
HAT OVIE RE OU N
CHAPTER VII: GODLESSNESS: NOT CUTE EVEN WHEN HE’S
SLEEPING
W W N N I … P , S P
HAT THE ORLD EEDS OW S ASSION WEET ASSION
O H , F , W A
F EROES EAR AND OODY LLEN
A , B , P E
THEISM OREDOM AND THE LAYGROUND OF VIL
G B E
ODLESSNESS AND THE LINDNESS TO VIL
G E E
ODLESSNESS AND THE NABLING OF VIL
J L P F
UST EAVE THE OPCORN ON THE LOOR
Diary of a Wimpy Generation (or “Class, What Are You Willing to Die
For? Anyone … Anyone?”)
W M U W C C E
AKE E P HEN THE LOCK HIMES VIL
CHAPTER VIII: HEAR NO GOOD, SEE NO GOOD, AND BUILD NO
GOOD
G “F ”
OD AS ANTASY
B S H ?
UYING A TAIRWAY TO EAVEN
A N W A ….
ND OW A ORD FROM THEISM
T “G A ”
HE OOD THEIST
CHAPTER IX: RADICAL ISLAM
CHAPTER X: THE END OF DISTINCTIONS
R E -T T
ELIGION AND THE IGHT RACK APE
C B K ? I ’ A G .
RUEL TO E IND T S LL OOD
T S B
HE QUISHY ELIEVER
R-E-S-P-E-C-T—T H D
HE UMAN ISTINCTION
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ENDNOTES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
By Dennis Prager
Here’s a riddle:
What do you get when you combine a lawyer, a first-class mind,
exhaustive historical research, compelling human stories, moral passion, and
grappling with the greatest issues of life?
The answer: Atheism Kills by Barak Lurie.
This book does not focus on “proofs” of God’s existence. Though a strong
believer in God, I have never sought proofs of God’s existence—simply because
I don’t believe that such proofs exist. If God wanted His existence known the
way we know that a cell or a mountain exists, presumably He would have made
His existence as provable as that of a cell or a mountain. Moreover, we can only
prove that which is completely contained within the natural world. And, by
definition, God transcends the natural world. He did, after all, create it.
What we do have here are arguments—arguments that are so logically
powerful that I have to conclude what the eminent contemporary thinker,
Charles Krauthammer, an agnostic, said to me when I asked what he thought
about atheism.
“I believe,” Krauthammer said, “that atheism is the least plausible of all
theologies. I mean, there are a lot of wild ones out there, but the one that clearly
is so contrary to what is possible is atheism. The idea that all this universe—
what is [the atheist argument]: It always existed? It created itself ex nihilo? I
mean, talk about the violation of human rationality. That, to me, is off the
charts.”
And Krauthammer is not only an agnostic; he is someone who was rendered
a quadriplegic by a diving accident while a very young man in medical school. If
anyone might be expected to embrace atheism, it would be a man with a brilliant
mind, trained as a scientist (at Harvard, a thoroughly secular institution), to
whom life dealt a severe and unfair blow at a young age.
What Barak Lurie offers here is, in my opinion, more important than
“proofs” of God’s existence. Instead, he proves something else—the
consequences of atheism. And those consequences are precisely reflected in the
title of the book: atheism kills.
There are, of course, fine individuals who are atheists. There were
undoubtedly fine people who believed in the pagan gods who demanded child
sacrifice. The existence of fine atheists says nothing about atheism, any more
than the existence of fine Aztec believers argued for Aztec religion. Atheism is
the subject of this book. And Lurie is right: Atheism kills. It kills people,
civilizations, beauty, meaning, order, happiness. If something is good, atheism
will eventually kill it.
That’s why this book is important. People need to know both the logically
inevitable consequences of atheism and its historical record, which starkly bears
them out. This is not mere theory.
Atheism Kills is a robust, relentlessly interesting, and intellectually
invigorating read. But it is also—and perhaps most of all—a cri de couer, an
impassioned cry from the heart. Lurie is worried about civilization, and cares
deeply about human suffering. Those are the reasons, I suspect, that he devoted
so much time and effort to writing this book. And every one of us who reads it is
the beneficiary of his noble and massive effort.
Without God, everything is permitted.
— F D
YODOR OSTOEVSKY
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
— V
OLTAIRE