Refuting an Atheist's God ...

A recent poll shows that one in five Americans has no religious preference, more than double the number reported in 1990 — and the highest rate since the number began to be tracked in the 1930s. According to another survey, nearly a third of Americans under the age of 30 describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or "spiritual but not religious," making the millennial generation the most religiously unaffiliated of any on record.

For those who have led the charge against the forces of faith — Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Grayling, and numerous other wannabes — this change is a welcome sign that the American people have at long last begun to dispel their atavistic ignorance and reconcile themselves to the scientific account of the universe, which is utterly incompatible with any form of theism.

One of the many virtues of theologian David Bentley Hart’s stunning new book, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, is that it demolishes this facile, self-satisfied position, exposing how completely it relies on a straw man account of God for its cogency. Atheism may well be true; a society of secularists might get along just fine without any form of piety. But until those unbelievers confront the strongest cases for God, they will have failed truly and honestly to rout their infamous enemy.