Atheisms & Theologies

This is a compilation of reviews of sites from all over the World Wide Web related (more or sometimes less) to atheisms and theologies. You will also find here some quite well known postcards and cartoons pertaining to atheism.

Rating System

The four-halo rating system is utterly objective, of course, but may need to be explained so that all of the universally applicable judgments expressed by its use are not merely announced (the cosmically important outcome) but also understood (we, too, are slaves to our pedagogically driven, bodhisattva-like compassion). The explanation may be somewhat technical but we ask you to bear with our attempts to break open web-centric phenomenological categories for the wider public.

Links (by rating with reviews)

4 Halo Sites

Atheist Bus Campaign. A hub of vibrancy, Atheistbus.org.uk is the official website for the Atheist Bus Campaign. The site, which is supported by the British Humanist Association, provides the history and current status of the advertising campaign and its driving slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Atheistbus.org.uk presents an affirmative definition of “atheism” and manifests a superb integration of resources, fundraising, and merchandise. While navigating Atheistbus.org.uk, the extensive list of links to organizations, atheist initiatives, blogs, and articles remains on the right side of the webpage thereby swiftly connecting the inquisitive to further information. [BJT]

Counterbalance seeks to help the public understand how the sciences are interrelated with religion and ethics. The site boasts over 300,000 links to articles and 150 hours of streaming media. The site’s name conveys its mission, that is, to help correct the imbalance that is too frequently placed on only science or only theology. Genetics, evolution, neuroscience, cosmology and the environment are just a few of the topics that this site engages with in order to present a theological perspective in a humanist arena where it has been often excluded. [CSA]

Creation.com is the website of a group called Creation Ministries International. The “About Us” section expresses an evangelical, literalist Christian worldview that is present in the “Atheism” section of the site. The apologetic “Atheism” webpage is an extremely well-organized and thorough examination of atheism. The page examines various modes of atheism, diverse perspectives within atheism, and philosophical developments within the atheism. Creation.com presents a thoughtful, though biased, theological response to atheism. This is an extremely useful website for those interested in responsible conservative evangelical responses to historical and new atheism. [AMK]

Investigating Atheism. Investigating Atheism is a scholarly website affiliated with the University of Cambridge Faculty of Divinity, Psychology and Religion Research Group. It is dedicated to presenting a balanced and academically rigorous history of atheism. The site is well designed, and its straightforward layout makes it easy to navigate. It includes a helpful introductory article on the difficulty of defining atheism, as well as a section dealing with the current controversies surrounding the “New Atheism” movement. The highlight of the website is a “History of Modern Atheism,” complete with footnotes and bibliography, which traces the phenomenon of atheism from the seventeenth century to the present day “New Atheist” movement. In addition there is a helpful list of links to other websites on atheism along with websites providing theological responses to atheism. A far cry from the incendiary rhetoric and facile argumentation which typifies so many websites on atheism, Investigating Atheism is designed for those genuinely interested in educating themselves on the historical development of atheism in its various philosophical, sociological, psychological, anthropological and scientific forms. [APL]

Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org, created by Project Gutenberg, aims to “encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.” By offering a wealth of resources including—but not restricted to—works on atheism and theology, this site is invaluable for scholars and students. Works such as Voltaire’s Candide or his Philosophical Dictionary entries on “Atheism” and “God”, or Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, are just some of the invaluable resources made available for paperless and painless downloading. This site also offers news relevant to eBook advances and tools enabling access to a panoply of material. Boasting the ability to reach “one billion readers,” Project Gutenberg is a technological advance for library weary researchers. [RLS]

3.5 Halo Sites

American Atheist. This website sports a provocative banner on its homepage that says “you don’t believe in gods…they just might agree”, and features a video of diverse Americans announcing their proud American Atheism into the camera. It is a densely packed, interactive web page that is filled with resources on Atheism in the news, Atheism in law and politics, famous atheist quotes, etc. In addition, it provides resources for families interested in raising their children God-free, information about the world’s religions “and other mythologies” from an Atheist perspective, and resources for further reading on the web and in literature. In addition, the website contains a regularly updated blog that contains information on the oppression of American Atheists and how to fight discrimination, among other subjects.

Answers in Action is an evangelical Christian website with many articles concerning religious issues. They understand that there are different types Atheism, which the website describes in an article. The merit of the website is that it contains many theological articles, a letter from an Atheist, and the debates between Atheism and Christianity. Since it is an evangelical Christian website, the contents may give out Christian’s point of view, but they seem to try logical and unbiased. Thus, if you are looking for evangelical Christian’s answers to Atheism, this site could serve as a masterpiece. The only problem is that the redirecting of the links in the website is not properly made. So, if you want to surf away to another category in the website, you must go back to the first main page – maybe by clicking the main banner “Answers in Action,” – and then you can explore other contents of the website. [HJW]

Atheist Delusion. On this site, Michael J. Penfold serves up a serious and varied response to the “new atheism” of Richard Dawkins and others. The professional and academically sturdy website offers an abundance of articles by figures like Plantinga and D'Souza, audio lectures ranging from scholastic lectures to trivial YouTube clips, and concise book/DVD reviews particularly focused on Dawkins, his material, and other modern atheistic arguments. Unlike many anti-atheist websites, atheistdelusion.net does not resort to name-calling or oversimplifying a rebuttal. Clearly the hosts of this site are more interested in mature debate over a very serious and intriguing issue than irrational bluster. [ERD]

Celebrity Atheists. While on the surface it may seem trivial due to its content and rather simplistic design, Celebatheists.com offers a wide range of insightful soundbites and excepts of famous persons from all tracts of prominence. From Eco to Hefner and from Rickey Gervais to Stephen Hawking, the site gives diverse opinions on the subject of God's non-existence divided neatly into “atheist,” “agnostic,” and “ambiguous.” It provides a truly intriguing look into personal convictions on the absence of a divine presence without the formalities of rigorous argument. It is a fantastic place to start one's search on atheistic reasoning without sifting though dense academic presentations. [ERD]

3 Halo Sites

4Atheists.com. This website is a valuable resource for an atheist or freethinker who is looking for an atmosphere that encourages an open, secular worldview. It provides names of businesses and organizations that are supportive to the atheist lifestyle. There is no content or information overtly offensive or insensitive to other worldviews; however, it does provide links to these websites. In its mission statement, the website articulately defines its wish to be a resource for atheists remaining an open forum for atheists or freethinkers to find others who share their view of the world. [ZTR]

Catholic Encyclopedia: Atheism. The Catholic Encyclopedia handles atheism with the dispassionate neo-Scholastic style of early 20th century Roman Catholicism. The critiques are not generally ad hominem, and the article struggles with a common definition of the term. The atheism discussed is all of the philosophical bent, and the article outlines a few different ways atheist arguments are made. Far from the invective of other sites, the Encyclopedia acknowledges that the issues – and the personalities – are complex and must be considered carefully and individually. While somewhat antiquated, and a little smug, the site is an interesting theological view of atheism. [JCD]

Conversion Diary is a website owned and operated by Jennifer Fulwiler, a life-long atheist before her conversion to Catholicism in 2006-07. The site mostly consists of her blog, in which she chronicles her faith conversion, entertains questions from atheists, and offers advice to those going through a conversion process themselves. Aside from her blog, which is organized by date but can be searched by topic or tag, Fulwiler includes links to websites and books that influenced her journey. This site isn’t one for objective facts, but it can offer insight into how someone who was highly educated and not born into a religious family ended up being a Catholic apologist. [AS]

Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Freedom From Religion Foundation website, ffrf.org, is the central hub for the group's political and legal based campaign for separation of church and state. It offers a wide variety of resources ranging from information on upcoming events in which people can participate around the country to like minded literature available both in digital and print form. Among the sections are features on famous freethinkers, legalistic arguments against religion in the public sphere, an active user forum on a variety of general and timely topics, and numerous new media outlets for getting involved. The site is well organized and cleanly presented, offering an informative portal to interested parties. [ERD]

Friendly Atheist. The aim of this website is to inform the public about the primary tenets of atheism and to reshape the predominant conception of atheists held by the public. This is accomplished through the blogging of the website contributors as well through responses of interested individuals. According to the website, a “friendly atheist” is someone who (1) does not think someone is inferior for believing in God, but can engage in polite conversation about that decision; (2) does not go around denigrating religious people unnecessarily; (3) questions his or her own beliefs as much as others’ beliefs; and (4) invites positive dialogue from religious people. [BLT]

Iron Chariots. This site is geared towards atheists who want to better understand the arguments between atheists and theists. The name “Iron Chariots” comes from the Bible, Judges 1:19. The name implies that the Iron Chariots will not be driven out by religion. Their site provides helpful links for understanding the arguments for God and against God, and also how to defend atheist views from theistic attacks (counter-apologetics). The site defines atheism, agnosticism, and secular humanism. Though clearly viewing the world through an atheist-superior lens, this website provides valuable resources to aid one’s understanding of atheist engagement with theists. [KC]

Life Without Faith. Lifewithoutfaith.com is an internet blog managed by Brother Richard, a fundamentalist Christian minister turned non-theist community builder. Brother Richard colors his blog with a diverse array of digital media including Youtube videos, comic strips, and links to CNN.com articles. While the blog is not a deep resource for why one might consider becoming an atheist, it does effectively provide a survey of the current socio-political climate. Brother Richard verges on the sarcastic at times, but manages to presently a tempered response to theism. Those interested in keeping up with the debate as it unfolds in the media might consider this site. THREE STARS [AMK]

New Atheism. This website contains some links, which open a new window to other websites, videos, and articles concerning atheism, especially so-called New Atheism. In fact, the websites core layout does not have any propaganda on behalf of New Atheism, but the links, videos, and articles do. Basically this site is a kind of archive. As of the date of review (September 6, 2009), most links are live, but not all links are helpful for learning about atheism. The newspaper articles and videos are useful resources for those who want to know about New Atheism as a growing movement and as a style of argument. For example, a particularly valuable resource is a discussion among four leading atheists – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens – corporately arguing how superstitious religions use power politically and unethically. [HJW]

ReligiousTolerance.org. The entire ReligiousTolerance.org site sets itself an ambitious goal: “to objectively describe religious faiths in all their diversity.” In the pursuit of this goal, Atheism (the capitalization is theirs) receives its respectful due next to Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and so on. The earnestness of the site shows in its acknowledged difficulty in defining just what, exactly, atheism is; in the quest to be inclusive, it lists nearly every possible definition. The majority of the pages on atheism (a dozen or so) list examples of the oppression, or at least misunderstanding, of atheists by theists. The content is thin, and theological responses to atheism are simplistic. [JCD]

Richard Dawkins’ Home Page. This is a well-organized, user-friendly site that provides a substantial amount of links to text, video, and audio resources related to atheism, evolution, and Dawkins’ own work. The link “Atheist Resources” is particularly helpful in that it provides unique web suggestions related to atheism not normally found in generic google searches. The scope of the site is broad, with options related not only to research but also to community involvement, event scheduling, and commercial merchandising. One will appreciate that the site is not overtly confrontational toward its philosophical opponents but remains relatively inviting, despite the fact that the subtitle “clear-thinking oasis” is a bit of a jab to the religious reader. [TW]

Secular Web. Don’t let the bland packaging of this website fool you! The Secular Web is a rich resource for anyone exploring the rationale for atheism or the basis for living morally and meaningfully as an atheist. With up-to-date book reviews, essays from respected scholars such as Michael Martin, links to hundreds of non-theist thinkers and their most significant work, advice on how to raise an atheist child in a religious world, and links to other helpful atheist web-resources, depth of content is this site’s greatest virtue. Still, the website could benefit by engaging religious and theological perspectives beyond traditional anthropomorphic Christian theism.

Wikipedia: Atheism. Wikipedia is a well known free online encyclopedia, produced by volunteer contributors. Any given article, therefore, may or may not be wholly reliable. On atheism, this website has a fairly good article and excellent resources. The entry explains several ways of defining the term “atheism” and deal with issues bearing on the epistemology of atheism, different conceptual tendencies within atheism, social contexts for atheism, demographics of atheism, and the historical and philosophical background of atheism. Although the article is good enough to get a taste of what atheism is, it does not treat theological arguments or responses to atheism in depth. However, the beauty of this website is in its resources: it offers a good list of online resources and books through links, notes, reference, and further readings. [HJW]

2.5 Halo Sites

About.com on Agnosticism and Atheism. This page is an About.com guide. Its aim is to help visitors understand what it means (in allegedly scientific terms) to say “God does not exist.” In scientific terms anything that exists in this world is understood in terms of its observable impact and influence. The page argues the converse: that anything lacking evidence of observable impact and influence in this world does not exist. While this is a metaphysical rather than a scientific argument, its links to science are clear enough. The website argues that believers have consistently failed to present the required evidence of divine impact in the universe. The page includes helpful links to articles on related themes. [FA]

Being Human is a blog about religion and science from an atheist's perspective. The writing is not perfect, English being the second language of the author, though his presentation of ideas is catchy and interesting. His blog entries fit the tag line 'Secular Sermons' covering topics from world religious practices to the science of the mind. With (mostly) level-headed and reasonable opinions, often with reference citations, this blog is educational, informative, not too heavy, and only slightly provocative. The blog isn't “academic” in any sense of the word, though it seems more than merely entertaining. [TK]

FreeDomainRadio.org calls itself the “largest and most popular philosophy show on the web.” Truly a show, it offers lively podcasts, videos, books and discussion forums for politically minded atheists. The topics covered range from: the ethical- “A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics;” to the theological- “Against the Gods;” to the political- “Statism is Dead.” This site aims to promote personal and political freedom: read atheism and anarchy. Stefan Molyneux runs the site. There is some atheist-guru-worship of him on the discussion boards, but this is still a valuable resource for atheists seeking a philosophical grounding for their political frustrations. [JM]

National Catholic Register. Claiming to be America’s most complete Catholic newsweekly, NC Register.com was founded by Msgr. Matthew Smith in 1927 and has been published by Father Owen Kearns since 1996. The National Catholic Register site states: “Our mission is to inform, inspire, challenge and equip active Catholics to engage the culture with confidence.” The website hosts a blog, as well as offers the possibility for subscribers to receive print editions of the Catholic newsweekly. Unfortunately, a reader must subscribe for much of the website material to be available. As mentioned in the website’s mission statement, the purpose of the newsweekly is to help Catholics navigate the culture in which they find themselves. The ‘feel’ of the website then, becomes one of helping the Catholic navigate the ‘other.’ So though an atheistic worldview is engaged in a civil and informed manner, atheism is treated for the most part as a life philosophy that must be countered through faith, doctrine and reason. [MG]

2 Halo Sites

AskTheAtheists.com. Created by RedShiftMedia, AskTheAtheists.com is a unique source on atheism. It provides “a place where people who are interested can find out about atheism and atheists,” and hopes to “advance the cause for reason in a modest way.” Intending to show a broad range of atheists’ “responses to common questions,” a variety of issues—religion and science, ethics and ‘God,’ history and the Bible, karma, spirituality—are addressed on this site. Offering a host of links that encompass everything from meetings and organizations to blogs and portals, the curious web surfer gets a window into individual perspectives on atheism. [RLS]

Atheist.com. For an English browsing audience the missing “h” may intimate unreliability, but the spelling of Ateist.com reflects the desire to reach an international audience. Ateist.com is aesthetically attractive, easily navigated, and free from advertisements. The purpose of Ateist.com is to diminish the presence of religion in the world by means of education, and the site’s philosophy and purpose are transparently presented. The strength of Ateist.com lies in the “Links” page that contains resources (organizations, metalinks, books, magazines, and miscellaneous interests), yet some links require updating. The “Text” page of Ateist.com contains articles intended to educate, support, and further the cause of atheism, and Ateist.com encourages readers to submit articles for review. [BJT]

Atheist Alliance. This is a helpful hub of atheist resources, primarily links and news. Its divides its links into subjects such as creationism and church/state issues. Counterpoints and links to religious sites are confined to the obscure and are mostly derided as such. The news feed is helpful, but updated far too infrequently to be a daily or weekly source of atheist happenings. The Alliance affiliates with small publication Secular Nation, which offers a weekly podcast available from this site and may be its best asset. Overall this is a well-organized site but as yet stands to benefit from adequate attention to its perceived opponents. TWO STARS [JNH]

Atheist Empire Club. Created by Michael Pain in 1998, this website is a (the creator admits somewhat informal) source for an atheist to utilize in his or her search for information on atheism. These sources include information on statistics, political news reports, scientific journals and quotes from famous literary figures with regards to the non-believer. The website facilitates discussion boards, which at times offer interesting insight into the nature of dialogue, both respectful and less so, that takes place between a believer and non-believer. Though the website offers various definitions and explanations for terms such as atheist, agnostic, skeptic, and non-believer, a web user may find that the core argument used to promote atheism is one that focuses on the atheist’s reliance on rational reasoning, and the resultant self-evident nature of such thought processes. A theological response to atheism, as defined by this website, would need to address whether or not human beings are: 1) capable of indubitable reasoning, 2) if so, does a rational examination of the world and human experience necessarily exclude a deity/deities, 3) and if not, how so? At times content on this web site is confusing because sources are not always clearly cited and there are a number of dead links. [MG]

Atheist Handbook: A Personal View of Reason, Faith, Politics and Society. Less a “handbook” than a rant, the site is an occasional and highly entertaining set of essays that savage religious truth claims, be they eschatological, medical, ethical – pretty much all of them. A highlight of the site are the YouTube video clips he posts. Some are of prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins, but he also includes the actor who plays House, MD, cosmologist Neil Tyson, and other public figures not primarily known for their atheism. Even more entertaining, though, are the various video clips that fit more with the somewhat wild mood of the site as a whole: ridiculing Mormons, attacking the band Coldplay, showing silly religious apologists from the news. It’s great fun, a fact which is all the more impressive given that he’s Canadian. [JCD]

Atheist Missionary, as he has dubbed himself, refers to the creator of this blogsite, which aims at the “reasoned and peaceful eradication of religion.” As stated on the website, “The purpose of this website/blog is to inform atheists and convert theists. Posts on this blog should interest those who are questioning their faith in irrational belief systems and those who have already freed themselves from such silliness.” Accordingly, the site is outwardly ridiculing of religious persons and their beliefs, and is therefore an inhospitable forum for those interested in “diablogging.” Nevertheless, it is a helpful resource for those interested in learning more about atheism. [BLT]

Atheist Nexus describes itself as "the world's largest coalition of nontheists and nontheist communities." Atheism Nexus emphasizes the philosophies, experiences, and camaraderie of it's members. Members have their own pages and are invited to share their own atheism blogs, resources, photos, and videos. There are 964 additional sub-groups members can join, the vast majority of which share information about atheism and contemporary issues, but some of which are simple community builders, such as "Trekkies," and "Lord of the Rings Atheists." In this way, it is akin to the MySpace model of community, while simultaneously offering an unfiltered conglomerate of pro-atheist materials. One crucial point of interest is the forums: topics of discussion in the forums range from philosophy to politics. The section on "theisms, deisms, and all things religious" is the most popular section, with 50 percent more posts than the section on atheism. This does not contain much of a theological response. Instead, it is almost entirely polemic against religion and accounts of negative religious and theological responses. This site is good at presenting lay opinions, but it offers little in the way of historical accuracy. [SR]

Atheist Revolution. Atheist Revolution is a website/blog with a mission to help people “break free from irrational belief and oppose Christian extremism in America”. It is helpful for ‘questioning’ atheists who need a reading list, and it is written without too many complex arguments. vjack, the blog author, claims to target his mission toward atheistic activism, but it is targeted against a very caricatured form of generic religion. The most prominent blog postings cover the topics of ‘church and state,’ ‘Christian extremism,’ and ‘atheistic movement’. The site could be beneficial for a very new start into a study of atheism, but for inquirers wanting arguments against, or comparisons with theistic religions, this site is lacking. TWO STARS [CSA]

Be Thinking. This website consists of a host of articles, book reviews and audio files pertaining to Christian apologetics. It is not so much a response to atheism as it is a response to any and every conceivable attack on Christian belief. Hence while there are considerable materials regarding atheism (particularly “New Atheism”) there are also articles defending the historical reliability of the Gospels, as well as responses to the truth claims of other religions. The articles are listed under categories such as “The Bible and Jesus,” “Other Religions,” “Science and Christianity,” “Truth and tolerance,” and so on. They are then further broken down in terms of difficulty under the headings, “Introductory,” “Intermediate” and “Advanced.” While there are some interesting articles to be found here, the majority suffer from the intellectual provincialism which dominates most Christian apologetics. The major drawback being that the first and foremost commitment of these authors is proving why Christianity is true, rather than engaging in a critical interaction with the Christian tradition. Thus in placing their religious assumptions over the quest for truth, one wonders about the extent to which they are capable of choosing what is true when it conflicts with their tradition. This website is well designed and relatively easy to navigate. While it offers a large quantity of material, the quality of many of the articles ranges from quasi-academic to sub-par. While there are several high quality pieces written by Scholars with good credentials (e.g. N.T. Wright) the majority are one-sided and superficial in their argumentation. [APL]

Center For Inquiry intends to “foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.” Defending “science and secularism,” the site offers resources on education and research, reports relevant news, and announces meetings about topics relating to ideological challenges faced in our time. Articles discuss issues like gay marriage, and debates between atheists and theists. One such article, written in response to J. F. Haught’s God and the New Atheism, hopes to point out tensions between theists and atheists: “Haught’s new work amply illustrates how a popular book written to reassure the Christian faithful to ignore atheism ends up in nothing but confusion.” [RLS]

Evangelical Outpost. This is well-organized site of essays responding to current events and trends in the public sphere. Apart from the occasionally stuffy modal logic-esque arguments plaguing otherwise layperson essays, its content is generally creative. While it spills considerable ink on cultural criticism it neglects a strong, sustained engagement with atheism. Given its level of detail on other matters it was genuinely a surprise and a disappointment to find the site lacking in this regard. What it lacks in volume it could potentially make up for with style if a few of its better writers were to commit the effort. [JNH]

God and Science. This website uses a lens of fundamental Christian theology in its response to the questions posed by atheists and agnostics. Using Biblical scripture to qualify some of its answers, this website provides a more conservative Christian approach to why Christianity is true. Also, the website provides links to other websites to help answer some of these questions more thoroughly. There is a disclaimer that says that the godandscience.org may not agree with the other links, but it feels compelled to provide a more unbiased and balanced perspective. Overall, this website poses interesting arguments to the atheist and agnostics in response to their inquiry and challenges. [ZTR]

Naturalism.org on Projecting God: the psychology of theological justification. This page is a link within the naturalism.org site about proving the existence of God. The page is a critical review of theologian John F. Haught's argument that science is not the most reliable means of knowing ultimate reality; rather, personal experiences are the one thing that puts us directly in touch with God. The author of the review critiques Haught's arguments for belief in God. The website is helpful for those who are interested in giving a theological response to atheistic perspectives because the website is a critical review of a theological response to atheism. [FA]

Patheos: Atheist Portal. Patheos is a growing online community dedicated to interfaith dialogue, with portals for several systems of belief. The portals contain informations on beliefs, history, and facts, as well as links to blogs of people in that belief system, and a running sidebar containing links to articles relevant to that faith. One also has the option of comparing portals or religions. The atheist portal is a little bare regarding history and facts, but has links to diverse blogs. The corresponding Twitter, PatheosAtheist, tweets links to news articles and blog updates. It’s a great site for joining a current conversation, but is lacking for factual history. [AS]

Positive Atheism. This site has two initially off-putting qualities: First, its main index page presents an overly defensive posture toward theists in a “note” to theists that one has to scroll substantially down the page to find. Second, the design of the site is somewhat crude and therefore fails to suggest professional credibility. However, the site has its strengths. There are numerous links to pertinent articles on atheism related to politics, philosophy, ethics, literature, and history. There are even links to some full text book-length works. Most notably, the site features a useful compilation of classic writings and famous quotes. [TW]

Rational Responders. The motto of this website is “Believe in God? We can fix that.” While the homepage is a bit of a hodgepodge, the links it provides, such as those to the Margret Downey website and Atheist Volunteers, are generally informative. Pages within the site include a discussion forum, video clips, and essays, all of which suffer from inconsistency. For example, Sam Harris has authored some of the essays while another in the list is entitled “Kissing Hank’s ass.” Overall the site is biased toward the atheistic point of view and could use some editorial revision. [SRG]

1.5 Halo Sites

Explore Faith.org. This is a website dedicated to “spiritual guidance” which includes a short compilation of text and audio responses to “new atheism.” Some responses (Larry Taunton, Eyleen Farmer) aim to show that the “new atheists” simply misunderstand the Christian tradition’s approach to issues such as the Law, repentance, grace, and love. Other responses (David Myers, Dinesh D’Souza, Niles Goldstein, John Haught) focus more on directly critiquing the philosophical presuppositions of atheism such as naturalism and brute rationalism. The responses are helpful but short and lack scholarly depth. The site is useful for gaining a quick overview of some popular religious responses to new atheism, but one should look elsewhere for more substantive content. [TW]

1 Halo Sites

Antireligion.com. Antireligion.com is an inelegant source for pop-cultural manifestations of atheistic and anti-religious sentiment. It makes available a long list of quotes pertinent to that sentiment, mostly of the clever and pithy sort. The home page is a Tumblr-style blog updated every few weeks with videos, links and further quotes either expressing the anti-religious view or making light of religious adherents. As straightforward as the site is in content, its web design and advertising make it difficult to browse for very long.

Apologetics.com is a Christian website dedicated to increasing Christians’ confidence in their faith by defending the gospel message against the attacks of skeptics’ intellectual criticism. The website is based in the United States, with sister sites in the United Kingdom and Canada. The site utilizes podcasts, videos, and articles to teach Christian apologetics. Not all resources are available to the public; full access to the site’s resources is only available by paying a monthly membership fee. Although the site contains articles and podcasts engaging atheism, the engagement is always negative. Responses made by atheists in the comment portion of an article or podcast are “disliked” even if the atheist is only defending his/her own stance and not attacking Christianity. The site’s motto, “teaching believers to think and thinkers to believe” would be better worded “teaching believers how to think and thinkers why their thinking is wrong.” Not quite as catchy, but much more accurate. [KC]

Atheist Empire. This site, which claims to be one of the largest atheist website, defines atheism as a response to theism. While portions promote thoughtful dialogue between atheists and theists, many pages are devoted to attacks on Christianity, particularly evangelicalism and fundamentalism. The statistics, the definitions taken from dictionaries and encyclopedias, and the neuroscience articles together with links to other websites that explain the diversity of atheistic thinking are useful features. The site also contains reviews of movies, music, and TV and radio shows with an atheistic bent and a shopping page with clothing, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, etc. featuring anti-Christian rhetoric. [KGL]

Bring You To Apologetics is the collaborative production of the conservative Roman Catholic lay apologists Apolonio Latar and Phil Porvaznik. The aim of Bringyou.to/apologetics is fourfold: (1) To provide information about Catholicism, (2) To present a sound case for theism, (3) To convert Protestants to Catholicism, and (4) to strengthen the faith of Catholics. The site offers a simple text based aesthetic with images of religious figures and book covers dotting the pages. Bringyou.to/apologetics has extensive resources (websites, books, video, and audio) that are effectively categorized and annotated. The “Apolo/Defend” link leads to the articles targeting atheism and skepticism. The topical selection is slim for those concerned with cosmology and theodicy, yet a host of articles focus on the historical Jesus. [BJT]

Catholic News Agency. Anyone wrestling with questions of atheism should look elsewhere for thoughtful theistic responses. This is an insider Catholic website, more concerned with defending Catholic beliefs about abortion and the priesthood than answering pressing questions about contemporary belief in God. Where atheism is addressed, it is presented with little sympathy for the issues involved. Consider for instance the following equivocation of key problems: “The dreams of a better future for humanity, characteristics of scientism, of the enlightenment, of Marxism, and of the social revolutions of the 1960s have disappeared and their place has been taken by a pragmatic and disenchanted world.” [DR]

Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry sponsors this website in order to give Christians the logic and evidence necessary to defend God-inspired biblical truth against other religions and secular philosophies. The introduction discusses the varieties of atheistic thinking while other pages provide Christians with polemics, proofs for God’s existence, dialogues with atheists, and responses to atheist’s objections to supernaturalism and God’s existence. This site characterizes atheists by the traditional attributes: they have no morals, they are not rational thinkers, and they cannot prove that God does not exist. This site is helpful in understanding the use/misuse of logic in rhetoric. [KGL]

Conservapedia on Atheism. Conservapedia.org is the self-proclaimed: “trustworthy encyclopedia.” The ‘atheism’ link is an astounding and offensive plethora of misinformation. The page equates atheism with: mass-murder, obesity, suicide, communism, and bestiality. Objectivity and reason are abandoned as this page blatantly depicts atheism as an immoral, dangerous worldview that will never attract women. The only redeeming quality to this site is its comedic value.

Desiring God is a website full of resources ranging from several dozen e-books to blogs, podcasts, and physical books for adults, children, and believers interested in all issues. Desiring God is run by Baptist minister John Piper, and centers around his views and works. The religion that John Piper advocates adheres strictly to the Bible. No other source of information trumps scripture, for Piper, so he urges his readers to find truth through engagement with the Bible. In this way, Piper wholesale dismisses atheism as something worthy of consideration. He decries post-modernity and relativism in general. Yet one aspect of the post-modern world his website does advocate is tolerance. In articles in which Piper is detailing how to navigate the world external to Christian faith, the proper response of Christians to atheism is not to vocalize condemnation, but rather to emphasize that God is the foundation for a plural world. Desiring God does not give atheism any credence it might be afforded by discussion. It is simply to be ignored, and one should instead focus on the glorification of God and public declaration of God's supremacy. Because it lacks intellectual engagement with atheism, Desiring God receives one halo. [SR]

Unclassified Sites

Key to Abbreviations of Contributors

[AMK] Aiden Kelley, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[APL] Andrew Linscott, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[AS] Amanda Spears, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[BJT] Brice Tennant, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[BLT] Benjamin Thompson, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[CSA] Caleb Acton, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[DR] David Rohr, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[ERD] Eric Daniels, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[FA] Finney Abraham, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[MDJ] Moon Doojin, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[HJW] Hong Jongwook, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[JCD] Joel Daniels, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[JH] Jonathan Heaps, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[JM] Jonathan Morgan, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[JNH] Josh Hasler, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[KC] Kasey Cox, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[KGL] Karen Lubic, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[MG] Melissa Grimm, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[MS] Mark Shan, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[RLS] Roy Smith, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[RZ] Robin Barraza, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[SR] Stefani Ruper, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[SRG] Sarah Goodloe, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[TBM] Todd McAlster, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[TK] Tyler Kirk, member of the 2012 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[TW] Thurman Willison, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

[ZTR] Zachary Rodriguez, member of the 2009 Atheisms and Theologies Seminar at Boston University

Rating	Meaning	Deeper Meaning
	!	Inexpressible; transcending all categories of moral and aesthetic judgment; a genuinely irrational achievement; apophasis inducing
	Wow!	Sartori is at hand, so close you can almost taste it; the dew drop is about to slip into the shining sea to become one with all other water droplets
	Bad!	Ananda down under—which is the highest web- based quality permitted in Australia for public safety and medical reasons
	Not bad!	Joy of the regular sort; no bright lights or angelic visitations but a warm and happy feeling, at least for the most part; could be happier
	Mmmm...	Quotidian neutrality; the quintessential opposite of bipolar dynamism; the ordinary, easy-paced day off work with nothing much to do except nap
	Well...	There is no there there; there is no soul there either; in fact, there is not even any no-soul there; more meditation is vital, and urgently!
	!	Inexpressible; transcending all categories of moral and aesthetic judgment; a genuinely irrational achievement; apophasis inducing