Friday, October 10, 2008

Book TV This Weekend: Michael Novak on Atheism and Belief


In a previous post I took a shot a theologian and philosopher Michael Novak for a simplistic dismissal of the phenomenon of unbelief, in his short article for First Things magazine.

Well, Mr. Novak has been up to a more substantive treatment of the issue apparently, as today I received an alert from Book TV on C-SPAN 2 regarding Novak's latest book, "No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers." A special program about the book will air this Sunday at 5 a.m. (no thanks) and 7 p.m. EST. More show information here.

The reviews from Amazon so far suggest Novak shows generosity to Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al (a case of turning the other cheek perhaps?). However, as I noted in a previous post, few conservative thinkers, it seems to me, extend their "solidarity" to the generic unbeliever.

Why should they? If you think about it, all believers, when confronted by the reality of evil and suffering, go through moments of unbelief/doubt. Unless they are "fronting."

This common ground seems to be the subject of Novak's new book, which I will be sure to read. I will also be watching this program this weekend to hear more.

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