Peter Kreeft - Letters to an Atheist: Wrestling with Faith

Praise forLetters to an Atheist

Many young people today find it very difficult to believe in God, and evangelists for the atheist position are thick on the ground. That is why this book is so needed and so useful. In the course of these letters to a smart young atheist, Dr. Kreeft addresses most of the principal philosophical objections to Gods existence. His communiques are witty, friendly, deeply intelligent, and appropriately challenging. I would warmly recommend this book to anyone struggling to believe in God.

Fr. Robert Barron, author, speaker, and theologian; founder of the global media ministry Word on Fire (www.WordOnFire.org)

Kreefts compassionate and passionate arguments for the existence of God are peppered with pointed insights, flashes of light that turn the tables with a turn of phrase. Sharp. Witty. Wise. Clear. Eye-opening. Compelling. A joy to read. I often found a smile on my face from the simple delight of truth-seeking.

Christopher West, author ofFill These Hearts

Professor Kreeft here brings all his usual talents of precision, readability, and affability to the fore, as we have come to expect. We are all in his debt for this most needed and most welcome contribution.

Rev. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, editor ofThe Catholic Response

Peter Kreeft reminds me of C. S. Lewis. He has an astonishing ability to communicate complex and complicated philosophical concepts simply and succinctly. These letters to a young atheist will convince all but the most proud and prejudiced that faith is rational and that reason leads to faith.

Joseph Pearce, Thomas More College; author ofBeauteous Truth

Peter Kreefts Letters to an Atheist is a perfect example of John Paul IIs insistence that the Church proposes rather than imposes. This gem of a book is brim full of divine signposts and suggestions which we find all around us and within. The many distinctions and proofs are clear and powerful, presented always in a most delicate and sensitive appreciation for the inviolability of conscience. The book ends where every good book on the Faith mustwith an invitation, an invitation to Michael the young atheist (and to the reader) to follow his own pointing fingers. There can be no faith without a further question, for creation and salvation are deep mysteries. And a question, of course, means a quest. A most delightful read!

Montague Brown, Saint Anselm College

There are lots of books about atheism. This one is different. Kreeft knows that logical arguments do not exist in a vacuum, because reasoning takes place among living minds. His book invites a real human dialogue between writer and reader, as friends and partners in seeking the truth. Just one caveat: You must really want to find it.

J. Budziszewski, University of Texas at Austin, author ofOn the Meaning of Sex

Peter Kreeft has done it again. Especially for those who have enjoyed his dialogues, these fictional but quite realistic letters were written to discuss briefly a wide range of issues, chiefly those involved at the crossroads of atheism, theism, and Christianity. Vintage Kreeft from the outset, the reader is invited to follow from Aristotle to Buddha to Chesterton to Da Vinci and on to Freud, Flew, Hinduism, Lewis, and Jimmy Stewart. You dont enjoy philosophy? Its helpful but not strictly required here. You sometimes disagree with the conclusions in these sorts of discussions? Thats fineyou may join the conversation, too, for we are all free to think for ourselves. But this is a delightful trip, one that may well serve as its own conversation-starter.

Gary R. Habermas, Distinguished Research Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Liberty University and Theological Seminary

Peter Kreeft is supremely clever at dialectical argument, single-minded in the pursuit of truth, disarming in the sincerity of his simple and joyful love of Christ. All of these virtues are on full display in Letters to an Atheist, making it a uniquely powerful tool for evangelization. Of the many books out there taking aim against the so-called New Atheism, this is surely one of the very best.

Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J., Boston College

Wrestling with Faith

PETER KREEFT

A Sheed & Ward Book

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

LanhamBoulderNew YorkTorontoPlymouth, UK

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

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Copyright 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kreeft, Peter.

Letters to an atheist : wrestling with faith / Peter Kreeft.

pages cm.

A Sheed & Ward Book.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3271-6 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-1-4422-3272-3 (electronic) 1. Christianity and atheism. 2. Apologetics. I. Title.

BR128.A8K74 2014

239dc23

2014002627

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.

These letters are real, and I invite real atheists to read and reply to them. (My email address is kreeft@bc.edu.) The occasion for writing them that is mentioned in the first letter really happened. Martha and Michael are pseudonyms for real persons. Im one too, I think. Even my cottage on Marthas Vineyard (mentioned in the last letter) is real. Only the imagined replies from Michael are fictional. The reader is invited to make Michael real by becoming Michael.

Above all, the issue is real. Its what the agnostic William James called a live issue, like a live wire. It makes a difference. It makes a difference to everything. If God does not exist, then religion is the biggest hoax, the biggest myth, the biggest lie in the history of the world. If God does exist, then religion (which means binding relationship) is the biggest truth, the biggest relationship in life: the relationship with the creator and designer of our existence, our identity, and our end. Every honest person must demand to know which is the truth, atheism or theism. For there is only one honest reason why anybody should ever believe anything: because it is true. And there is only one honest reason why anybody should ever disbelieve anything: because it is not true.

Reason, reasoning, arguing, dialectic, logic, dialogue, conversationall seven of these English words are translations of the Greek word logosis one way of finding truth. It is a distinctively human way; animals cant do it. We can.

So lets begin.

Dear Michael,

You dont know me (yet), and I dont know you (yet), but I met your sister Martha in Baltimore last week at a religious conference where I was speakingwhat a marvelously mature and motherly woman she is for a single twentysomething!and you came up indirectly in our conversation. We were talking about how good and wise some atheists are, and she mentioned you. She asked me whether I knew any good books to explain religious faith to such atheists, and I couldnt come up with one that I thought satisfactory. (She said you already read C. S. Lewiss