Dissing 'Ditchkins'

Posted by Tom McFeely

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 9:58 AM

Here’s a different take on what’s wrong with the arguments put forward against the Christian faith by prominent British atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, a.k.a “Ditchkins”:

“Ditchkins thinks he’s rejecting it because of science. But I don’t think that is the focus. …You can say what you like about faith, but let’s get it right. It’s not about subscribing to some supernatural entity. It’s about the image of Jesus in the gospels, a far more radical, subversive image than anybody is willing to accept. The idea is that of transformative love: having the courage to abandon oneself for others, a cause, for justice, in the radical way the New Testament presents Christ as doing. That question doesn’t even occur to Ditchkins as the key question. You can say the demand is impossible, utopian, stupid. But you have to get the question right, and I don’t even think they get near it.”

That’s the assessment of left-wing intellectual Terry Eagleton, who is a professor at England’s Lancaster University and the National University of Ireland, Galway. In his new book Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, Eagleton rebuts the arguments of the atheist tandem he calls “Ditchkins.” The book is based on lectures Eagleton gave last year at Yale University.

The above quote was excerpted from a recent phone interview Eagleton conducted with John Timpani of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Go here to read all of Timpani’s June 7 article about Eagleton’s critique of the atheist case. 

Filed under atheism, christopher hitchens, richard dawkins