An Encouraging Email About "The Christian Delusion"

Good day John, I've been spending most of my Sunday morning with a large mug of tea and The Christian Delusion, re-reading my favourite parts : and then it struck me - there really has been nothing worthy to refute any significant part of TCD since its publication! Within a few days after its release there were some blogs and general eye-rolling about how wrong you have it all and so on, and then - crickets chirping.

Now there can be three reasons why this is so:

(1) the armies of the Lord are busy with their research and we are soon to be regaled with a stunning, jaw-dropping tome that just shuts us all up, to the point that some of us will convert to the unassailable logic of Christianity (cough, on to number 2) ;

2. TCD is not worthy of the effort, and it is insignificant. This would be quite removed from the reality of the publication. Some of the blurbs written by Christians at the time certainly proves otherwise, the mumble and grumble raised by the faithful at the time of publication shows otherwise, and some of the sections, specifically your chapter on animal suffering, are really on the cutting edge of counter-apologetics.

3. Now could it be, heaven forbid, that the third option is more accurate? That there are no significant rebuttals, because .............. gasp! - there are none that hold up to scrutiny?

I read very widely, including the Christian and atheist websites available, and I would say that I am up to speed with the best in both camps. And there is nothing out there that makes a dent in TCD.

A lot of these books tend to fade after their original impact, but it seems to me as if TCD is growing in stature, quietly, and while the armies of the faithful have one more thing to dismiss as being insignificant despite its cold rationality. I expected a whole gaggle of apologetic efforts, but so far we have practically nothing.

This to me is one more example of how the poor old believer is forced to simply pull up the drawbridge and live in HappyLand, content with "Faith" and all that wonderful pseudo-science, while the rest of the real world passes by.

My renewed congratulations, John, to you and all the contributors to this monolithic work.

Regards, Andre