In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a series of books were published that extol atheism. Harris, Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens became household names. While each of these people dubbed the “New Atheists” have differences of opinions, they hold one core belief in common: “we do what we do because we believe what we believe” (11). That is, believers do bad things because of their bad beliefs. Ironically, Christians have replied in debate with the same formula: atheists do bad things because of their bad beliefs!

After the New Atheist Debate is an interesting book because Ryan doesn’t argue for or against theism. Rather, he examines the debate between the New Atheists and Christians and calls both sides to recognize the truth and fallacies in their arguments. It is worth noting that Ryan, a Christian, writes in a fair and evenhanded manner.

In the first half of the book, Ryan looks at question, “Does religion promote violence?” from various angles. Ryan moves beyond the caricatures and straw-men posited by both the New Atheists and the Christians.

Ryan’s argument in the second half of the book is fascinating. First, he demonstrates that despite Sam Harris’ work on ethics, atheism does not provide a “plausible post-religious ethics” (17). All well and good, say the Christians: told you so. Ryan doesn’t stop there, though. He goes on to argue that religious belief cannot provide a shared ethical foundation in our modern pluralistic society either.

We are left, rather, with the world as we find it: a messy place in which a cacophony of norms compete for our attention, in which various motives lead us to attend to normative demands. … [E]ach society faces the moral tasks of sorting out its tangle of norms, developing new normative claims, defending its ethical world, and communicating norms to a new generation. These tasks must be pursued, in part, through ongoing ethical dialogue. (159)

The dialogue that Ryan calls for requires us to move beyond debate and rhetoric and truly engage each other. Regardless of our beliefs, we share the same planet.

Ryan, Phil. After the New Atheist Debate. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.