The Illogical Chaos of Disbelief

Edward T. Oakes, S.J. has a lengthy article about the so-called "new atheism" over at First Things*. I sometimes hesitate to give so much air time to these articles on atheism, as I feel we should be constructively discussing Christianity, but I felt that this one deserved a look. We should nevertheless always be open to the discussion of ideas, which is after all, the purpose of this blog.

This is Oakes's ending paragraph, to give you a sense of the article:

"Given these hopelessly confused and superficial arguments, it’s hard to take the new atheism seriously. Nietzsche was surely right when he said that serious Christians would come to appreciate his witness. But who can take seriously these recent tub-thumping accusations that believers are the sole source of violence, all coming from writers who themselves advocate violence in their next breath? That’s why these books from the new atheists can hardly represent a threat to believers. Pascal was already on to their game in the seventeenth century: “All those contradictions that seemed to take me furthest from the knowledge of any religion,” he said in the Pensées, “are what led me most directly to the true religion.”
------
Source: [*] First Things [Edward T. Oakes, S.J.].