Is God a Moral Monster? By Paul Copan
Summary by Jeff Stauffer
Chapters 1 & 2 : The New Atheists and the Old Testament
Paul Copan lays out his plan for the book in these two brief opening chapters. One goal is to provide guidance for Christians for how to deal with Old Testament ethics that at times, seem “so strange and even otherworldly.” A second goal is to provide some direct responses to a group of authors he coins “The New Atheists.” These popular writers (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett) have written numerous popular books criticizing religion as a whole, but often with a direct polemic against the Old Testament and some of the difficult passages found within. Each of these issues will be addressed in subsequent chapters (such as Canaanite “genocide,” the binding of Isaac, harsh Mosaic Law, slavery and others.)
Copan provides a brief summary of three common themes among arguments by these and other atheists:
1) Even though they emphasize cool-headed scientific rationality, they often come across as angry and arrogant.
2) Their arguments against God’s existence are often flimsy and based on straw-man examples. Copan even provides two examples of prominent and respected atheist philosophers …
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