The opening of my latest column in the Theist vs. Atheist series debate at EveryJoe:
“I appreciate Mr. Wright’s opening essay and am in agreement with substantial portions of it.
“If we array religions along a spectrum from most to least rational, his version of Catholicism is among the most rational. Many advocates and opponents of religion are animated more by angers, enthusiasms, and other psychological forces that make them unwilling to reason — either to present their own views clearly or to give the other sides’ views a fair hearing. Reasoning can be a passionate or dispassionate activity, but no progress individually or socially can be made without it.
“So I take it that Mr. Wright and I have agreed to set aside several versions of Christianity — Tertullian’s “I believe it because it’s absurd,” Martin Luther’s “Reason is the Devil’s whore,” and Søren Kierkegaard’s “Faith requires the crucifixion of reason.” And we agree to focus on the view, expressed well by Thomas Aquinas and others, that reason and faith are two legitimate and complementary ways of coming to belief.
“Let me though focus on my substantial disagreements with Mr. Wright’s position …” [Read more here.]
Here are the links to other columns in the series.