Is Atheism Irrational?

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Gary Gutting, a Catholic philosophy professor at University of Notre Dame (which is also Catholic) published in the NY Times Opinion Pages an edited email interview he had with Dr. Alvin Plantinga, who is also a Christian philosophy professor from Notre Dame. This, the first of a number of interviews by Gutting about religion, was provocatively titled: “Is Atheism Irrational?”

In the next few posts, I’ll be responding to what I consider to be some of the amazing claims that seem to be made in this interview, but why should anybody care about what Plantinga has to say in the first place?

Atheists are frequently criticized for failing to address sophisticated arguments, so Plantinga’s opinions are important because he arguably represents the pinnacle of sophisticated – philosophically sophisticated - Christian apologetics.

So please have at the interview, and ask yourself if you agree that atheism (as opposed to agnosticism or even theism) is an irrational belief. I’ll share my thoughts about Plantinga’s views this week.