Faithism: Why Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think Krish Kandiah (Hodder & Stoughton, 2018) five stars
Krish Kandiah is a popular author and broadcaster, well known for his entertaining and thought-provoking books on a variety of religious subjects. Above all he is a supreme communicator, blessed with the ability to present an argument from all sides and debate it clearly and cogently. Here, he focuses on the great faith versus atheism debate and engages the reader in ten stimulating and provocative chapters that are scrupulously fair to both sides. The subtitle of the book – Why Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think – gives you a hint as to its approach.
The whole thrust of the book is that it does not matter whether you are a committed Christian, a committed atheist or somewhere in between, there is much to be gained from genuinely trying to understand each other better. Kandiah’s chapter titles reflect the stereotypes each side holds of the other: Christians are weird/ Atheists are normal; Christians are judgemental/Atheists are tolerant; Christians are boring/Atheists are fun; Christians are warmongers/Atheists are peacemakers; Christians are Bible-bashers/Atheists are bus-bashers; The Bible is inspired/The Bible has expired.
I don’t want to give the impression that this is a simplistic book – it isn’t. It is extremely learned, quoting from a wide range of sources and discussing serious and complex moral, religious and political issues. Kandiah always engages the reader along the way. He presents a wealth of interesting examples from history, literature, current affairs, theology, psychology, science and politics to illustrate and elucidate his arguments. In many ways this book is just a starting point with scope for much further investigation and reading.
Arguably the most well-known atheist today is Richard Dawkins, and Kandiah makes frequent references to him. I would be very interested to know what Dawkins’s response is to Faitheism and whether he would agree this is a very worthy attempt to present the arguments justly.
