I don't have a solid familiarity with Dinesh D'Souza, but he's written a new book called What's So Great About Christianity. In fact, the first time I'd ever heard of him was in Scott Johnson's vicious attacks upon his previously published book, The Enemy At Home; The Cultural Left And It's Responsibility for 9/11.

I'd managed, by luck, to catch an interview performed by Raymond Arroyo of EWTN television with D'Souza. I was immediately hooked. D'Souza is placing himself in direct opposition to all the recent authors of atheist books that have recently come out. According to D'Souza's website, he recently debated Christopher Hitchens in Wisconsin.

 

In a piece for USAToday called A Christian Foundation, D'Souza writes;

 

We seem to be witnessing an aggressive attempt by leading atheists to portray religion in general, and Christianity in particular, as the bane of civilization. Finding the idea of God incompatible with science and reason, these atheists also fault Christianity with fostering a breed of fanaticism comparable to Islamic radicalism. The proposed solution: a completely secular society, liberated from Christian symbols and beliefs.

This critique, which comes from best-selling atheist books, academic tracts and a sophisticated network of atheist organizations and media, can be disputed on its own terms. What it misses, however, is the larger story of how Christianity has shaped the core institutions and values of the USA and the West. Christianity is responsible even for secular institutions such as democracy and science. It has fostered in our civilization values such as respect for human dignity, human rights and human equality that even secular people cherish.

He makes a very convincing case. And then he uses an atheist to help us understand why we need Christianity;

There are some atheists and even some Christians who admit that theism and Christianity have shaped the core institutions and values of America and the West. But now that we have these values, they say, why do we still need God and Christianity? Oddly enough, the answer is supplied by Nietzsche.

Nietzsche argued that since the Christian God is the foundation of Western values, the death of God must necessarily mean the erosion and ultimate collapse of those values. Remove the base and the whole building will slowly crumble. For a while, Nietzsche conceded, people would out of custom or habit continue to respect human life and treat people with equal dignity, but eventually there would be ferocious assaults on these values, and practices once unthinkable such as the killing of people deemed inferior or undesirable would once again occur. This is precisely what we have seen in our time, and Nietzsche predicted that it will only get worse.

By the way, I should point out that there is no question mark at the end of D'Souza's book title. If this book is as lucid as its author was on EWTN's The World Over, then I'd say it is must reading. According to EWTN's program schedule, there will be an encore broadcast at 10 p.m. Minneapolis-time this evening on that station. If you have rabbit ears on your TV set, as I do, that would be channel 19. If you have cable or satellite feed, you're on your own, pal. The program is 60 minutes long. So set your VCR or TiVO accordingly.

For more God talk scroll down to Chief's post immediately below this one. And don't forget that God spelled backward is Dog.