The Wasteland of Unbelief reviewed by Richard Stevens

The book’s title gives the impression the book is a longish rant, but The Vast Wastelands of Unbelief actually offers a collection of concisely stated insights into a number of selected issues arising from the ongoing “new atheist” critiques of Christianity and of belief in God generally. Vast Wastelands does not merely insult or dismiss the atheists’ points but lively challenges them on their merits.

The book provides the atheists’ positions quoted and cited to sources, so the counter arguments are focused and cogent. What you might have only heard about atheist positions is now set forth in text so you can speak or write about it with confidence. 

The book examines atheists’ arguments and positions of well-known writers: Richard Dawkins’ “WEASEL” program as well as his arguments against Intelligent Design and belief in God; Michael Ruse’s views about the secular and evolutionary roots and development of ethics and morality; Michael Shermer’s various “skeptical” statements; Peter Singer’s argument supporting infanticide; and Bill Maher’s various attacks in his movie “Religulous.”

The book also addresses positions stated by other authors such as Bertrand Russell, Daniel Dennett, Ernst Mayr, Stephen J. Gould, Geoffrey Berg and Susan Blackmore. Vast Wastelands cogently isolates and explains the errors and internal inconsistencies in the various atheists’ positions. The overlap between “liberal” ideology and atheist ideology becomes evident as well. For its breadth of subjects addressed, the book is not difficult to readand its coverage of these kinds of issues is concise and fairly effective.

I enjoyed the book and believe it would be good as reading matter for “small group” discussions. The book addresses the atheists head-on and stimulates careful thought without being overly scholarly. Not a textbook or treatise, Vast Wastelands does provoke thinking on some of today’s hottest worldview topics, much like a collection of articles might do.

The book is not perfect or error-free. A number of things would have benefitted from an editor’s careful look at a final draft. And the author does not define or distinguish “creationism” from “creation science” and “intelligent design,” and I think the blurring and lack of clarity there weakens a few of the points made or potentially even misleads some readers about these somewhat precise concepts.

Despite those problems, I recommend this book for personal reading and discussion groups, and I salute the author for investing his considerable effort in support of our mutual cause. The book is available at Amazon and from its publisher.

Book Review: The Vast Wastelands of Unbelief 
Author: Jeffrey Stueber 
Tate Publishing (2014) 
168 pages