Atheism seems to be in the news quite a lot lately. A British professor tries to find a middle ground between atheism and religious belief, suggesting that religion is best appreciated as a sort of grand artistic endeavour. It's certainly not an idea that evangelicals are going to rally around, but it's an interesting piece; Christians may at least appreciate Evans' criticism of atheist excess:

Today's prominent atheists - people such as Jonathan Miller and Richard Dawkins - hawk around a belief system that reeks of the 19th century, which is not surprising, for that is when it was born. Dawkins is virulently anti-religious, passionately pro-science and artistically illiterate - thus manifesting all three of the main characteristics of the old atheism in a particularly pure form. His attacks on religion are so vitriolic and bad-tempered that they alienate the sensitive reader and give atheism a bad name. As a friend of mine once commented, no other atheist has done more for the cause of religion than Richard Dawkins.

Those are fightin' words. Salman Rushdie, no stranger to religious-based controversy, has hit back already with a rather vicious response. Rushdie does not come across as a big fan of religion, to put it mildly.

There are plenty more links to related essays at Professor Evans' personal website. It will be interesting to see if and how Christian bloggers and other online writers contribute to the debate.