The Boycott of Atheism

Gene Cook announced on his webcast last night that he is officially "boycotting atheism." I would think that this would be a given for someone who is an avowed Christian, but he means specifically that he will no longer be hosting the "Atheist Hour" show in conjuction with his existing show, "The Narrow Mind."

I was one of the early guests of both shows, actually (late July and August of '04 for TNM, and December of '05 for TAH), and though I find Gene's theology incredibly abhorrent, I think he's a nice enough guy who just happens to have fallen head-first into bad religion. If I had been a bit less curious in my studies, I could have easily remained in the same immoral worldview.

Strangely enough, though, the reason that Gene gave for his boycott was the fact that he's been unable to find any atheist who can answer the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (his personal favorite) to his liking. And I can vouch for this- nearly every episode of TAH has involved his use of the TAG on every atheist guest, and at the close of every show, Gene hasn't received what he would consider an answer. It's not my intention here to critique the TAG- better minds than mind have already done so exquisitely- but it seems odd to me that, if the TAG is indeed as devastating to atheism as Gene sincerely believes, why would he back off from using it as much as possible? If I were in his place, I would be seeking to write books, spawn new websites, hell, even printing T-shirts with the TAG featured prominently!

I realize that, as a Calvinist, Gene is under no theological directive to evangelize directly to atheists. Most of us are former Christians ourselves, or have at least familiarized ourselves with Christian doctrine and the Gospel message. But wouldn't it be a great evangelical tool to those who aren't familiar with Christianity to be able to say that the American Atheists, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and countless atheists blogs like GTA have had to close up shop because they couldn't handle the devastating weight of the TAG?