Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that “atheism is cool” and that’s why the church is having so many problems getting its message across.

Yesterday, I responded to that comment in the Washington Post‘s On Faith section. In short, I think he’s right about our coolness. But we’re only part of the reason people are running away from religion. An excerpt from the article is below:
Atheists, on the other hand, pose a rational opposition. We know that one political party will never stand for all of us, that homosexuality isn’t a sin, and that the scientific method is the best way we’ve ever had to evaluate truth claims. Those facts alone mean that we have little to do to convince young people that we’re on the side of reality. We’re honest about what we believe and open about why we believe it. Anyone can fact-check the claims of an atheist with ease. (Good luck getting citations after a sermon.)
You can read the full piece (and leave your comments) over there.