By: Corey Miller – stream.org – September 14, 2021

Some things are worth fighting for. Some things are worth fighting against. Some fighting alliances are stranger than others.

Peter Boghossian, the once extremely cantankerous atheist philosopher who boasted that he was kicked out of his first Ph.D. program, quit his job recently as a philosophy professor at Portland State University. In his letter to the administration, he claimed that the university is no longer about pursuing truth but the pushing of ideology.

He had been a movement man within the camp of neo atheism, a camp with fantastic bark and vitriol whose reign of terror led by the likes of Richard Dawkins lasted two decades with a significant impact on our culture, helping to give rise to the “nones.”

Indeed, he’s been very influential in what has been dubbed “street epistemology,” a strategic conversational approach by which atheists seek to move religious believers away from religion and into reality effectively. To say that he was someone with whom I had serious disagreements is an understatement.

Ratio Christi is on 150 campuses where our movement of evangelistic apologists seeks to defend the faith at the most strategic institution in civilization: universities. We’re in a fight. We’ve had dozens of cases of legal proceedings, including ones at the highest levels of the judicial and executive branches of government. I, too, struggled with my first Ph.D. and had to reach for it a second time, successfully. While a philosophy professor, I was also involved in legal proceedings. The university is a battlefield for the minds and hearts of the future.

We both like to fight.

Boghossian was virtually my arch enemy on things metaphysical, rational, and ethical. His book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, portrayed people like me as delusional, treated almost like psychiatric patients needing Socratic guidance to eradicate the virus of faith. He gave a clarion call for professors, administrators, and student activists to join him in this crusade in one chapter.

No longer.

We’re now friends. We’ve traveled and spoken at numerous universities together as allies on viewpoint diversity, spending hours in cars together talking about philosophy, culture, and some things about family shared only in confidence.

What changed?

He was confronted anew with a severely dangerous ideology that has infiltrated our culture while simultaneously engaging with thoughtful Christians: Neo Marxism.

Neo Marxism is far more dangerous than neo atheism. Neo Marxism has rapidly and radically infiltrated media, academia and has now ensconced itself in various strata of the ecclesia.

Boghossian encountered the same thing. Yet, he was a liberal atheist, and I was a conservative Christian.

Two years ago, Peter invited me to speak for several hours in his PSU Atheism Seminar on the rationality of religious belief, followed by Q&A, an example of allowing and defending your opposition the respect to have a voice in the pursuit of truth. Obviously, I argued why Christian faith is a virtue, not a virus.

Afterward, I walked him back to his office, the only office located in the Portland State University police department (possibly for his safety from Antifa). We realized we were natural allies against a foreign invader coming under many names: Critical Theory, Critical Social Justice, Cultural Marxism, Neo Marxism, Western Marxism, or Identity Politics.

Our fight was on, but not against each other.

Peter now prefers to be called a skeptic rather than an atheist. I believe that I have better arguments than him, not only regarding God’s existence but also better intellectual resources for which to argue for our agreed-upon platform for the common good that we should pursue truth while respecting others in their dissenting opinions. We can debate respectfully.

Contrary to some, the debate is not hate. Instead, it is a necessary platform in the marketplace of competing ideas. It is what made the universities great, institutions that were founded by Christians for the pursuit of truth.

Boghossian and I embrace the reality and knowability of objective truth and the freedom to pursue it. We’ve moved beyond the proverbial “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” to a genuine friendship. But our views are still at odds. Nonetheless, Peter has acquired a variety of new friends, thoughtful Christians providing him with perspective and possibilities that weren’t live options before. I believe these relationships have been a catalyst for change.

I believe we need to consider forging new alliances given our challenging and rapidly changing times, yet carefully and thoughtfully, for the common good. Jesus, the incarnate logos, is the ground for truth and goodness.

Corey Miller
Ratio Christi President and CEO

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Source: https://stream.org/my-arch-enemy-who-became-my-friend-for-the-sake-of-freedom-of-thought-and-speech/