U. of Toronto Offers Course to Counter Atheism; Due to Atheism's Rapid Growth in Our Societies

The main chapel at Jesuit-run Regis College at the University of Toronto is offering an eight-week course -- which meets every Wednesday afternoon -- titled "Responding to 21st-Century Atheism," the Religion News Service website reports today (January 28, 2013).

It's an attempt -- says the Rev. Scott Lewis -- for people of faith to understand and come to terms with the increasingly muscular secularism and atheism that has risen in Western societies over the past generation.

Atheism "has become militant, aggressive and proselytizing," said Lewis -- a Jesuit scripture scholar -- who teaches the class with three other scholars. "It's made great in-roads and is now socially acceptable. If you're young and educated and believe in God, you're (seen as) a jerk."

While the course examines the increasing polarization between non-believers and people of faith, it will not be about confronting secularists or engaging in polemics, Lewis stressed before the first class of about 155 students in the adult-education program. "Both sides need to lighten up," he said.