ABSTRACT
In order to grasp what the author brings to the New Atheist/theist debates, it is necessary to achieve some understanding of the very ideas of science and sociology. Common sense and professional ideas of science and sociology are not always or at all consonant with what we know about these fields based on empirical research; second, without an accurate understanding of science and sociology, we will miss the fatal flaws of the New Atheism and of theism. The New Atheists and theists alike make assumptions about science that are out of touch with what we know empirically about science-in-practice. They also virtually ignore the relevance of sociology for explaining belief, nonbelief, faith, God, and religion. This book is a work in sociology as a science. It may seem to be a matter of common sense and introspective transparency but that is a complex fallacy grounded in the folk sociology of everyday life.
