Author: David Meyers
David G. Myers is the author of the most widely used psychology textbook on college campuses today, soon to be in its 9th edition, and he devotes a good deal of his time to keeping it up to date. But Myers, a trustee of the John Templeton Foundation and a professor of social psychology at Hope College in Michigan, also has a vocation—getting people on different sides of difficult issues to talk to each other.
In his new book, A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists: Musings on Why God Is Good and Faith Isn't Evil, Myers does not try to convince skeptics to accept the "truth claims" of religion, but he does draw their attention to its social benefits. Studies show that, compared with their secular counterparts, religious people tend to be happier and healthier and to contribute more to helping others through volunteer work and charitable giving. Nor, he insists, is religion the enemy of science. "Believers can share with skeptics a commitment to reason, evidence, and critical thinking," he writes, "while also embracing a faith that supports happiness, health, and helpfulness."
This middle ground, Myers recently argued in "On Faith," the religion blog of the Washington Post, is precisely what today's "new atheists" refuse to accept, a point he also emphasized in his response to Religulous, the new movie by Bill Maher. Publishers Weekly, among other reviewers, has singled out his new book's calm reasonableness as a particular strength: "Myers adds to the numerous apologetic texts that have emerged since the neo-atheist movement began. But this quick jaunt into potentially dangerous waters is head and shoulders above the rest."
