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  STEP #3. ACCEPT THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE STUDENT: Dr. Brink? BRINK: Yes, oh come on in for our weekly conversation. STUDENT: I don't think I'll come in. I just stopped by to say thank you for all the time you have given me, but I don't think I'll be coming bac k. BRINK: I have enjoyed our conversations. But I thought that we would have a few more before I was done giving you my complete answer. STUDENT: I am sure that you have more to say, but I think that I got enough. I don't really disagree with anything you have said so far. I really thought about what we said last time about the limits of reason, and I do agree with that, and that it all comes down to making a decision, a commitment, and I have made my decision. I am going to stay with science, not just for my major and career, but my view of the world, evolution and all. BRINK: Well do come in and grant me a conversation about science. STUDENT: OK, I guess that I do have the time. BRINK: Tell me w

  Excerpt from How to Argue with an Atheist available online and from msipress.com/shop INTRODUCTION: Arguing in Circles               It is not how long the book is, but how long the book sticks in the mind of the reader.  My contention is sure to be controversial: atheism is an addiction. According to the national opinion polls, between two and twenty percent of American adults identify themselves as atheists (depending upon how the question is phrased). The fact that there are so many millions of atheists (or so few, if you look at it proportionately) says nothing about the existence of God, but only about human nature.               I am going to suggest a broader, more sweeping definition of atheism: behaving as if God does not exist . Since the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, all of us have, at least on occasion, behaved in this way. In that sense, we are all recovering atheists.               One afternoon at the beginning of the semester, a student came by my offic