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Peter Kreeft


The root of most atheism is not argument but attitude, not intellection but feeling, not the love of truth but the fear of truth. Peter Kreeft (/kreɪft/, not, as common sense would suggest, /krift/; 1937-) is a Catholic philosopher and apologist, most famous for his sizable bibliography and most infamous for generally being a dickhead to anyone who isn't Christian.

Life and career
Kreeft was born in 1937 into a Calvinist family, attending college at Fordham University. While at Fordham, Kreeft was assigned to investigate the Catholic claim that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus. During his research, he found that there were many similarities between the early church and converted to Catholicism as a result. . Unlike most Catholics, and most likely as a result of his Protestant upbringing, Kreeft stresses unity between Catholicism and Protestantism. After leaving Fordham, Kreeft became a philosophy professor at Boston College, a private Jesuit college in Massachusetts, and The King's College, a non-denominational Christian college in New York City. Astute readers may have noticed that these two colleges are not the same college. Though there is a logical explananation, it is much funnier to imagine Peter Kreeft frantically driving between Massachusetts and NYC in the time between his classes at both colleges.

Socrates Meets/Father of Philosophy series
Kreeft's most extensive series of books goes by two names. While the official title is the Father of Philosophy series, the title of each book in the series begins with "Socrates Meets". In this series, Socrates debates modern philosophers, primarily attempting to grill them for their perceived wrongdoings. Kreeft is quite the fan of Socratic dialogues, featuring them heavily in works such as The Unaborted Socrates (1983), The Best Things in Life (1984), and Refutation of Moral Relativism (1999), among others. Throughout the series, Socrates (played by Peter Kreeft) rubs shoulders with such philosophers (played by Peter Kreeft) as:
 * Machiavelli (2003)
 * Marx (2003)
 * Descartes (2007)
 * Kant (2009)
 * Jesus (1987/2002)

However, not all is well in Socrates-land. In a review of Socrates Meets Descartes, Hal G.P. Colebatch notes that "having bought [the book] with high hopes [. . .] I found it fundamentally disappointing for a reason which I have found previously in conservative Christian thought," the book being "a bad-tempered attack on rationality, science, modernity and all varieties of the Enlightenment." True fans of the series are desperately hoping for a return to form of Socrates pestering other philosophers without condemning all of modern society.

Summa of the Summa
Perhaps the most helpful of Kreeft's books is Summa of The Summa (1990), a much-needed summary of Thomas Aquinas' behemoth Summa Theologica. Summa of the Summa pares the Summa down to passages that would be most important or most often often encountered in Catholic studies, with Kreeft providing explanations and footnotes. Ignatius Press, being so kind as to toot Kreeft's horn so he doesn't have to, calls it "the most intelligent, clear, and useful access to Saint Thomas in print." As if that wasn't enough, Kreeft also wrote A Shorter Summa (1993), a summary of Summa of the Summa, a summary of Summa Theologica. In this book, Kreeft boils down Summa Theologica to only its most essential points, being explicitly for classroom use. Yo dawg, I heard you like summaries.

Critical reception
While Kreeft is praised by his publisher as "one of the most respected and prolific Christian authors of our time", others do not seem to share that opinion. In a review for Kreeft's Between Heaven and Hell (1982), in which John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley meet in Purgatory and have a series of Socratic discussions on the Christian faith, Max H. James writes for Christian Literature that despite Kreeft's "admiration of Plato and C.S. Lewis, [he] cannot in the least write like either of them;" James also took particular issue with Kreeft's "lack of distinction between religious statements [. . .] and empirical statements." Perhaps the strangest of all, though, is that Kreeft wrote JFK as a one-dimensional idiot, his only contribution to the plot being "babbl[ing] like a moron". In fairness to Kreeft, a serious head injury can cause those kinds of complications.

Kreeft's modus operandi
For a closer look at how exactly Kreeft operates in his writings, Kreeft's Christianity for Modern Pagans (1993), from which the opening quote is sourced, will be analyzed. The express purpose of the book is to repackage the writings of Blaise Pascal (of Pascal's Wager fame) into a convincing argument to convert practicing pagans (and, by extension, atheists, for reasons to become plain soon) to Christianity. In the first chapter, Kreeft stresses the importance of his message:

In the second chapter, however, Kreeft starts taking wild swings at pagans - y'know, the people he's supposed to be convincing. The following quote, both bigoted towards pagans and women, is what is referred to as a "double whammy" in the bigot community. Also of note is Kreeft's language concerning "undermining the modern world from within", which has, according to him, "returned to paganism - or rather, to something much worse,":

Kreeft seems to believe that, in a country with a majority Christian population, Christianity is actively being undermined by those evil, evil worldly people. In the third chapter, Kreeft drives this home with multiple digs at atheists:

Kreeft, alongside his love of philosophers and sweet, sweet baby-feeding action, is also a lover of logical fallacies. In this passage, again from the third chapter, Kreeft dodges the question of the existence of pagan deities by cooking up some homestyle ad hominem delicately spiced with appeal to ridicule for all the hungry babies out there:

For a palate cleanser, Kreeft goes on a tangent condemning wildlife preservation to serve up a flavorful nugget of anti-abortion rhetoric: "[W]anted whales have more right to life than unwanted babies." By the fifth chapter, the wanted baby's palate is ready for the next portion of the meal, so Kreeft concocts a thoroughly unfilling strawman of paganism devoid of any evidence or justification, taking the time to also decry modern society (that sounds familiar):

Astute readers will notice that Kreeft doesn't appear to know what he's talking about on the subject of non-Abrahamic religions. In the twelfth chapter, Kreeft and Pascal claim that no other religion or philosophy acknowledges that an imperfect existence is innate and derivative of sin. Kreeft, however, just had to bungle the entire claim by mentioning and misrepresenting Buddhism. Though he acknowledges concepts such as Samsara, the Cycle of Rebirth, and Nirvana, Oneness (and not the band, thankfully), he criticizes Buddhism for lacking a concept of agapē, selfless love. Kreeft conveniently passes over the very first Brahma-Vihara, maitrī, directly synonymous with agapē.

Along with plain ommissions, Kreeft also has a habit of inventing new definitions when they suit him. In the eighth chapter, Kreeft redefines skepticism as disbelief in human reason, not knowledge:

Returning to the twelfth chapter, Kreeft claims that original sin is "the radically unpopular doctrine" that culminates in "the unenviable task of convincing us of this Bad News so that we will be open to the Good News,". Kreeft's third course is a false equivalency stuffed into a four-term fallacy:

As if he was dared to make an even more fallacious argument, Kreeft's final course is a rich, decadent, fallacy turducken. The following quote simultaneously demonstrates argument to the stone, appeal to ignorance, and argument from incredulity, with a garnish of special pleading to top things off. In essence, the statement would be absurd without the reasoning used; he doesn't know of any explanation, therefore there can't be another; and he cannot conceive of the situation being possible without the Christian God specifically; therefore it is impossible:

Of course, no book blatantly ripping off creatively using Pascal's writings would be complete without a use of Pascal's Wager. Since Kreeft's use is not unique, it won't be covered in detail.

In the twenty-sixth chapter, in section VII, "The End of the Road, The Point of it All:" Kreeft finally gets to the damn point:

Ultimately, though, Kreeft's grand reveal only serves to fracture his claim of knowledge. Instead of one coherent claim that the Christian God is real, he has created two claims: one that God exists and one that Jesus is in some way divine, neither of which are mutually inclusive.

Conclusion/TL;DR
Christianity for Modern Pagans is Kreeft's sermon to the choir, in which he lovingly pats his Christian audience on the head only to turn around and spew fire at non-Christians, repeatedly poisoning the well and slinging ad hominem attacks and arguments from incredulity, going on tangents to make wholly unnecessary, often bigoted points. The book's supposed mission is to present convincing arguments for Christianity, but Kreeft can't seem to help himself when given an opportunity to attack its intended audience, therefore failing spectacularly. Quite frankly, it is astonishing that such tripe was ever published.