This is evidently "the big thing" this week: Ayaan Hirsi Ali has converted to Christianity. She was previously an atheist and before that, a Muslim. The atheist critic in the YouTube clip above calls her "the fifth horseman of New Atheism". Apparently, Hirsi Ali is also a former Dutch politician! She currently resides in the United States. Hirsi Ali´s short essay describing her reasons for converting is linked below. Not sure why it´s published at the British site UnHerd. I assumed they were more "pro-Russian"?
As many atheists have already pointed out, Hirsi Ali´s essay is strangely non-religious. Her reasons for embracing Christianity sound almost exclusively "cultural" and political. She doesn´t believe that Wokeness and secularism can equip the West to win the clash of civilizations with Russia, China and indeed Islam. Only Christianity can fill the cultural and personal void created by secularization.
Note, however, that Hirsi Ali´s Christianity is very moderate. It´s essentially a form of center-right liberalism, compatible with the *secularized* wing of the Republican Party in the United States. It´s frankly not clear to me why center-right BAU would become stronger if provided with a nominally transcendental foundation supposedly rooted in the Bible?
An interesting possibility that suggests itself is that Ayaan Hirsi Ali´s conversion is an example of what Oswald Spengler calls "the Second Religiosity", whereby secularized intellectuals return to the old religion of their civilization when Reason manifestly fails. Since Hirsi Ali clearly identifies with Western civilization, her becoming a Christian would perhaps count.
Or maybe it´s just another Tuesday on the web, who knows.
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