** Updated 9/23/07 - Gene Veith adds comments.
There is an atheism that attacks Christianity on the grounds that it is not true. The new atheism, described below, attacks Christianity on the grounds that it is not good. But Rand's atheism, with that of her mentor Nietzsche, is far more devastating, attacking Christianity on the grounds of its strengths. The ethic of "love," they claim, inhibits the natural law of survival of the fittest, making successful people feel guilty, and draining the culture of its strength, with Christian compassion begetting expensive welfare programs, protectionist economic policies, and other misguided attempts to prop up failures, etc., etc. And unlike most atheists, she offers a positive ideology to fill the void she creates.
When I was in high school, a good friend got way into Rand and this kind of thinking. It challenged my then rather minimalistic faith more than anything else. Trying to answer her led me to C. S. Lewis, among other writers, and drove me deeper into Christianity. But it is driving even more away.
A reader of Veith's post says:
For a real eye opener go to Booknotes on c-span and see the July of 1989 interview of Nathaniel Branden. He was one of the founders of the self esteem movement in psychology. Branden was part Rand’s inner circle with Greenspan he also was Rand’s consort. It seems Rand’s personal life was nearly as depraved as her philosophy.
Another writes:
Rand did not hate American Christians. Some of her views can be seen here: http://forums.4aynrandfans.com/index.php?s=09ef5a488c877095b98a1e8f212f2dc2&showtopic=4867&st=0&p=42353&#entry42353
I would also suggest that John Piper has some worthwhile things to say about what Miss Rand achieved and where she fell short:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1979/1486_The_Ethics_of_Ayn_Rand/
**
For those of us who have heard of Ayn Rand (1905-1982), but haven't read her books, this New York Times article (9/15/07) will serve as an introduction to her ideas and her influence. One of Rand’s most famous devotees is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Wikipedia article is comprehensive and helpful.
Rand was an atheist. She summarized her philosophy this way:
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Whitaker Chambers wrote a classic critique (required reading!) of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. He notes that no children appear in this novel saying "the strenuously sterile world of Atlas Shrugged is scarcely a place for children." Near the end of his review he speaks of
the book's dictatorial tone, which is much its most striking feature. Out of a lifetime of reading, I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is
without appeal. In
addition, the mind, which finds this one natural to it, shares other
characteristics of its type. 1) It consistently mistakes raw force for
strength, and the rawer the force, the more reverent the posture of the
mind before it. 2) It supposes itself to be the bringer of a final
revelation. Therefore, resistance to the Message cannot be tolerated
because disagreement can never be merely honest, prudent or just
humanly fallible. Dissent from revelation so final (because, the author
would say, so reasonable) can only be willfully wicked. There are ways
of dealing with such wickedness, and, in fact, right reason itself
enjoins them. From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice
can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: " To the gas
chambers-- go!"
Read the entire review.
A 1974 book on my shelf edited by John Warwick Montgomery, Christianity for the Tough Minded, contains a useful, albeit brief, Christian critique of Rand by Janet G. Porcino ("Twentieth Century Romanticism: The World of Ayn Rand"). Christian philosopher Norman Geisler offers his assessment of Rand's philosophy in his Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics.