Brant himself says here

I just don't think atheists exist.

People who say there is no God? They exist. And some of them are some of the coolest people you'll ever meet. And moral, too. They think killing an innocent person for no reason is wrong, period. They think lying to friends just for personal gain is wrong, period. They can be very other-centered, compassionate, charitable, and merciful. You might even say some atheists are some of the most upstanding people you'll meet.

Shoot, it's almost like -- no, it's exactly like -- at some level, they believe in God.

I see what he's saying here. And it goes (as he points out) to what C. S. Lewis says about morality. Not so much that it's universal, but that there's more to it than some sort of mutual agreement we all have. He's not any more surprised that there are moral atheists than I am. If what atheists believe to be true were true then this world would be a much different place.

What the New Atheists Don’t See by Theodore Dalrymple is an excellent article that points out that the crowd "led" by Dawkins, Hitchens, and the rest are anything but new. He says:

The curious thing about these books is that the authors often appear to think that they are saying something new and brave. They imagine themselves to be like the intrepid explorer Sir Richard Burton, who in 1853 disguised himself as a Muslim merchant, went to Mecca, and then wrote a book about his unprecedented feat. The public appears to agree, for the neo-atheist books have sold by the hundred thousand. Yet with the possible exception of Dennett’s, they advance no argument that I, the village atheist, could not have made by the age of 14 (Saint Anselm’s ontological argument for God’s existence gave me the greatest difficulty, but I had taken Hume to heart on the weakness of the argument from design).

This echoes what Sid and I have talked about over beer. The subtitle "To regret religion is to regret Western civilization." is true too so far as I can tell. Not sure that I have much to add to what he has to say other than it's nice to read an atheist who doesn't have contempt for us theists.

And that contempt shines forth in this quote of a quote from First Thing's review of A Devil's Chaplain:

Dawkins gave an interview to Belief.net recently. He was asked whether he could think of anything, just “one positive, if minor, thing” that religion has done for the good. No, he replied, he really couldn’t. What about great religious art? “That’s not religion,” said Dawkins, “it is just because the Church had the money. Great artists like . . . Bach . . . would have done whatever they were told to do.” So Johann Sebastian Bach was just in it for the money. What this sordid remark reveals, apart from amazing ignorance and philistinism, is the mind of a true fanatic. It is not enough for Dawkins to say that religion is bad on the whole; it must be wholly bad.

Again as Sid and I have chatted about, when someone goes too far in their beliefs (whatever they may be) they start to lose focus and any sense of rationality. Anyway, enjoy!