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Professor Richard Dawkins has become the pin-up boy of western atheists. His latest offerings for his religiously devoted band of athiests includes his best-selling book, The God Delusion, and DVD- The Root of All Evil. His arguments are passionate, clear and simple. He appeals to the lack of intellectual rigour in any religious belief, the socially destructive nature of religion, and ability of mankind to live harmoniously and well without any reference at all to God.

His arguments are not new. Atheistic Philosophers have been making the same arguments for centuries. But intellectuals like Dawkins have become increasingly peturbed by the large numbers of intellectuals who are “crossing over” – now professing a belief in God and becoming “religious”. One of the most notable intellectuals to recently abandon atheism and embrace theism (a belief in God) was Professor Antony Flew. He was an ardent atheist who wrote and lectured prolifically on the reasons why atheism was rational and religion wasn’t. He would debate all-comers. And I’d like to begin this next sentence with- “Then one day…” but the change didn’t necessarily result from just one day. It was perhaps the result of Greg Habermas patiently debating and talking with Antony Flew for weeks, months and years that eventually made its impact. Professor Flew, previously acknowledged as the world’s leading atheist could no longer argue with any intellectual integrity for atheism. He cited the overwhelming “evidence” for abandoning his atheism and becoming a “theist” (a believer in God).

The impact upon atheists at the news of the conversion of Prof. Flew to theism could be likened to how Christians might feel if Evangelist Bill Graham announced that he was abandoning Christianity and converting to Islam! Antony Flew’s decision jolted the worldwide community of intellectual atheists. But he’s not the only one to “cross over”. Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Chemistry at San Francisco State University, Dean Kenyan, began to have doubts about his own text-book on evolutionary chemical biology when he realised that there was a growing body of evidence for life having both a beginning and a ‘beginner’. He too became a theist. Then there are the people who are regarded as leading intellectuals in their field who are also avid Christians. One of the most troubling examples of a Christian intellectual to people like Richard Dawkins is Dr Alistair McGrath.

In 2004 McGrath suggested in The Twilight of Atheism that atheism was in decline.

He has been highly critical of Richard Dawkins, calling him “embarrassingly ignorant of Christian theology”. His book: The Dawkins Delusion? – a response to Dawkins’s The God Delusion – was published by SPCK in February 2007, and the two had public debate recently on the topic, “Does religious belief damage the health of a society, or is it necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society?”

Wikipedia

Richard Dawkins regards religion as irrational and intellectually unsustainable. He conversely regards science as totally rational and always intellectually defensible. He makes this astonishing statement about anyone who doesn’t quite see it the same way-

“If you meet anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or wicked–but I’d rather not consider that.”
quoting Richard Dawkins, in Darwin Strikes Back, page 14, by Thomas Woodward

IS RELIGION THE GREATEST CAUSE OF BLOODSHED?

This is one of Richard Dawkins most strenuous claims. Religion creates wars…Wars kill good people…Therefore, Religion is wrong. It would seem on the surface of it that such a statement was self-sustaining considering recent events in Northern Ireland, Afganistan, Iraq and Tibet. From a historical perspective, the Crusades and Counter-Crusades seem to add weight to this argument. I can’t speak on behalf of other religions. I will therefore restrict my response to this argument from a Christian perspective.

THE CRUSADES PROVE THAT RELIGION IS DEADLY…

How “Christian” were the medieval crusades? How “Christian” were the crusaders? The Crusades had nothing to do with Biblical Christianity! There is absolutely no supporting concept in the New Testament for believing that favour with God is linked to occupying the right real estate (that is, Jerusalem). Neither is there any supporting passage for the use of violence against those who don’t believe like Christians. There simply is no concept in the New Testament of a “Holy War”. The Crusaders actually violated the Scriptures to conduct their Crusades! It would appear that the Medieval Crusades had more to do with power than promoting a certain religious belief.

OTHER ‘RELIGIOUS’ WARS

The same principles as stated for dismissing the Crusades as “Christian” are used for other religious wars. Christianity is not advanced by military might, but by persuasion through various media. While a nation or an army might be described as “Christian” when it goes into combat, it doesn’t make its military action “Christian”. It would also be wrong to assume that every combatant from that nation is also Christian or even conducting themselves in a Christian fashion.

ATHEISTIC WARS

Something Richard Dawkins seems to omit about his “war arguments” is that by far most of the military violence committed has been done by atheists for atheistic reasons! The First World War of the Twentieth Century was not a religious war, neither was the Second World War, nor the Korean War, nor the Vietnam War, nor the Afghan War. Added to this are the atrocities orchestrated by atheists such as Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, and Idi Amin. This argument actually comes back to bite Dawkins since most of the warfare bloodshed, and especially that of the twentieth century, have been committed by atheists for atheistic reasons. On behalf of Christians it can be categorically stated that whenever any military action is conducted in the name of Christianity it is a violation of what Christ taught not obedience to it! The New Testament makes no provision for “Holy War”- despite what Richard Dawkins might claim.

KNOWLEDGE VERSUS BELIEF

Richard Dawkins criticises religion, and Christianity in particular, as lacking intellectual rigour. Religion, to Dawkins, is about blind and ignorant faith. This faith is not reasonable, according to Dawkins, since it is not scientifically verifiable. But that logic is self-defeating since that very reasoning is not scientific! It also reflects a belief of Richard Dawkins. That is, he believes that beliefs aren’t that important.

For those Christians who have not moved from ‘belief in‘ to ‘knowledge of‘ God, the arguments of Dawkins may rock their faith. The solution is to examine and test the claims of Christ and His Word for credibility and reliability. Christianity is not about ‘blind faith’ which promotes hostility and bloodshed. It is grounded in historic facts which can be tested by the scientific method. Its claims to transform a life can be tested by experience. The Bible urges us to move from beliefs to knowledge.

Do you not know…?
Romans 6:16

I want to know Christ…
Philippians 3:10

But it’s not the kind of knowledge of which Richard Dawkins speaks. The knowledge that the Bible refers to is the kind of knowledge that is a conviction not merely an assent to certain facts. Dawkins’ arguments have been dismissed as irrational, biased and unscientific by both Christian and non-Christian thinkers. The evidence for the God of the Bible is growing from what biologists, biochemists, cosmologists, astonomers are now discovering. A recent gathering of such secular scientists in Europe released a paper stating that naturalistic explanations could not explain how life or matter began. They acknowledged that since there was once nothing (before what cosmologists refer to as The Big Bang), it was completely illogical to suggest that everything came from nothing. As time goes on we can expect that the evidence will increasingly rebutt Richard Dawkins’ arguments and show that religion is not the root of all evil in society, and that it might well be irrationalism that is at the root of atheism.

Dr. Andrew Corbett
1st June 2007

http://www.findingtruthmatters.org

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