The New Atheism
I sent this post to Denny since is audience is different than mine, but this needs more attention.
On Think Christian this week I found a link to a one-sided Wired article about the New Atheism, mainly about how atheist leaders are no longer debating Christians, but evangelizing to the agnostics and “in the closest” atheists to come out and make a stand. They admit they are copying from the success from the gay movement from the past twenty years — and we know how successful they have been.
The thing I’m alarmed about is that I hadn’t heard of Richard Dawkins[1] until a few months ago, and now I’ve seen his name mentioned three or four times since then. I think that means they are gaining momentum.
So what Christians to do? Stand by and watch more and more of our faith erode away?
[1]Ironically, I remember seeing his wife on Dr. Who growing up.
How much of your faith do you think will be eroded by Dawkins and the like-minded? Do you think that in time you may no longer be a Christian owing to his efforts?
No, I don’t see Dawkins & Co. converting me. The problem is, though, is that the American Christian Church seems to only take care of other Christians and is not interested in having any dialog with agnostics, atheists, etc. It’s waay past time for the Church to start doing something.
Dawkins has been around as a Zoologist for a long time. He has written quite a bit about evolution and an atheistic view. He has argued extensivly against an intelligent design.
What is getting him and Sam Harris all of the attention is that the rhetoric is changing . They are now proposing the full supresion of religion in order to advance “human progress” It is calling for Liberallism to move away from diversity, openness and tolerance and instead suppress ideas/thoughts that are deemed harmful.
What steps should be taken? Debate and dialog? Refutations through counter-books?
The concept that probably needs to be discuess in dialog more is simply the conecpt of “The Fall” (of man). It is G. K. Chesteron’s answer to what is wrong with the world—”I am”. Dawkins latest book proposes that all wars, selfishness, violence, and every other evil could be eliminated if Religion was. Perhaps a dialog that also looks at history would help. One would sadly see too many evils in the name of religion but one would also see much evil out side of that and see that some that Dawkins says are from religion have other sources.
Were their ideas to gain a large foothold the openess of Western Society could eventually be greatly restricted.
Here are some bibliographical information for two books covering his view on Sciene and God:
Richard Dawkins, “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design” (Norton, 349 pp.; $10.95, paper, 1987 [first published 1986]).
Richard Dawkins, “River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life” (Basic, 172 pp.; $20, 1995).