Richard Dawkins
I’ve read several things by Richard Dawkins, the well-known British atheist scientist, and had heard about his new book, The God Delusion last week on The Colbert Report. I’ve never been particularly impressed by his arguments, but hadn’t been able to fully articulate why until I saw this article in the Church Times (pointed out by the daily episcopalian). The author, Giles Fraser, notes that
The root of the problem is that too many modern atheists adopt a position that is a photographic negative of a sort of Christianity believed only by the most conservative. God is X, says the modern atheist, giving a short definition that allegedly captures what all believers believe. This means that the God they reject doesn’t look anything like the God that most of us meet in our prayers.
This encapsulates pretty closely the way that I feel about Dawkins and his compatriots. There are any number of my atheist friends over the years with whom I have discussed my Christian faith at great length and in significant intellectual depth. I have never seen this kind of real understanding of the issues from Dawkins.
