Friends: When thoughtful atheists discover saving faith in Christ … what happened? A really good book.  And below today’s column are links to my latest podcast with Rich Jacobs (Feb 2024), and archived columns about Valentine’s Day (2008) and Ash Wednesday / Lent (2010). - Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #900

February 13, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

I See Smart People, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“I have found the Bible to be more coherent than I ever imagined.” – from “Coming to Faith through Dawkins,” edited by Denis Alexander and Alister McGrath.

When renowned British biologist, atheist, and author Richard Dawkins published The God Delusion in 2006, his timing was nearly perfect. But his argument was flawed.

Smart people noticed and found Christ instead.

Good timing?  You bet.  Five years after 9/11 re-drew the secular argument for and against religion in general, the world pounced on what seemed to be the shaken underpinnings of faith.  The “New Atheism” berated a Christian “god” it pronounced unlikely to exist, and uncaring if it did, and castigated Islam, whose seeming calling card was mass murder and terrorism.  Dawkins set many, many people thinking.  God? Bah.

It wasn’t just 9/11. Christianity in the West, particularly Europe, seemed to be dying anyway. Previous decades saw church attendance dwindle, while cultural conversation rarely called on Christian values, scripture, or teaching to resolve myriad social ills.  The Enlightenment had finally won; man’s own mind had become the ascendent and even lone arbiter of truth and lie, good and evil, justice and injustice.

American religious polls also showed a marked decline in church attendance and influence, and by the mid-2010s the “Nones” – as in religiously “None of the above” – grew to a dominant slice of American faith, or rather, non-faith, life and perspective.

Public education throughout the West had ditched the Bible, Prayer, and Jesus in the 1960s, replacing scripture and prayer with Darwinism and secular social programs.  Popular culture became both king and queen, comforts became the goal of life, and Dawkins’ masterful command of biology and vitriol against God, religion, and believers made Dawkins a pop-culture, science-answers-all-questions millennial rock star.

Funny thing though.  Many atheistic thinkers noticed logical, practical, and philosophical holes in Dawkins’ best-selling Delusion book, and upon vigorous investigation of Dawkins, rather, discovered the vigorous comprehensibility not just of the One True God, the Bible, Church history, and Christian philosophy, but rethought their jeering atheism with well-thought-out reverence for Christ.  Reason to the rescue.

A month ago, I wrote about Coming to Faith through Dawkins (Link #895, 1-8-24, 'Atheism is Rather Simplistic')having only seen an interview about it. Now I’ve read the book and swear it is an apologist’s delight of why and how smart people find Christ.

Twelve smart people, to be exact.  Co-editor Alister McGrath, well-known British author and apologist in his own right, introduces the 2023 volume with a five-point appraisal of Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, cites other prominent “New Atheist” writers, notes the movement’s rise and fall, and explains the book’s structure and intent.

This volume rings loudly in my faith.  The twelve authors – each one presenting a stand-alone essay/chapter – say the smart stuff I wish I’d think to say.  They all bring salient perspective to modern culture vs. Christian faith, and are all current, working, writing, thinking professionals – academics, engineers, philosophers, pastors – very much alive, very much Christian, and very smartly observant of contemporary trends.

My guess is that like me, you’ve never heard of any of them.  I’d also hasten a guess that for the robust, thinking Christian, reading the robust, faith-settling thoughts of how the Bible became coherent to others deepens our own faith, peace, and grace.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) did the math and, God willing, column #1,000 should hit Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Let’s all try to make it. More on Dawkins next week.

PODCAST LINK: Discussing Paul The Apostle With Bob Walters

VALENTINE’S DAY: Valentine’s Day Column #66 2-12-08

LENT: Ash Wednesday / Lent Column #171 2-16-10