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2006

2006 saw Christianity take a real pummelling. Prof. Richard Dawkins made his anti-god crusade at the ‘Gate of St Peters’, not to get in - but to let people out! He wants to free people from the God delusion, people like me. It’s a war that Dawkins has been waging for years. He has had many predecessors. They are dead and forgotten, but the name of Jesus Christ lives on, even if it is for many just an expletive. But the beginning of 2006 saw Richard Dawkins biggest assault yet. It began early in January with Dawkins Channel 4 documentary, “A War on Science”. The two one hour series was called, “The Root of all Evil?” While against all religion one analysis suggested that “perhaps half of episode one and nearly 80% of episode two was spent criticizing Christians and that he deliberately equated Christianity with Islamic terrorists.”

I am finding Dawkins’ book fascinating to read – and I concede he is right in many things he has to say about religion. Along with others, I have found myself fearful of what ‘religion’ is doing in the name of God in our world. But I have already found too that Dawkins’ is also very selective and irrational in his attacks on Christianity. This has not endeared him to even many of his atheist colleagues. He bemoans the fact that fellow atheist scientists are not out there fighting the ‘enemy’ with him. But even if sympathetic to his cause, how many want to be associated with an over zealous crusader for atheism when scientists by their very work are supposed to be objective? When reading Dawkins God, written by one of Dawkins’ fellow Oxford professors, Alister McGrath, one can’t help thinking that while Dawkins is acknowledged to be a very brilliant and honoured scientist, he has in some ways become an embarrassment to Oxford, as well as a tool for the media who use him for drawing attention for the controversy he creates.

Richard Dawkins has focussed particularly on the Creationist and Intelligent Design movements. This is where he has had much sympathy from critics and newspaper editors. But surprisingly, for the atheistic evolutionary fraternity, his attacks on Christianity and on Creationism and I.D. in particular appeared to achieve the opposite of the results intended. They have focussed people’s minds on the issue of origins which might not have been previously given much attention, and the response has been surprising. Following the BBC Horizon programme, “A War on Science,” a MORI poll (January 06) discovered that 41% of respondents wanted to see Intelligent Design included in the school curriculum. Taking the UK population to be around 60 million that would represent something like 24 million of the UK population! A massive 44% of respondents said they wanted Creationism included in the school curriculum. That would represent around 26 Million of the UK population!

The January 06 MORI Poll shook the scientific community. The President of the Royal Society, Lord Martin, said that after 150 years after Darwin: “It is surprising that many should be sceptical of Darwinian evolution.”

Undaunted by the Poll, or perhaps challenged by it, Prof. Dawkins produced his final assault for 2006 with his publication, The God Delusion. Richard Dawkins might well have confirmed the sceptic in his unbelief but the message coming from authors, interviewers and reviewers is that Dawkins has emboldened and built up the faithful rather than disarmed them. For those who will, this site offers opportunity to respond to Dawkins et al.

Many people would trace the battle over the origins issue in recent history to the scientist and Baptist, Dr. Henry Morris. However, the more recent battle over origins goes back to a creationist presentation by Answers in Genesis at Emanuel College Gateshead in March 2002. Had Richard Dawkins et al left well alone it might just have been another local event without any major consequence. But it was highlighted by the press to become a national issue and got pushed to Prime Minister’s Question Time. The web links to Emmanuel College Gateshead keyed into Google, rocketed in the thousands. Professor Richard Dawkins has been credited for much of the phenomenal increase in creationist and I.D. materials and web activity.

In making the Gateshead creationist lectures an issue for education and for government, Dawkins et al gave AIG a publicity it could never have hoped to have otherwise had. Answers in Genesis at Gateshead became a national incident. Interest in the AIG website grew to the extent it could claim to be the most visited Christian website in the world. The enormous interest in the Answers in Genesis organization (www.answersingenesis.org) following Gateshead and its consequent rapid expansion, resulted in it splitting with another major creationist organization being added to the creationist scene called, Creation Ministries International. In all the furore Emanuel College found itself being denigrated by the evolutionary lobby for its Christian ethos as well as extolled for its academic excellence in the press.

In many ways the Dawkins scenario has been linked with the Gay Rights issue in what has been said about Christians and Christianity in the press and on the web that most Christians would not recognise. Perhaps Alister McGrath sums it up well in his book, Dawkins God, for those who think Christianity is no more than blind faith in an antiquated book called the Bible. McGrath asks, “So is religion ‘blind faith,’ which flies in the face of evidence? (Which is of course what Richard Dawkins claims).

“Hardly,” say McGrath. “This definition is itself a piece of rhetoric, devised to meet the needs of Dawkins’ agenda. When I debate these issues in public, I regularly get asked why Christians blindly trust in God, in the absence of supporting evidence. I ask if they would be kind enough to tell me where they find such an idea, and to justify it from a serious Christian writer of note. I am usually greeted with an embarrassed silence. Yet on occasion, I get the answer: ‘Well, that’s what Richard Dawkins says.’ The audience usually laughs. They get the point.”

And perhaps that might be the best way to treat Richard Dawkins when on his atheist crusades, not someone to be taken seriously. And yet, he seems to have affirmed many in a distorted view of Christianity that for some is disturbing in how it could destabilize civil society.

As we move onward into 2007 it is increasingly obvious that atheism’s war on Christianity will move forward with it. But let’s hope that Christians in their response to atheism’s attacks will not adopt the abusive language and style presented in The God Delusion. Dialogue and détente is preferable to debate and diatribe in civilised society. Christians believe they have something very special to share, but never to impose.

For the more serious reader who wants to find out what the teachings of the Bible are, and why biblical Christianity can never be eliminated by any plot or intrigue or by despot or government, I hope this site will be of help along with other Christian websites that can be found on the Internet.

But if you are not a Christian, be careful. I once wasn’t, but I am now. And the reason? What is on offer is far superior to anything or anyone else has to offer in this world. In sharing my views, I can only hope for you what I have found for myself. A peace, joy and a hope a Christian has through a relationship with God - the opposite of what is sometimes claimed about God, or what Dawkins believes about God. And that peace, joy and hope is not something that can be bought. But it can be obtained free, and freely.

This site is in the making. It is my hope to see it grow. Take whatever you want from the site, and leave what you don’t want. But whatever you take, my hope is the materials and links will provide challenges to think seriously about life and give nourishment on your spiritual journey.

Yours sincerely,

Malgwyn

Revised 18/03/07

Copyright © 2006 Maldwyn | Based on a design by Andreas Viklund