responses

• militant atheists misrepresent mainstream Christianity

  • they focus their criticism of God as an 'imaginary being' + on biblical literalism, as if these were mainstream Christian beliefs
  • they challenge the same minority views that mainstream theology challenges
• militant atheists ignore instances where conflict has been waged by atheists regimes e.g. USSR

  • proxy wars in the Cold War: Korean War, Vietnam War
• strawman argument = militant atheists attempt to fault Christianity by defining religious beliefs in over-simplified terms or attributing extreme or minority views to all believers
• Alister McGrath was an atheist, but became Christian during his university study

  • wrote The Dawkins Delusion
• McGrath:

  • Dawkins was wrong in his assumption that good science is bound to result in atheism, citing Francis Collins (director of the Human Genome project + a Christian
  • further, the theorist behind the Big Bang theory, Georges Lemaitre, was a Catholic priest, who saw no conflict in his beliefs
• McGrath:

  • challenged Dawkins' view that science disproves religion by discussing the relationship between the two
  • religion + science are 'partially overlapping magisteria'; they come at the world from two different but equally valid perspectives, which can be mutually enriching
• McGrath:

  • criticised Dawkins for his assumption that all Christians adopt views of God + the Bible which are in fact held only by a minority who are fundamentalist - this shows a very limited understanding of Christianity
• McGrath:

  • accuses Dawkins of fundamentalism in his unquestioning acceptance of some atheist views
  • Dawkins is biased in supporting evidence that agrees with his position - this is a very unscientific approach