Who’s afraid of Richard Dawkins?

How I Learned Not to Fear the Anti-God Squad

Interesting editorial in the Wall Street Journal regarding the new, "in your face" atheism.

For many Christians, the vehement and popular attacks on Christianity by the new “celebrity” atheists is a terrible thing. Because of their popularity, men like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens gather huge audiences when they write books or speak publicly. These attacks have such a wide audience and it can seem like the attacks on God are shattering people’s faith. There has been a great dealing of hand-wringing and a lot of effort expended in an effort to combat the new, militant atheism.

But really is this renewed attack on faith necessarily a bad thing? It got me thinking that maybe it is a GOOD thing, because it is causing those who are culturally religious to drop out and causes a refining of the remainder. Is not this public attack on faith refining the dross from the church, pulling the burrs from the sheep? Where there is a social cost to public faith, the faith of those who believe is strengthened through adversity. God is sovereign and is not made less by those who are not His that hate Him and His followers.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Matt 13: 5-6

When the heat of the atheist assault falls on some, they wither away. There are many cultural Christians, people who are untransformed by the Gospel but still attend church services for whatever reason. They have a false belief because they have bought into the idea of being “in a church” is the same as “being in the church”. They leave, but that is not unexpected: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19). Is the church healthier with more people who are less committed or with fewer people who are more committed?

I think we should thank God for adversity, for those who slander us and challenge our faith. In a nation with churches on every corner and with God-talk coming out of the mouths of politicians, it is easy to get fat and lazy in our faith. That has happened for decades and we are weak and flabby spiritually in the church. When the church faces persecution and challenges, it strengthens and draws together those who are redeemed. We should refute the false accusations and baseless contentions of those who decry faith, but we should be thankful for the persecution and opposition that sharpens and strengthens our faith.