Richard Dawkins' atheism collides with reality — then it crumbles



Is there a God-shaped hole in every human heart?

The metaphor refers to the sense of longing that humans feel outside the Garden of Eden, the place where humans freely dwelt with God, and it asserts that only God the Creator — as opposed to anything God created — can fill this hole.

Enter prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, who recently felt it necessary to declare the God-shaped hole to be a myth.

Dawkins' assertion is not surprising. He is, after all, one of the most prominent figures of the New Atheism movement, and he never hides his disdain for religion. But what is surprising is why Dawkins decided to reassert his rejection of Christianity and the God-shaped hole.

Dawkins' stand

In December, Dawkins resigned from the honorary board of the Freedom from Religion Foundation in protest of the FFRF's decision to remove an essay titled "Biology Is Not Bigotry" from its blog. In that essay, biologist Jerry Coyne, another member of the New Atheism movement, had rebuked another blog essay that promoted trans ideology and asserted that "a woman is whoever she says she is."

In his resignation letter, Dawkins accused the FFRF of having "caved" to the "hysterical squeals" of the far left, referring to backlash from the LGBTQ community.

That Dawkins would object to the promotion of trans ideology is itself not surprising. Despite his commitment to atheism, Dakwins affirms the truth of biological sex.

Irony abounds

Dawkins' resignation from the FFRF provoked responses that highlight the irony of his supposed principled stand against trans ideology.

Irony 1: Debbie Hayton, a biological man who identifies as transgender, argued that Dawkins' God-less worldview constructs the scaffolding that helps trans ideology seem plausible.

Hayton observed:

[M]aybe the key lesson from this sorry debacle is that it is not so easy to expunge the need for religion from human beings than atheists might like to think. If there is a god-shaped hole in us then without established religion, something else is likely to take its place.

In other words, atheism creates a vacuum — for morality, ethics, and all of life's biggest questions — that can and will be filled by "something else," such as trans ideology.

Dawkins later responded to Hayton's claim in an essay titled, "The myth of the God-shaped hole."

"Christianity provides reasons for rejecting trans nonsense. Therefore Christianity provides the only reasons for rejecting trans nonsense. Some syllogism!" he mocked.

Dawkins called it "patronizing" and "insulting" to "imply that, if deprived of a religion, humanity must ignominiously turn to something equally irrational."

Irony 2: But as writer Sarah Haider, herself an atheist, observed, "Except in this case, that may be exactly what has happened!"

Her point? While she also rejects the God-shaped hole, it's clear to her that religion creates a "floor" that, by and large, doesn't make it vulnerable to ideas, like trans ideology, that clearly run afoul of common sense. On the other hand, atheism and the supposed "reason" on which it is built contain inherent "vulnerabilities."

Clearly, one such vulnerability is that it provides a petri dish for trans ideology to flourish.

What Dawkins misses

While it is ironic that a trans-identifying person and an atheist can recognize the pitfalls of Dawkins' worldview, the real problem is that he seems to misunderstand Christian anthropology.

Christianity doesn't simply provide "reasons for rejecting trans nonsense" on the basis of biological sex. Rather, Christians reject trans ideology on the basis of human teleology. Trans ideology not only rejects biological reality, but it rejects, from the Christian perspective, why and for what purpose God created humans in the first place.

The Bible is clear: God created humans, and our bodies, for a purpose — and that purpose, or telos, is key to understanding what humans, and our bodies, are ultimately for.

This is where Dawkins' atheism and his rejection of Christian teleology contradict his crusade against trans ideology.

Theologian Carl Trueman even believes that Dawkins' worldview forces "a dramatic reduction in the importance of biology" because we live in a world that has made biology "a problem or a challenge to be overcome," and Dawkins does not explain why chromosomes, for example, should be granted "decisive authority" when such authority is not given to biological challenges, like cancer and sickness.

"Why should we not treat the difference in biological makeup and functions between men and women as just another set of problems for technology to dispatch to the dustbin of history?" Trueman asks. "Gender theory may seem far-fetched, but if the body has no intrinsic telos and evolution grants authority only to efficient causality, it is hard to understand why an evolutionary scientist would necessarily regard it as problematic."

The question, then, for Dawkins is: What are humans for? What is our purpose?

Christianity provides an answer: God created humanity as male and female in God's image with a specific vocation to multiply and steward creation in partnership with Him. The Bible teaches that humans were created for relationship with God and each other, and humanity's purpose in creation has eternal significance.

Reality strikes

Dawkins can mock the idea of the God-shaped hole, but the cracks in his worldview tell the real story.

If human beings do not have a divine telos, then why should biology (and evolutionary theory built on efficient causality) hold any more authority than feelings and, say, trans ideology? Dawkins' argument against trans ideology — and his worldview in general — is built on sand, making it vulnerable to the crushing waves of whatever philosophy is most fashionable at the moment.

Trans ideology has flourished precisely because Western culture rejects the divine telos.

Rather than accepting a God-given purpose, our culture believes that authentic purpose is found in self-actualization. In such an environment, it makes sense why self-identity — being your "most authentic self" — can override biology.

But Christianity provides a coherent teleology. Christianity not only teaches that humans were created with a purpose, but it tells us what that purpose is. Christianity, therefore, denies that humans are mere biological machines. We are not cosmic accidents.

In the end, Dawkins' rejection of the God-shaped hole only leaves it deeper and emptier than he found it — yet the hole still longs to be filled.

Richard Dawkins wants the goods, but refuses to accept God's truth



The notorious atheist Richard Dawkins has been making the rounds recently with his comment that he is a cultural Christian.

By this, Dawkins means that he would rather live in a culture that is grounded in Christian beliefs than one that is not. He feels “at home” in such a culture. He finds attractive the kinds of cultural practices, including the Christian holidays, that have become part of the cultural heritage gifted to us by Christianity.

Christianity is good and good for the world because it is true.

But Dawkins quickly reminds us that he doesn’t believe Christianity is true. To believe in the virgin birth or the resurrection of the dead is nonsense, obviously false gibberish that could not be the case. Miracles are impossible. So what we have then is a kind of religious atheism. Richard Dawkins wants the benefit of Christianity without believing in Christianity itself.

How are we to think about such claims?

I see at least one good thing and one bad thing in such comments. Let’s break this down.

First, there are two basic objections to Christianity.

Some argue that Christianity is unreasonable. Some argue that Christianity is undesirable. And some argue that Christianity is both unreasonable and undesirable. I would have thought Dawkins is in the third category, arguing that Christianity is both unreasonable and undesirable, especially given things he said in his 2006 book, "The God Delusion." There he argued that religion is both irrational and harmful, and Christianity seemed to be lumped in with all the other religions.

Now, it seems that Dawkins thinks differently, at least concerning Christianity. Christianity is good, even if unreasonable! This, I think, is an advance. He believes Christianity is good and beautiful, but not true.

I’m reminded of Blaise Pascal’s famous prescription on how to go about making the case for Christianity. He writes in "Pensees":

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.

Pascal suggests that in making the case for Christianity, we first show that Christianity is reasonable, then desirable, and then true.

I think, especially today, in an age driven more by felt needs, emotion, desire, and the aesthetic dimensions of life, Pascal’s tight ordering can and should be loosened. We need to show that Christianity is both reasonable and desirable. But for many, seeing the goodness and beauty of Christianity might be a helpful entry point into taking seriously the Christian faith.

In this way, I see it as a positive development that Richard Dawkins, the archnemesis of religion in general and Christianity in particular, is now saying that Christianity is good and beautiful. If he sees the good of Christianity, perhaps others, including the many who have read his screeds against religion, will be willing to consider afresh the claims of Jesus and the gospel.

Second, it is important to remember that we cannot separate goodness and truth.

In the end, goodness and truth are tightly allied. Dawkins thinks Christianity is good and good for the world. At some point, we might hope, he might ask himself how it can be the case that something he thinks so obviously false can be so good for the world. To say of some religion or worldview that it is good is to say it is objectively valuable.

If we removed Christianity from our world, something of value would be lost (according to Dawkins). But, as I’m sure others have pointed out, this idea — the idea of objective value — is inconsistent with Dawkins’ naturalism. He is on record in many places saying, in effect, that given naturalism (his particular version of naturalism is reductive materialism), there is no such thing as objective goodness.

So what we have, then, is an inconsistency in Dawkins’ position. It is unstable. He wants the goodness of Christianity and the truth of naturalism. But that position cannot be consistently held.

This is a problem, of course, but also an opportunity.

We need to press Dawkins and others who think that cultural Christianity is a viable “destination.” It is not. C.S. Lewis reminds us that we must always keep before others the question of truth.

Speaking to a group of Anglican priests and lay leaders in 1945, Lewis argued:

One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience’s mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good. And in the discussion they will at every moment try to escape from the issue ‘True — or False’ into stuff about good society, or morals, or the incomes of Bishops, or the Spanish Inquisition, or France, or Poland — or anything whatever. You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point. Only thus will you be able to undermine [their] belief that a certain amount of "religion" is desirable but one mustn’t carry it too far. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Lewis is right, of course.

Belief in the goodness or desirability of Christianity is not enough. We have to force others back, and back again, to the question of reasonableness and ultimately truth. Christianity is good and good for the world because it is true.

If it were not true, it wouldn’t be good for anyone since being rightly related to reality — truth — and being good are tightly connected.

Thus, if cultural Christianity is viewed as a kind of destination or stopping point on the journey of discovery, then it represents a dead end. It is another false re-enchantment.

But if we think of cultural Christianity in terms of a possible “way station,” a temporary stopping place for many on the way to faith, then I see it as a positive development.

Like many things in culture, there is something good and something bad about the idea of cultural Christianity. It is bad if someone takes this as a settled and coherent position. It is good, of course, if it stirs others to consider afresh the question of Christianity and its relation to truth. We can only hope that the latter is the case.

In our case-making, may we redouble our efforts to show others both the desirability and reasonability of the Christian faith.

This article is adapted from a post that originally appeared on the Worldview Bulletin Substack.

'Junk DNA' is bunk! Why the human genome argues for intelligent design



In my quest to learn the ins and outs of the orthodoxy of evolutionary theory (and therefore bring to light its deficiencies), I discovered geologist and lawyer Dr. Casey Luskin, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute.

A proponent, researcher, and advocate for intelligent design, Dr. Luskin has been defending academic freedom for scientists who face discrimination because of their support for ID for nearly 20 years.

Life is very low entropy, meaning it’s very ordered, and yet it’s also very high energy. How exactly does life maintain this seemingly contradictory state?

I’ve written about it here before, but I shared with Dr. Luskin my personal skepticism concerning the religion of evolution. As a layman (relative to him), it seemed to me as if Evolution™ had an “invisible hand of God” problem that’s never been seriously addressed.

Meet me in the middle

The mythology of Evolution™ seems to have a beginning (the Big Bang), an end (modern Homo sapiens), but no middle. And as I came to understand from my conversation with Dr. Luskin, much of the evidence for evolutionary theory amounts to flimsy, tenuously linked assumptions on the verge of being disproved in various fields.

We began by discussing one of the more popular arguments against intelligent design: the concept of “junk DNA."

The argument goes something like this: If everything is intelligently designed, then why does the vast majority of our DNA seem to serve no purpose?

As Dr. Luskin explained, the idea originated in the early 1960s, when scientists mapped out the molecular protein production process: DNA encodes RNA, which then carries that information to ribosomes, which in turn use it to assemble chains of amino acids into proteins.

Because so much of the DNA that had been studied up to that point did not seem tobe doing that, it was tossed in the proverbial junk bin, hence the name.

Selfish genes

The idea really took off with the publications of Japanese geneticist Susumu Ohno’s “So Much Junk DNA in Our Genome” in 1972 and Richard Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene" in 1976.

Ohno famously asserted that 90% of our DNA was total nonsense. Dawkins piggybacked off that and gave the junk DNA a “purpose,” saying that the only true function of the gene was to replicate itself. Whether or not the gene helps you is of non-substance.

Luskin was one of the first to push back against this idea. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, he experienced firsthand how the "junk DNA" theory was used to dismiss the burgeoning ID movement.

Luskin would argue with his professors and peers that it was still premature to conclude that most of our DNA could be classified as “junk,” citing the unfinished-at-the-time Human Genome Project as evidence for the lack of evidence.

Luskin seems to have been onto something. In the past few years, the “junk DNA” theory has slowly unraveled.

God don't make no 'junk'

This is in large part thanks to a groundbreaking series of papers entitled the ENCODE Project, published by biologists studying “non-coding” DNA — the goal being to uncover the mysteries of the human genome.

Since the ENCODE Project began in 2010, it has found that at least 80% of the genome has shown evidence of biochemical functionality. In other words — contrary to junk DNA theory — this DNA is transcribing information into the RNA.

And as for the other 20%?

The lead researchers of the ENCODE Project say that many of these non-coding elements of DNA occur within very specific cell types or circumstances, so to catch them in action doing what they’re supposed to be doing is simply very difficult. But they predict that as they study more and more cell types, that that 80% figure will most certainly jump up to 100%.

All this is to say that applying a Darwinian paradigm to discoveries about gene function has led to erroneous conclusions about "junk DNA" — which then, in turn, has been used to justify the same Darwinian theory that spawned it.

Information, please

Meanwhile, Intelligent Design's predictions that we would find function for that junk DNA have been borne out.

As Luskin pointed out, the origin of life is the origin of information. Life, on its face, is a very strange arrangement of matter.

It’s very easy to find things that are high entropy-high energy (think tornadoes or explosions) or low entropy-low energy (snowflakes, crystals). But life is different. Life is very low entropy, meaning it’s very ordered, and yet it’s also very high energy.

How exactly does life maintain this seemingly contradictory state?

Machinery.

Jedi mind trick?

Our cells are full of molecular machines that process and encode information to be used as applicable instructions. That is what our DNA, RNA, and ribosomes are all there for. They’re machines that process information.

Imagine you wanted to watch "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" on DVD. Would you be able to watch it without the DVD player? No.

Imagine if the instructions for building the world’s first ever DVD player were on a DVD. Could you build the DVD player just with the DVD? No.

The information and the information-processing machine are inseparable.

The question then becomes: How did these machines come into being?

Did they build themselves? No, we just showed how that can’t be the case.

The only plausible answer is — intelligence. There needed to be an intelligent designer to create both the machinery and the instructions.

Despite the initial mockery greeting Intelligent Design, the theory is gaining ground as a reliable model and explanation for the origin of life and genes. And that’s simply because the evidence is getting to be a bit undeniable.

Make sure to follow Dr. Casey Luskin’s work here.

America’s Conflicts Are Not Primarily Political Or Ideological, But Religious

Without a civic life shaped by Christianity, there can be no American republic.

Behind Jordan Peterson’s ‘Biblical’ Teaching Is His Own Humanistic Agenda

Sensing a market with Christian evangelicals, Jordan Peterson is leaning into the Bible. The problem is, Peterson is not a Christian.

Dawkins can't believe his atheist ally has become a Christian. Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains the error of his doubt.



Ayaan Hirsi Ali was once a central figure among the so-called "New Atheists." She revealed in a Nov. 11, 2023, op-ed that she had converted to Christianity, both for the meaning it provides as well as for its unifying doctrine, which she wrote can "fortify us against our menacing foes."

Militant atheist Richard Dawkins, her longtime friend and "mentor," penned an open letter to Ali three days later, suggesting the Dutch-American human rights activist, mother, and staunch critic of Islam was insincere about her newfound faith.

"You are no more a Christian than I am," wrote Dawkins. "No, Ayaan, you are not a Christian, you are just a decent human being who mistakenly thinks you need a religion in order to remain so."

It appears Ali's sincerity is just one more thing Dawkins has managed to get wrong.

Ali appeared on stage Saturday with Dawkins for the inaugural Dissident Dialogues conference in New York City, where she identified a number of her past intellectual missteps — apparent missteps Dawkins is alternatively committed to keep making — and made abundantly clear both to the audience and Dawkins that she does, in fact, believe in God, pray, and follow Christ.

The former atheist's profession of faith and admission of past errors electrified the audience, which appeared altogether keen to celebrate both Dawkins' loss of a fellow traveler and Christians' gain of a sister.

Background

Blaze News previously reported that Ali, who lives under a fatwa, was raised Muslim in Somalia. Under what she came to regard as a "nihilistic cult of death," Ali suffered genital mutilation, was denied her artistic loves, and was married off to a distant cousin.

While already chased down the road to apostasy by brutal oppression, the Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on the U.S. helped accelerate Ali's rejection of Islam. Ali's antipathy toward Islam apparently prompted her not only to reject the Muslim faith but "to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed."

Decades later, she recognized that atheism is a "weak and divisive doctrine."

Ali explained last year in an article for UnHerd that she became a Christian in part because the faith equips believers to internally and externally fight the evils of the day — battles atheism is at best useless in but more often than not on the wrong side of.

Quoting the Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton, Ali stressed that "when men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything."

"We can't withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can't explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can't fight woke ideology if we can't defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can't counter Islamism with purely secular tools," wrote Ali. "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."

Ali indicated, however, that Christianity was not simply a sword and a shield for the wars of the age but also a source of ultimate meaning.

"I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive," wrote Ali. "Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

Dawkins loses an ally

Dawkins, now a self-described "Cultural Christian," responded to Ali's profession of faith on Substack with his characteristic disbelief, writing, "Christianity makes factual claims, truth claims that Christians believe, truth claims that define them as Christian. Christians are theists. They believe in a divine father figure who designed the universe, listens to our prayers, is privy to our every thought. You surely don't believe that."

"Do you believe Jesus rose from the grave three days after being placed there? Of course you don’t. Do you believe Jesus was born to a virgin? Certainly not," wrote Dawkins. "Someone of your intelligence does not believe you have an immortal soul, which will survive the decay of your brain. Christians believe in a frightful place called Hell, where the souls of the wicked go after they are dead. Do you believe that? Hell no!"

In his response, the atheist conceded Ali's points that Christianity might have "been the inspiration for some of the greatest art, architecture and music the world has ever known," "is morally superior to Islam," and might be "a powerful weapon" against "Putinism, Islamism, and postmodernish wokery pokery" but suggested that such an understanding does not make one a Christian.

Dawkins further suggested that by embracing Christianity, she had succumbed to "weakness."

In March, Dawkins doubled-down, accusing Ali of being a "Political Christian" and noting, "Let's not agree to differ. Let's agree that we don't really differ."

Soulful showdown

Ali addressed Dawkins' doubts about her faith Saturday, indicated she is far more than just a "Political Christian," and expressed regret for having previously aided militant atheists in their attack on religion, reported UnHerd.

With regards to the sincerity of her belief, Ali made clear that while she regards Christianity as critically important from a secular and political viewpoint, she has connected with the faith on a spiritual level and believes in its supernatural propositions.

"On the personal level, yes, I choose to believe in God. And I think that there, we might say, let's agree to disagree," she said. "I think it's something subjective, and it's a choice and there are things that you see and perceive that a different person cannot perceive."

"I'd say you're coming at this from a place of 'there is nothing,' and what has happened to me is that, I think, I have accepted that there is something," said Ali. "When you accept that there is something, there is a powerful entity, for me, the God that turned me around, I think what the vicar is saying no longer sounds nonsensical."

"It makes a great deal of sense, and not only does it make a great deal of sense, it's also layered with the wisdom of millennia," said the former atheist. "And so, like you, I did mock faith in general, Christianity in particular, but I don't do that anymore, and again, I think that's where humility comes into it."

The former atheist's journey to Christ appears to have not only required great humility but some helpful advice.

"I've come down to my knees to say perhaps those people who have always had faith have something that we who lost faith don't have, and people who have faith also, like the woman who told me, 'You ... fight everything and you've lost hope, you've lost faith. Try it. Pray.' I think just in that one word there is so much wisdom," added Ali.

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.\n\nBut last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting \u201cnonsense the vicar says\u201d and Christianity being \u201cobsessed with sin.\u201d Then:
— (@)

Dawkins recycled one of his go-to smears, suggesting Christianity is obsessed with sin. Ali didn't buy the atheist's premise.

"I find that Christianity is actually obsessed with love," Ali said, eliciting applause from the audience. "The teaching of Christ as I see it — and again, I'm a brand new Christian — but what I'm finding out, which is the opposite of growing up as a Muslim and the message of Islam, but the message of Christianity of love. It's a message of redemption."

"It's a story of renewal and birth," continued Ali. "And so, Jesus dying and rising again for me symbolizes that story, and in a small way, I felt I had died and was reborn. And that story of redemption and birth, I think makes Christianity actually a very, very powerful story for the human condition, of human existence."

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.\n\nBut last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting \u201cnonsense the vicar says\u201d and Christianity being \u201cobsessed with sin.\u201d Then:
— (@)

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Atheist Richard Dawkins now labels himself a 'cultural Christian': Here's why



Famous atheist Richard Dawkins has spent years criticizing religion, but in a recent interview, Dawkins told Rachel Johnson of LBC, “I count myself a cultural Christian.”

“I love hymns and Christmas carols, and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos. If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I choose Christianity every single time,” Dawkins continued.

He explained his reason being that Christianity is a “fundamentally decent religion” while “Islam is not.”

When questioned on this belief, he responded that the Quran is fundamentally hostile to women and gays, and he likes “to live in a culturally Christian country,” although he doesn’t “believe a single word of the Christian faith.”

Pat Gray is shocked.

“That seems like a shift in his ethos, if you will,” he says.

“I will say, cultural Christianity from Richard Dawkins [is] pretty interesting. You know why? Because he has seen the decay of society and civilization, that’s why. He sees our very civilization crumbling around us and what keeps it together,” Gray adds.

America was founded on Christian values, and Dawkins is recognizing what happens when the masses reject those values.

“Once you’ve built your foundation on those principles and then people start taking a jackhammer to it, something bad is going to happen. And he understands that now,” Gray says.


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Christianity is UNDER ATTACK in 'Pagan America' | New Book Out Now!
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Christianity is UNDER ATTACK in 'Pagan America' | New Book Out Now!

People Only Want CULTURAL Christianity
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People Only Want CULTURAL Christianity

The Decline Of Christianity Means The End Of Neutral Spaces

The fading of Christianity in the West doesn't mean the triumph of secular liberalism but the return of an oppressive paganism.