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The significance of RICHARD DAWKIN’s book, ‘The God Delusion’, can be realised by its position at the top of the best seller list. It is, as this author states, ‘stimulating, well written, amusing and combative’. As an intellectual work, ‘It gathers together every available arrow into the atheist’s quiver, and fires them at theism with … rhetorical skill’. How, then, can the believer face the challenge of such ‘an eminent scientist and … strong communicator, who has for many years been on the front line in attacking belief in God’?
ANDREW WILSON’s book may well be a starting point. The author is clinical in reducing DAWKINS’ main arguments and stripping away his polemic. WILSON tackles the issues of anti-supernaturalism, the arguments of logic, the attack upon scripture, and the scientific section of the book. He shows that a selective use of evidence and poor research that characterise sections of the book weaken the argument of the whole. Equally, it is clear that DAWKINS has failed to tackle what WILSON describes as ‘the elephant in the room’, the resurrection of the Lord.
Apart from WILSON’s comments on miracles today, this could well be a helpful book to those seeking to counter the atheistic propaganda emanating from its chief exponent. The book is not ‘easy reading’ as it seeks to challenge quite complex arguments but it will provide ammunition for those who wish to fight intellectual battles.
[Our thanks to Matthew Henry, Bakewell, England, for supplying this book for review]
