The God Infusion
Sam Rainer
The book caught my eye. When I am in the local bookstore, I often check out the best-sellers shelf. Not only do I look for something that I might want to read, I want to know what everyone else is reading as well. The book I saw concerned me. It had a quasi-shiny silver cover with a simple, unambiguous title. Written by Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion details the rants and raves of a militant atheist against organized religion. It was one that I really didn’t want to read. But I felt obligated to know why such a book would be attractive to so may people. So I went home and ordered it off the Internet.
While I could rant and rave about the audacity of Dawkins’ premise that a belief in God is dangerous, there is something more that disheartened me. Perhaps we as Christians see atheists such as Dawkins as misinformed, or perhaps as never hearing the Truth. But what most concerns me is that Dawkins knows exactly what he is denying. He lucidly describes the gospel in his book and then says it is bunk. He has heard the Truth, and he knowledgably denies it.
While reading the book, the words of Christ came to mind. If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. The book did get me down a little. But it also inspired me. God chose us out of the world. Yet we are also to love others and do everything we can to share Christ with anyone who will listen. It may take several times before a person truly hears the gospel. When they finally do hear the Truth for the first time, it will set them free.
Tomorrow my church wants to set people free. We will be hitting the neighborhoods with our annual outreach Saturday, bringing a bag of goodies to everyone with information about our church as well as the gospel message. We hope to overcome any God delusion with a God infusion. After all, we know the victory is ours; we simply have to fight the battle. We are praying that the Spirit goes before us. I know that my Lord can defeat any doubts brought about by a book, best-seller or not, because the Word is the Incarnate Truth, able to conquer all.
I’m curious, since you didn’t go into it in detail, about why you think The God Delusion is attractive to so many people. When you think about the rationality of atheists, how do you figure they percieve the world (taking into the account that most atheists know exactly what they’re denying)? What do you consider to be their comforts and their fears, knowing that fear of hell nor nothingness pushes them towards a church?
Continuing into Mark 15:19, “However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.” Do you suppose atheists hate Christians, or believers of other religions?
As a man of faith, what do you imagine gives peace and strength to those who consider themselves atheist?
I’ve also read Dawkins’ book, by the way. And i don’t intend on this to be confrontational. I’m only interested in knowing how a biblicly-studied person thinks about these things.
thanks,
brian
Brian, thanks for your comments. I believe the book is attractive because the premise is intriguing – that organized religion is harmful to society. I also believe that atheists take comfort in themselves (which is never truly satisfying), not Christ. As for fear, Proverbs 1:7 states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Clearly, if an atheist does not fear the Lord, then his or her decisions on a spiritual level would be anything but wise. Going to church would not be anywhere on his or her mind.
It is also clear in the book that Dawkins has a profound dislike of Christians. But the gospel message will certainly offend those who refuse to accept it. It did during the time of Christ (John 6:60-71); it does today.
As for peace and strength, no one will ever experience true peace apart from the grace of God. I’m sure if you were to gain honest insight from someone who doesn’t know Christ, you would find that they really do not have true peace.