Coming to Faith Through Dawkins

Coming to Faith through Dawkins contains twelve accounts of people forced to acknowledge that reality is much larger than materialism lets on. This group of hard-headed scholars was committed to the New Atheist agenda. They tell of its woeful inadequacies when they became disconcerted by the larger spiritual reality. They tell of the pivotal role of Jesus Christ in their awakening. I commend this book to my fellow academics and technocrats as a window beyond the present reductionism that puts us in danger of neglecting that much larger reality, and I encourage my students to read about these scholars who learned to look beyond their preconceptions and be inspired to embrace the Christ who delivers life to the full.–Bill Peirson, Adjunct Professor and Master at New College, University of New South Wales (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)Difficult to put down once started, these essays wrestle with the inadequacies of scientism, growing up with communism, life in a world of rampant secularism, and shallow thinking. They identify illogicality, arrogance and pseudo-certainty in new atheist thinking not least in the God Delusion… . Here is a rich diversity that comes from the humanities, science, drama and business to website development, writing and art; from countries both north and south of the equator; they speak of today’s followers of Jesus.–Sir Brian Heap, President, European Academies Science Advisory Council, Leopoldina Academy (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)New Atheist polemic has backfired in surprising ways. Far from undermining informed Christian belief, Richard Dawkins and his allies have in fact inspired fresh forms of apologetics. A stream of first-class publications has shown belief in God to be far more coherent than even many believers realise. Lucid as well as exhilarating and wide-ranging, Coming to Faith Through Dawkins stands in this line. Highly recommended.–Rupert Shortt, author of God Is No Thing: Coherent Christianity (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)The “New Atheist” case against religion has led some to abandon faith, but others, as these spiritual autobiographies illustrate, to discover or recover faith–a faith that respects reason and evidence and that lies between dogmatic fundamentalism and purposeless scientism. Is there a science-respecting faith alternative that makes sense of the universe, gives meaning to life, mandates morality, and offers supportive connections and hope in the face of adversity and death? Read this book and decide.–David G. Myers, Hope College, and author, A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)These essays recount the intellectual journeys of people who were initially attracted to what was called the ‘New Atheism’ of authors like Richard Dawkins, but which today might more descriptively be called ‘Antitheism’. A common thread through each of the essays is a gradual realization that, beyond the antitheists’ facile rhetoric, their arguments are shallow and often inconsistent, relying on implausible scientism, and knocking down easy straw-man misrepresentations of theism, not the long intellectual tradition of classic Christianity. Even more, though, than the thoughtful retelling of intellectual journeys, my heart was greatly touched and warmed by the personal and deeply human stories in which they are embedded: showing how the Gospel is good news for life as well as mind.–Ian Hutchinson, author of the book Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles? (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)This is a novel book: real-life stories of people who have actually come to faith, not in spite of, but through Richard Dawkins. It must be his own worst nightmare!–William Lane Craig, Houston Christian University (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)This is a truly fascinating book. Many people, including non-believers like me, have found Dawkins’ strident atheism upsetting to the point of offensive. I would never have thought that, as Coming to Faith through Dawkins shows in wonderful detail, that for some Dawkins’ rantings were the spur to Christian faith. One can be forgiven for feeling a strong element of Schadenfreude.–Michael Ruse, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Guelph, Ontario Canada (7/3/2023 12:00:00 AM)

Denis Alexander was chair of the Molecular Immunology Programme at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. From 2006 until 2012, he was the founding director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, where is a fellow. Dr. Alexander was editor of the journal Science and Christian Belief from 1993 to 2012.

Alister McGrath is a former atheist who studied natural sciences at Oxford before switching to theology. He served as the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University from 2014 to 2022. McGrath is the author of the international bestseller The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine.

Sy Garte is a biochemist and has been a professor at New York University, University of Pittsburgh, and Rutgers University. He has authored over two hundred scientific publications and four previous books, and has served as division director at the National Institutes of Health. Sy is also the editor in chief of God and Nature magazine and vice president of the Washington, DC, chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation. He is a lay leader in the United Methodist Church.