This is a short booklet which critiques The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It responds to the seven major themes covered in Dawkins’ book and aims to do two things — firstly, to help Christians respond to the new atheism, and, secondly, to challenge atheists to consider the assumptions which underpin their faith.Originally each of the chapters were articles for an evangelistic church newsletter, which have now been put together to form this booklet. On most pages there is a highlighted box providing an important point from the text.
The key chapter in Dawkins’ book (and the only chapter where he really attempts to defend his main proposition) is that from which the notorious bus adverts came — ‘Why there is almost certainly no God.’
Rob Slane has written two replies in response to this. His first examines Dawkins’ version of the ‘But who made God…’ argument. He argues that it is more reasonable to think of an eternal Creator bringing time, space, and matter into being than to think that they arose on their own. I think Alvin Plantinga’s assessment is helpful at this point; namely that Dawkins’ problem is that he argues against theism by assuming naturalism.
In the second response, Slane attacks Dawkins’ faith in natural selection. In some places the author uses arguments I would not use; for example, he asks why are there still bacteria if natural selection is so powerful.
The remainder of the book deals with Dawkins’ arguments about morality and his speculations about its origins. There are some very helpful arguments (especially in these later chapters) that will help Christians who feel they ought to read Dawkins’ book.
