Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three intellectuals in the world. Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its "faulty logic" and the "suffering it causes". What is the Christian response to Richard Dawkins?

Dawkins works on the assumption that his readers know very little about Christianity. He asserts that if you believe in evolution then you cannot believe in God, because evolution is by definition atheistic. But that is a very inaccurate interpretation. Dawkins also interprets a Christian's 'faith' as 'blind trust'. To him 'faith' means running away from evidence. But that's not a Christian definition of faith. People like simple answers to hard questions. That's why Dawkins is so popular. When I was an atheist, I sounded like Richard Dawkins. I focused only on the things that fitted my theory. One of the things that made me stop being an atheist was realising things are rather more complicated. — Alister McGrath

Wielding evolutionary arguments and carefully chosen metaphors like sharp swords, Richard Dawkins has emerged over three decades as this generation's most aggressive promoter of atheism. He claims that religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. In so doing, he claims that belief in God is not just irrational, but potentially deadly. Alister McGrath is a world-renowned theologian who also has a doctorate in molecular biophysics. He challenges Dawkins on the very ground he holds most sacred — rational argument — and McGrath disarms the master. It becomes readily apparent that Dawkins has aimed his attack at a naive version of faith that most serious believers would not recognize.

In his wonderfully argued book, "Dawkins' God", McGrath explains and examines Dawkins' scientific ideas and their religious implications. Head-to-head, it takes on some of Dawkins' central assumptions, like the conflict between science and religion, the "selfish gene" theory of evolution, the role of science in explaining the world, and brilliantly exposes their unsustainability. Moreover, this controversial debate is carried on in a style which can be enjoyed by anyone without a scientific or religious background. After reading this carefully constructed and eloquently written book, many will feel that Dawkins' choice of atheism emerges as the most irrational of the available choices about God's existence. “I believe Dawkins’ book was really written to persuade atheists that their faith is still valid,” said McGrath.

So why write such a book? Three reasons may be given. First, Dawkins is a fascinating writer, both in terms of the quality of ideas he develops, and the verbal dexterity with which he defends them. Anyone who is remotely interested in ideas will find Dawkins and important sparring partner. Augustine of Hippo once wrote of the "eros of the mind," referring to a deep longing within the human mind to make sense of things — a passion for understanding and knowledge. Anyone sharing that passion will want to enter into the debate that Dawkins has begun. And that thought underlies my second reason for writing this book. Yes, Dawkins seems to many to be immensely provocative and aggressive, dismissing alternative positions with indecent haste, or treating criticism of his personal views as an attack on the entire scientific enterprise. Yet this kind of overheated rhetoric is found in any popular debate, whether religious, philosophical, or scientific. Indeed, it is what makes popular debates interesting, and raises them above the tedious drone of normal scholarly discussion, which seems invariably to be accompanied by endless footnotes, citing of weighty but dull authorities, and cautious understatement heavily laced with qualifications. How much more exciting to have a pugnacious, no holds barred debate, without having to have the stifling conventions of rigorous evidence-based scholarship! Dawkins clearly wants to provoke such a debate and discussion, and it would be churlish not to accept such an invitation. I have a third reason, however. I write as a Christian theologian who believes it is essential to listen seriously and carefully to criticism of my discipline, and respond appropriately to it. One of my reasons for taking Dawkins so seriously is that I want to ask what may be learned from him. As any serious historian of Christian thought knows, Christianity is committed to a constant review if its ideas in the light of their moorings in scripture and tradition, always asking whether any contemporary interpretation of a doctrine is adequate or acceptable. As we shall see, Dawkins offers a powerful, and in my view, credible, challenge to one way of thinking about the doctrine of creation, which gained influence in England during the eighteenth century, and lingers on in some quarters today. He is a critic who needs to be heard, and taken seriously. — Alister McGrath

Sadly Professor Dawkins fails to use scientific reasoning in his attack on those who believe in God, not least through a lack of detailed knowledge of that with which he disputes. His brilliant mind is wasted on a negative exercise. Without the world, God will be God. Without God the world would be naught. — John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

I feel that atheism may be acquiring precisely those characteristics that atheists so dislike about religion — intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents. — Charles Moore, Atheism: the New Religion

Dawkins’s first sleight of hand ... dishonestly bundles all religious belief and practice into one crude bag that supposedly equals fanaticism. This is rather like suggesting that all science is dangerous because it has brought nuclear weapons. It is child’s play to denounce a subject by pointing to the myriad ways in which it may be misapplied. — Salley Vickers, The Times

Dawkins confuses religion and the use of religion in order to promote his thesis that religion is evil. Religion itself is not evil — just as science is not evil — but it can be used for evil purposes, just as science can. — Margaret Somerville, The Age

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. Card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins, who is the nearest thing to a professional atheist we have had since Bertrand Russell, are in one sense the least well-equipped to understand what they castigate, since they don’t believe there is anything there to be understood, or at least anything worth understanding. — Terry Eagleton, London Review of Books

The Dawk sees enemies everywhere: chanting hippies, doughty dowsers, internet surfers — all are helping 'undermine civilisation'. — Neil Spencer, The Observer

The new atheists — or anti-theists, as some of them prefer to be called — don't want to just deny the existence of God, they want to wipe religion off the map. — Charles Olson, Breakpoint

I don't entirely disagree with Dawkins that 'science frees us up from suspicion and dogma' but it rather depends how you define suspicion and dogma. I personally think the Prof's own patronisingly dismissive approach to anybody who expresses an interest in anything beyond what can be measured or understood empirically ('unthinkingly indulging unscientific delusion') may verge on the dogmatic, but what do I know? — Kathryn Flett, The Observer

What do you think is the correct Christian response to The God Delusion? Have Richard Dawkins's books caused you to reflect on your faith?

Richard Dawkins is a complicated individual, but wrong. Just because the majority may believe him, doesn't mean he's right. Richard Dawkins is deluded, he's only been alive for a very short time, yet he thinks that God doesn't exist. He has no relevant facts. The whole evolutionary theory is bogus, well proven to be very wrong, creation science and history destroys it completely. A car cannot come about by chance, how much more so the man that made it? Evolution is a joke, a piss poor joke, the whole of creation points to intelligent design. Order does not come out of disorder. I wish someone would topple evolution completely, and all the shit heads that believe in it, if you believe evolution, then you must be brainwashed, conditioned and indoctrinated to the absolute extreme. Richard Dawkins and all the other Darwinists are all doomed, unless they repent of their ignorant, arrogant, and spiritually blinded ways. Evolutionists can all piss off. — Peter Passarelli

I am an atheist born and bred. I don't believe in any God. Despite this I can't help but feel uncomfortable with someone criticising religion from a scientific perspective. Surely all religion is based upon unprovable assumptions; that is the nature of faith; most Christians, Muslims and the rest find religion helps them to be better people. Who is Dawkins to tell total strangers they are living their lives badly? It is just plain arrogance and smacks of preaching to me. Live and let live. — Tom Templeman

I'm sure I cannot be the first person to note Mr Dawkins' misquotation or rather selective quotation from Darwin's "Origin of Species". On page 12 he quotes a passage from the end of that book but after the word "breathed" omits the three words "by the Creator". Since he goes on to use Darwinian ideas to such a huge extent, it seems odd that he does not use the full correct quotation. Or is it simply being dishonest? — Patrick Sneyd

It's interesting to read the opinions of people who have no educational background refuting people who are not just considerably more intelligent than them but have actually spent their lives studying their respective fields. I guess that's natural since Christians and Muslims believe that they have all the answers and don't really need to study anything but their holy books; besides, thinking would just get in the way, you only need absolute faith and submission, right? — Richard Campbell

Well said, Mr Campbell and your qualifications on the subject of Mr Dawkins book are? After more than 30 years in the study of linguistics, archaeology, history theology and many more subjects I feel as a polymath that you are kicking at a subject of which you have little on no understanding. — Dr Denis O'Callaghan PhD, ThD, DD, LittD

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Dawkins' God: Alister McGrath The first book-length response to Richard Dawkins, author of some of the most popular scientific works, such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. A timely and accessible contribution to the debate over Richard Dawkins’ cosmology, McGrath subjects the atheistic world-view of Dawkins to critical analysis and finds it severely lacking in intellectual rigour. This wonderfully argued book explains and examines Dawkins' scientific ideas and their religious implications. Head-to-head, it takes on some of Dawkins' central assumptions, like the conflict between science and religion, the "selfish gene" theory of evolution, the role of science in explaining the world, and brilliantly exposes their unsustainability. Moreover, this controversial debate is carried on in a style which can be enjoyed by anyone without a scientific or religious background. Alister McGrath is acclaimed as a highly lucid writer, vastly experienced in explaining difficult ideas to lay audiences. USA UK Canada

Deluded by Dawkins? A Christian Response to The God Delusion Is Richard Dawkins right? Is God a myth? Are Christians deluded and dangerous? In his best-selling book The God Delusion, Dawkins has mixed intellectual, scientific and philosophical arguments with vitriolic attacks on Christianity and Christians. Deluded by Dawkins, by Andrew Wilson, is a lucid, coherent and very readable refutation of Richard Dawkins’ arguments against God and Christianity for ordinary believers who want to cut through the rhetoric and get to the heart of the issues involved. Andrew Wilson subjects Dawkins’ arguments to rigorous analysis. First he clarifies those which are unsubstantiated or irrelevant, and then he acknowledges the many points with which Christians can actually agree. From here he examines eight arguments over which Christians must differ, and explains why. UK Canada

The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist fundamentalism and the denial of the divine World-renowned scientist Richard Dawkins writes in The God Delusion: ‘If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down.’ The volume has received wide coverage, fuelled much passionate debate and caused not a little confusion. Alister McGrath is ideally placed to evaluate Dawkins’ ideas. Once an atheist himself, he gained a doctorate in molecular biophysics before going on to become a leading Christian theologian. He wonders how two people, who have reflected at length on substantially the same world, could possibly have come to such different conclusions about God. McGrath subjects Dawkins’ critique of faith to rigorous scrutiny. This book will be warmly received by those looking for a reliable assessment of The God Delusion and the many questions it raises — including, above all, the relevance of faith and the quest for meaning. USA UK Canada

Darwin’s Angel: An angelic response to The God Delusion The God Delusion is a clarion call to the faithless, the waverers, and even firm religious believers, to follow the author into radical atheism not merely as a private conviction but as a public profession. Wouldn’t humankind be better off without religion, he asks. John Cornwell's Darwin’s Angel is not so much a combative repudiation of Dawkins' arguments as a playful conversation with them, posing alternative view-points, exposing lapses in logic and errors of fact, from the vantage point of a friendly Guardian Angel. "This book is a piece of sheer heaven. It kicks Richard Dawkins’s self-aggrandising polemic into touch with featherlight footwork and is deliciously wise, witty and intellectually sharp into the bargain. If only Professor Dawkins and Co would remember that Socrates was deemed the wisest of men because he 'knew that he didn’t know'. Those who think that not knowing is safer and more attractive than its opposite should treat themselves to this elegant little book." — The Times. UK

The God Delusion: Richard Dawkins In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins presents a hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of religion of all types. As the author of many, now famous, classic works on science and philosophy, Dawkins has always asserted the irrationality of belief in God. Dawkins attacks God in all his forms, from the "sex-obsessed, cruel tyrant of the Old Testament" to the more benign, but still "illogical, Celestial Watchmaker favoured by some Enlightenment thinkers". He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the "supreme improbability" of a supreme being. "Everyone should read it. Aethists will love Mr Dawkins's incisive logic and rapier wit and theists will find few better tests of the robustness of their faith." — The Economist USA UK Canada

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens delivers another in the recent rash of atheist manifestos. The same contrarian spirit that makes him delightful reading as a political commentator, even (or especially) when he's completely wrong, makes him an entertaining huckster prosecutor once he has God placed in the dock. Hitchens's one-liners bear the marks of considerable sparring practice with believers. Yet few believers will recognize themselves as Hitchens associates all of them for all time with the worst of history's theocratic and inquisitional moments. The book's real strength is Hitchens's on-the-ground glimpses of religion's worst face in various war zones and isolated despotic regimes. But its weakness is its almost fanatical insistence that religion poisons "everything," which tips over into barely disguised misanthropy. USA UK Canada

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't Stephen Prothero begins this valuable primer by noting that religious illiteracy is rampant in the United States, where most Americans, even Christians, cannot name even one of the four Gospels. Prothero does more than diagnose the problem; he traces its surprising historic roots ("in one of the great ironies of history, it was the nation's most fervent people of faith who steered Americans down the road to religious illiteracy") and prescribes concrete solutions that address religious education while preserving First Amendment boundaries about religion in the public square. Prothero also offers a dictionary of religious literacy and a quiz for readers to test their knowledge. This book is a must-read not only for educators, clergy and government officials, but for all adults in a culture where, as Prothero puts it, "faith without understanding is the standard" and "religious ignorance is bliss." USA UK Canada

In his new book Guy Harrison details such reasons for god-belief as the obviousness of God, "playing it safe," the fear of hell, that belief in gods brings genuine happiness and comforts, and the fact that so many people are religious. 50 Reasons People Give For Believing In A God

The last three years have seen a great assault upon faith in the publishing world. Titles such as Letter to a Christian Nation, The God Delusion, and God Is Not Great have hit the bestseller charts by denouncing religious belief, specifically Christianity, as both violent and socially dangerous. The Delusion of Disbelief

The Christian apologetic of "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic," made famous by C S Lewis, has gained recent skepticism. Many modern critics of Christianity believe the biblical portrait of Jesus Christ is based on myth. Lord or Legend? puts skeptics' claims to the test to uncover the historical Jesus. Lord or Legend? Wrestling with the Jesus Dilemma

Is Christianity obsolete? Can an intelligent, educated person really believe the Bible? Or do the atheists have it right? Has Christianity been disproven by science, debunked as a force for good, and discredited as a guide to morality? What's So Great about Christianity

It's ironic; atheist scientists who have become famous for attacking those who disagree with them are now loudly complaining about supposedly being mistreated. Richard Dawkins is grumbling that producers of a new movie tricked him into doing an interview. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed