Yesterday I had a great telephone conversation with Jacqueline Maley the new religion reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald. Jacqueline was interested in talking to me as a representative of the Sydney Anglican Diocese’s Theological College about the re-invigoration of atheism in Australia. This seemed to be signalled by the imminent arrival of the likes of Professor Dawkins for the Rise of Atheism conference in Melbourne next month. Apparently a number of leading lights in the “New Atheism” movement are all converging on this great southern city for a weekend of furious agreement. Their aim is to send a signal “to Australia's religious and political institutions that atheism and secularism are forces to be reckoned with.”
One of the most intriguing questions that Jacqueline asked me was whether I was concerned about atheism as a movement having such influence in Australian society. To begin with I was a little unsure as to how I might answer. After all, people have been refusing to trust the promises of God since Adam & Eve. So from that point of view there couldn’t possibly be anything new about atheism. I am inclined to think that Prof. Dawkins and Mr Hitchens are a flame that has burned rather brightly for a little while but the heat or intensity is quickly diminishing. Jacqueline herself commented that she had been present at the Dangerous Ideas conference when Christopher Hitchens spoke and according to Jacqueline he had little new to say. As for Prof. Dawkins, he seems to be so tragically like those that he despises, in terms of fundamentalist attitudes towards tribal slogans, that he embarrasses as many atheists as he emboldens. Terry Eagleton’s recent book “Reason, Faith and Revolution” is a point in case.
Ultimately though, two things stop me from being worried about atheists and their conventions. Firstly, the gospel is a message that God our Father can bring the dead to life by the power of His Spirit - seen most majestically in the resurrection of His eternal and royal Son, Messiah Jesus. No one and nothing in creation has ever, at anytime, been able to top that. There is no power, no creed or slogan, no movement, and especially no rebellion that takes place outside the sovereignty of the Lord Messiah Jesus. What is more, and secondly, God our Father’s love is not quenched by such rebellion. As Paul reminds the Ephesians we “were all dead in our trespasses and sins…but God made us alive with Christ.” Every Christian used to be an atheist (one way or another) yet by the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we have been called into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
So when I heard of this great gathering I was saddened that so many people might band together in envious hostility towards, and alienation from, God’s royal and eternal Son. However, I also prayed that God out of the riches of his mercy might choose to call all those gathered atheists out of darkness and into the kingdom of the light of His Son - as he did for me.
