An Atheist Meets His Match

The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine

By Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath

From the great institution of the Western mind, Oxford University, comes renowned scientist Richard Dawkins. His book The God Delusion is a bestseller and self-described onslaught on “God, gods, any and everything supernatural.” Summoning an array of arguments stemming from molecular biology to Christian history, Dawkins decries religion of all kinds—with one unequivocal purpose in mind: “If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down.”

Now from the same university grounds comes a response. Theologian and scientist Alister McGrath (with specialist in psychology of religion Joanna Collicutt McGrath) subjects Dawkins’s critique of faith to rigorous scrutiny. The McGraths finally pose a pointed question: Is Dawkins’s book a heroic war cry at the cusp of reason’s victory over faith, or a desperate attempt to revive a dying atheist fundamentalism?

Michael Ruse, the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, had this to say: “The God Delusion makes me embarrassed to be an atheist, and the McGraths show why.”

The Dawkins Delusion? is the latest release in an ongoing partnership between IVP Books and The Veritas Forum. The book is intended for anyone seeking a critical assessment of The God Delusion and the questions it raises—including, above all, the relevance of faith and the quest for meaning.

For more on The Dawkins Delusion?, Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, see www.ivpress.com.