The Truth Behind the New Atheism: Responding to the Emerging Challenges to God and Christianity

by David Marshall

Swinburne says, "There's quite a lot of it." Dawkins doesn't stop to look at Swinburne's evidence (he's written tons of books). He doesn't even pump his brakes in the rush to broadside the man. In fact, Dawkins is brutal. When both men appeared on a TV show, Swinburne attempted, Dawkins says, to "justify the Holocaust." This is an ambivalent phrase. It could mean showing why Hitler was right to kill Jews. It could also mean, (as Swinburne meant), the far different and difficult task of asking why God may have allowed the Holocaust. Dawkins leaves the two potential meanings tangled, then ends with the borrowed quip, "May you rot in hell!"12 On his Web site, Swinburne replies with remarkable generosity. "I am grateful to Richard Dawkins for having looked at some of my writings." He suggests, however, that Dawkins join the philosophical debate over God and suffering "and not try to win by shouting."" As for "too much evidence," one should earn the right to mock by thinking first. Can there be such a thing as too much evidence? From the point of view of a relationship, there can be. An honest husband may feel dejected if his wife insists on 24-hour streaming