Does God believe in Atheists?

Robin Davies | February 2013 - Highfields Book of the Month

By John Blanchard - (2011) Darlington: Evangelical Press

This book seeks to identify and address the problems of being an atheist. It is a treasure trove of information and a very impressive examination of the history of thought and belief beginning with animism and polytheism and through the Greek philosophers looking at Naturalism, Scepticism, Pantheism (and its link with the New Age Movement). He then navigates the Middle Ages looking at Anselm and Aquinas and into the Renaissance with Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes.

In the 18th century he deals with David Hume and the German philosophers like Immanuel Kant and later Hegel leading into the 19th century with Feuerbach, and quoting the saying that the atheist cannot find God for the same reason that a thief cannot find a policeman! Marx – Leninism is then examined in detail and the philosophy of Nietzsche with the comment from Ravi Zacharias that "he wanted to look life squarely in the eye, with no God to obstruct his vision, but the picture he saw was agonising to the mind… he saw no light at the end of the tunnel and felt the loneliness of existence in its most desolate form." This thinking pervades much of 20th century philosophy.

He engages in a thorough review of Darwinism and quotes Julian Huxley, describing the heavy odds against mutations driving evolution. He moves on to deal with the inadequate proof from palaeontology (the study of fossils) and the elusive links between primitive apes and early humans.  He examines in detail existentialism, nihilism, materialism, determinism, humanism and relativism.

In dealing with atheism in thorough detail, he quotes Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project in saying "Of all choices atheism requires the greatest faith because it demands that one’s limited store of knowledge is sufficient to exclude the possibility of God".

The middle section of the book critiques post-modernism, the influence of Freud and Bertrand Russell and reviews other religions and modern cults like New Age and the Unification Church (Moonies). 

He discusses cosmology and the beginning of the universe and how it could ever have happened by chance and how life could have begun discussing the possibilities of "spontaneous generation".

There is a thorough examination of meaning and the issue of human dignity and human rights as well as ethics and morality.

There is a chapter on the reliability of the text of the Scriptures and detail of the work of Professor of Semitic Philology, Robert Dick Wilson of Princeton Theological Seminary, and his championing of the integrity of Old Testament data (like the accuracy of the 40 kings living between 2000 BC to 400 BC, each appearing in chronological order "...no stronger evidence for the substantial accuracy of the Old Testament record could possibly be imagined than this line of kings"). Likewise the work of Sir William Ramsay whose early scepticism as to the reliability of the New Testament was blown out of the water by his archeological discoveries confirming the accuracy of NT data. As Time magazine said in 1974 "After more than 2 centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived- and is perhaps the better for the siege. Even on the critics' own terms – historical fact – the Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalists began the attack".

He discusses the difference between science and scientism (repudiating everything that cannot be reduced to the physical and studied by means of the scientific method) and the limits of science in failing to answer the question "why?".

There is an examination of the character of God and Revelation and the case against God in terms of evil and suffering. There is finally an appraisal of the work of Christ  ("easily the dominant figure in history" H G Wells)  and an appendix dealing with Richard Dawkins.

It is hard to exaggerate the awesome scope of this book and the scholarship that has gone into producing it. I cannot pretend to have read every word but those sections I have read in detail have been extremely rewarding.