Richard Dawkins regards all religious faith as blind faith, stating that “scientific belief is based upon publicly checkable evidence”, whereas “religious faith not only lacks evidence; its independence from evidence is its joy, shouted from the rooftops.” For mainstream Christianity this is pure baloney, utter nonsense. John Lennox (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College) has debated Richard Dawkins and points out in his book God’s Undertaker:
Dawkins’ definition of faith as ‘blind faith’ turns… to be the exact opposite of the biblical one. Curious that he does not seem to be aware of the discrepancy. Could it be as a consequence of his own blind faith?
Dawkins’ idiosyncratic definition of faith thus provides a striking example of the very kind of thinking he claims to abhor – thinking that is not evidence based. For, in an exhibition of breathtaking inconsistency, evidence is the very thing he fails to supply for his claim that independence of evidence is faith’s joy. And the reason why he fails to supply such evidence is not hard to find – there is none. It takes no great research effort to ascertain that no serious biblical scholar or thinker would support Dawkins’ definition of faith.
Lennox observes Alister McGrath’s point “that Dawkins has signally failed to engage with any serious Christian thinkers whatsoever.
Lennox is tempted to use Dawkins’ own maxim against Dawkins himself:
Next time that somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them: “What kind of evidence is there for that?” And if they can’t give you a good answer, I hope you’ll think very carefully before you believe a word they say?”
Posted July 2, 2010
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