Christians take on the atheists
The room was packed. The windowsills were doubling as 
extra seating and the aisles were also worryingly full. The weekly event that usually saw an average of the faithful 35 was now, for one night only, bursting at the seams. The debating chamber at Birmingham University Guild had called the motion: “This house believes that God is a delusion”. Noted authors and philosophers Julian Baggini and Yugin Nagasawa were there to speak for the motion. Opposing were myself and UCCF Chair Dr Peter May.
As the gavel hit the table, we were off. My pulse was racing and the audience, which comprised a majority of non-Christians, was silent. The Christian Union had some representatives there; they’d had a bad year already having, like Exeter University’s CU, been banned from meeting in the student guild. Now they were expecting another setback to their witness on campus.
Despite the combative nature of the event, there was a sense of congeniality on the debating bench. The arguments marshalled against belief in God were not half as ravaging or rigorous as we had expected. The problem of suffering was raised, as were the unreliability of experiential evidence and the issue of prejudice.
However the Christian faith has strong counter-arguments and questions about these problems, and when the final votes came in it fell in favour of us, two amateur Christian apologists.
With the publication of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great, there has been a rise of the profile of militant atheism in our national public life. Although at first sight Christianity seems to be under attack, the good news is that talking about God, the evidence that supports His existence and the intellectual credibility of the Gospel has also become part of our public life again.
This is a great time for 
Christians to regain confidence in the truth of the Gospel. Books such as Alister McGrath’s The Dawkins Delusion show the strong evidence of the Christian response to this particular line of debate. The Alliance is also keen to take advantage of this live topic and is partnering with several member agencies to host a UK tour by Professor Gary Habermas this March.
Habermas teaches philosophy and theology at Liberty University and is qualified to give the best historical, philosophical and theological evidence of God’s existence, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the significance of this for the world.
Retired engineer and businessman Dr Peter Loose has spearheaded this tour, observing that, “If Jesus Christ really died and then came to life again as the New Testament explains, then He is the one to listen to. He stands peerless.” But as he travels around the UK he notices that “among the churches there is a sense that if we put our heads above the parapet they’ll be knocked off”.
In other words he senses a fear that academic scholarship makes the Christian faith intellectual suicide, which he is hoping Professor Habermas will refute. “History is on the side of the New Testament in that pivotal regard,” Loose says. “Church members should be taught that.”
Habermas, who has authored or co-authored more than 30 books, explains, “My greatest hope for the UK visit would be to see God’s Holy Spirit make an impact in hearts, augmented by apologetics but going far beyond that to real and lasting life change.”
Events around the UK will include a workshop for pastors with Habermas and Bishop NT Wright at Westminster Chapel, plus a conversation in Birmingham with Imam Mowgri from the Muslim Council of Britain on Christian and Islamic understandings of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Universities in Cambridge and Edinburgh are also hosting debates.
This tour will help Christians know how to handle the atheistic bestsellers and the discussions they provoke, but it is a great time to equip and encourage the church to be talking about the truth of the Easter message.
Krish Kandiah
