My hometown of Charleston was treated recently to a public conversation between Dr. Richard Dawkins, arguably the world’s most famous atheist, and Dr. Herb Silverman, inarguably South Carolina’s most famous atheist.
Dr. Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist who has authored 11 best-selling books on atheism, and Dr. Silverman is a retired mathematics professor who founded the Secular Coalition for America.
I could not attend the interview with Dawkins because I was with my grandsons that night, but from what I read in the newspaper account -- and it mirrored what I have read in his books -- the man does not know what he’s talking about.
I feel qualified to say that because I spent 20 years researching Jesus of Nazareth up close up and personal before I wrote The Gospel of Yeshua, and the Jesus I found was nothing like the Jesus Dawkins ridiculed.
For example, Dawkins found it “an astonishing idea that the only reason you are good is because you’re frightened of the great camera in the sky.” That would astonish most Christians, too (fundamentalists excepted). Jesus spent his entire career teaching people to love, never to fear, and I defy Dawkins to show otherwise.
Dawkins also wondered how anybody could believe Jesus actually turned water into wine. Well, Dick, most Christians would agree with you. They don’t believe that either. That story only occurs in the Book of John, which was never intended to be taken as fact. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the facts of Jesus’ life; John focuses on truth, and as a result most scholars agree it is a classic of spiritual writing. The fact that Dawkins apparently doesn’t know that displays his ignorance.
I promised to keep this blog under 300 words, so I’ll continue this tomorrow.
-Skip
