The Dawkins Letters : challenging atheist myths by David Robertson (Christian Focus, 2007) were written as a response to Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” and Robertson makes three main points.
Firstly despite being a highly qualified scientist many of Dawkins’ arguments are not in fact scientific but rather emotional. Secondly many of his arguments are opposing a caricature of God and not the God Christians actually believe in. Thirdly, and the main reason he wrote the book is his concern about Dawkins’ desire for an atheistic state. Historically Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were the only leaders of official atheistic states, not great role models and surely not paths the world wants to go down again.
It seems Dawkins’ main scientific argument against a belief in God is evolution. Dawkins’ thinking is evolution shows things gets more complex as time passes therefore a Divine Designer would come at the end of the process not the start. He has not allowed for a Divine Designer to be outside of the evolution process and he has completed dismissed Christian scientists like Francis Collins who are committed Christians and believers in evolution. It seems Dawkins simply doesn’t like God and would rather ignore Him.
The Dawkins Letters are well researched and speak to the many issues Dawkins raises. Robertson is often scathing in his criticism of Dawkins’ shallow arguments and unscientific logic. I found it to be an enjoyable read and entertaining. I loved the subtle English humor. However I imagine it would be a lot less enjoyable if you were an atheist reading this book!
(I wrote a few comments previously about this book and you can find those comments here.)
