Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity
By Larry Alex Taunton

“Church became all about ceremony, handholding, and kumbaya,” Phil said with a look of disgust. “I missed my old youth pastor. He actually knew the Bible.”

I have known a lot of atheists. The late Christopher Hitchens was a friend with whom I debated, road tripped, and even had a lengthy private Bible study. I    have moderated Richard Dawkins and, on occasion, clashed with him. And I have listened for hours to the (often unsettling) arguments of Peter Singer and a    whole host of others like him. These men are some of the public faces of the so-called “New Atheism,” and when Christians think about the subject — if they    think about it at all — it is this sort of atheist who comes to mind: men whose unbelief is, as Dawkins once proudly put it, “militant.” But Phil, the    atheist college student who had come to my office to share his story, was of an altogether different sort.

Phil was in my office as part of a project that began last year. Over the course of my career, I have met many students like Phil. It has been my privilege    to address college students all over the world, usually as one defending the Christian worldview. These events typically attract large numbers of atheists.    I like that. I find talking to people who disagree with me much more stimulating than those gatherings that feel a bit too much like a political party    convention, and the exchanges with these students are mostly thoughtful and respectful. At some point, I like to ask them a sincere question:

What led you to become an atheist?

Given that the New Atheism fashions itself as a movement that is ruthlessly scientific, it should come as no surprise that those answering my question    usually attribute the decision to the purely rational and objective: one invokes his understanding of science; another says it was her exploration of the    claims of this or that religion; and still others will say that religious beliefs are illogical, and so on. To hear them tell it, the choice was made from    a philosophically neutral position that was void of emotion.

Christianity, when it is taken seriously, compels its adherents to engage the world, not retreat from it.

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