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Letter to an influential atheist

Conceding too much

LETTER TO AN INFLUENTIAL ATHEIST
By Roger Steer
Authentic Lifestyle. 150 pages. £7.99
ISBN 1 85078 478 7

This book is an open letter to Professor Richard Dawkins, Oxford biologist and well-known atheist. The author is a trustee of the Bible Society and a tutor for the University for Industry and the Methodist Church's Faith and Worship training programme.

The aim of the 'letter' is to challenge Dawkins's assertion that the mystery of our existence has been solved by Darwin's theory of evolution, and to present a case for the existence of God. Steer makes some telling points. He exposes Dawkins's illogical reasoning and the shaky foundations of his dogmatism. He argues that the comprehensibility and mathematical elegance of the universe makes more sense in a Christian worldview than an atheistic one. Dawkins says that human beings are nothing more than 'survival machines' for passing on their genes. Steer points out that such extreme reductionism fails to explain why we spend so much of our time engaged in activities that have nothing to do with survival.

However, the book is, in my view, severely compromised by its author's own acceptance of evolutionary theory. He says (p.4): 'I am not a so-called "creationist". I happily accept that evolution by natural selection is a good description of the process that produces biological diversity.' Steer also implies that there is no opposition to evolutionary theory from the field of biology (pp.8,47), but this isn't true. What about the many research biologists who identify themselves as creationists or intelligent design theorists? At the outset Steer concedes far too much ground to Dawkins.

There are other problems. Steer advocates the concept of creation as a continuous process (pp.117-118) without explaining how this can be reconciled with Genesis 2.1-3. He appeals to the Church Fathers to defend a figurative understanding of Genesis (pp.113-114), but almost all the ancient writers stood for a straightforward historical reading. His longest chapter is devoted to a consideration of Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer with Darwin of natural selection. Although there is a proviso (p.20), Steer wants us to regard Wallace as a model of someone who can accept evolutionary theory without being led to atheism. But Wallace was a mystic and spiritualist - is he really someone we want to champion? I am also uncomfortable with the description of Emma Darwin as 'a devout (Unitarian) Christian' (p.12), suggesting that it is possible to be both. Sadly, I cannot recommend this book.

Paul Garner,
a member of Soham Baptist Church and the committee of the Biblical Creation Society.