Week In Science

Chuck Colson's essay The Atheist Leap of Faith illustrates one of the ironies of the New Atheist movement. The attitudes and beliefs of Richard Dawkins and physicist Lawrence Krauss are the object of Colson's discerning scrutiny. Both men share a hostile view of religion although Dawkins is the more strident of the two.

Colson poses the relevant question: “Is faith, in particular, Christianity, irrational?” Dawkins and Krauss are materialists but as Colson points out neither is able to demonstrate the truth of materialism. It must be assumed or as Colson artfully puts it "they ask you to take its truth as a given—in other words, on faith." He concludes the essay with this bit of advice:

"If you meet someone who says your Christian faith is irrational, ask him to explain the basis of his faith."

The question alone makes a cogent point.