A recent news story relates that college student Jesse Kilgore committed suicide after having his Christian faith challenged in biology class and reading ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins. According to close friends and relatives Kilgore was completely “destroyed” by the book and experienced a “loss of faith in everything.”
One relative wrote that Kilgore had become, “pretty much an atheist, with no belief in the existence of God (in any form) or an afterlife or even in the concept of right or wrong. I remember him telling me that he thought that murder wasn't wrong per se, but he would never do it because of the social consequences - that was all there was - just social consequences. He mentioned the book he had been reading 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins and how it along with the science classes he had take[n] had eroded his faith. Jesse was always great about defending his beliefs, but somehow, the professors and the book had presented him information that he found to be irrefutable.”
This story is the Christian parents’ ultimate nightmare. What could be worse than to have your son or daughter reject the Christian faith with its promise of eternal life and shortly thereafter kill themselves thus removing any chance to pray and reason them back to God? What a devastating and crushing blow for Kilgore’s family.
Although the vast majority of young Christians won’t kill themselves, most will and do reject their faith after leaving high school and attending college. Christian Apologist Frank Turek at crossexamined.org gives the following reasons why Christian youth in America are leaving the church:
• 70-75% of Christian youth leave the church after high school (see survey data at Barna and USA Today).
• Intellectual skepticism is one of the major reasons they walk away.
• Most Christian students are not equipped to resist rabidly anti-Christian college professors who are intent on converting their students to atheism.
• College professors are five times more likely to identify themselves as atheists than the general public.
• More than half of all college professors view evangelical Christian students unfavorably (see article
at Free Republic).
• The “new atheists” — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens — are writing books and are growing in popularity.
The reason for this exodus is that Christian youth in America are not being taught to cross examine the skeptical and atheistic views they encounter when they leave home.
Given this information and the tragic example of Jesse Kilgore it is imperative as Christians that we teach our children the intellectual reasons why we believe Christianity is true. Organizations such as ours at pleaseconvince.com or other outstanding websites like Frank Turek’s at crossexamined.org will equip you to equip your children before they head to college and face a world that is hostile and hell bent on destroying their faith. Let’s heed these warnings and be diligent about the business of instructing and intellectually protecting our youth.
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13 comments:
It isn't even a good book.
I have never understood people who say that this book destroyed their faith. I bought it looking for a good argument that would test my faith and cause me to question it. Since this was the book and the guy who was supposed to be the best of the Atheist thinkers, I gave it a shot.
Nothing. I can't understand how this could create an atheist. Perhaps it could give someone an excuse, but the only thing I got out of it was that he believed that the opposing side wasn't a real subject so he didn't bother going into the fact that there any proponents of it that had managed to master jr high science class.
This story is sad, but it also is very telling of the fallen sinners heart. He will always look for reasons to deny God. That is why we need presuppositional (biblical) apologetics. We can't give cumulative cases and then say these point to a high probability for the Christian faith. We must start with Jesus because without Him knowledge isn't possible. Jesus must be Lord, even in our apologetics.
If he were truly born again with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, he could not have denied Christ. "A house divided cannot stand." It is very sad that this young man was so easily deceived by a lie and blind to God's truth. We should all encourage our youth to examine themselves to be sure that they are in the faith. You can read more about that from John MacAurthur, http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P03_Examine-Yourself.
I think it's very sad that the boy committed suicide, but I doubt he did it because of a book any more than the Columbine massacre happened because of heavy metal music.
I'm with the first commenter. I read The God Delusion and in the opening paragraphs to chapter 4--the chapter where Dawkins lays out his case against God--I laughed out loud. Who designed the designer? That wasn't just his best argument, it was his only argument.
The God Delusion was pathetic. I don't get anyone who says that it challenged their faith, let alone de-converted them. They couldn't have a firm understanding of Christianity in the first place if that book de-converted (or even challenged) them.
I lost any respect I had left when after expounding on every rotten thing done ever by a christian was caused by religion, he claimed that there is no reason to think that any of the religious persecution by Stalin could have any relation to him being an atheist. He didn't suppress the church because he was an atheist, he simply suppressed the church and happened to be an atheist.
I remember wondering if he was too arrogant to notice his double standard or if he thought I was too stupid to notice.
I hear some derision in the tone of the responses here. I think that Jesus' example was that He loved those who didn't believe in Him, and also loved those who crucified Him. "Forgive them Father..."
We need to speak the truth in love. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."; "Let your speech [be] alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."; and
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
The written word is a witness to all who come along and read this "snapshot", atheist and Christian alike. Our words should reflect the heart of Jesus, who though stern at times, loved perfectly and with great humility.
I agree with you in spirit, dthneece. We should speak the truth in love. But you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that Jesus was stern at times.
There is NOTHING WRONG with calling a spade a spade: The God Delusion sucks, and anyone who is convinced by it to leave Christianity had no firm foundation of faith to begin with. I'm not being derisive, just truthful. But I'd be happy to engage anyone who thinks that I'm wrong about Dawkins's "masterwork," and I promise I won't make fun of them!
And what did Jesus say about anyine who would lead children astray? It wasn't that they were ovely people that we should endevour to forgive.
Does Jesus unconditionally forgive the academic who tells young people that if Mommy told you God was real then you've been abused?
It is correct, as Christians, we are to speak the truth in love. So never attack your opponent. But it is perfectly OK to attack your opponent's arguments. Christians are not called to speak the seething hatred that they have spoken against them. But we can expose every false doctrine without fear of insulting the doctrine - as we are not attacking the proponent of the doctrine.
Exactly, Logan!
I don't have a problem saying that Dawkins is a smart guy. He has a PhD, introduced words into popular culture ("meme," a pesky piece of information that won't go away was coined by Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene"), and has achieved an honorable position at Oxford that has responsibilities beyond teaching and writing (he's professor for the public understanding of science; i.e. he helps the common man understand the discoveries of science). He didn't get there by being a moron; quite the opposite! He's very smart, of that I have no doubt.
But his arguments presented in "The God Delusion" are laughable, amateurish, and my 3 year old daughter has asked me more pointed questions about God than he did in "The God Delusion." Richard Dawkins is a smart man, and I'm not attacking him or his many achievements. But I AM attacking "The God Delusion."
Frankly, I found nothing even remotely useful in "The God Delusion" and I must say I was not raised in the Christian Church or any religion, but later became a Christian fundamentalist who after 14 years of spiritual confusion began to examine some of the Christian doctrines such as hell/eternal punishment and found them wanting.
Nonetheless, the questioning actually ended up strengthening my faith and I feel like I'm one of the few that actually believes in Christ not just because I grew up in some sheltered "Christian" home where I was "taught" the Bible from a young age.
I decided to read this to test my faith and actually began laughing at how STUPID the book is. You can clearly see through this man's writing that he is extremely insecure in his position as a die hard atheist and it's almost as if he "fights" with himself and his own convictions by the way he vehemently defends his position.
I am no scholar, just a 31 y/o heavy duty "thinker." I have been through many spiritual ups and downs and almost completely abandoned the faith when I couldn't make sense of God's character overall when it came to comparing the New Testament with the OT. However, something "held" me in a place that I just couldn't completely walk away.
Despite how many fellow "Christians and Church goers" tried to sway me from researching the churches history and where belief systems came from, I just felt I had to if I was going to dare to say my faith was genuine.
When I began on my journey due to the strong convictions that were in my heart about God's character being different than what was seemingly portrayed throughout the OT, I began to find out that most Bible translations have several mistranslations since they were derived from the KJV (in which the original has over two-thousand mistranslated words to give you and idea.) Eternal torment was not even taught in the original scriptures because there is no proper word for "everlasting." It simply refers to "ages with an end."
To get back to the point:
You see, if atheists are right and there is no God and nothing after this then please tell me..... "Why do they spend their few hours on this earth writing books to defend their thought process that life is meaningless and there is no god?"
I mean seriously, if I had renounced my belief and faith in God, I would definitely NOT waste the rest of my life arguing with Christians and trying to convince them of my beliefs.
Besides, according to their world view, what does it even matter IF someone believes in God and an afterlife if in reality there's nothing there?? Who freaking cares??? Why waste your "meaningless" animal existence on arguing your belief system or atheist religion when you're going to be incoherent unconscious DUST soon?
The point is, I have no interest in "proving" God or Christ to anyone as ONLY God can open someone's eyes and "draw" someone in the first place. Likewise, it's even more ridiculous according to THEIR OWN worldview to try and convince someone there is no God as I have found it actually takes more faith to believe in nothing/evolution than to believe in a God/Creator.
But that's just me and NO, I am NOT a Christian Fundamentalist, but I very much believe in a God and a Redeemer named Christ that will eventually do exactly what He sad He would do..... "Save the World," atheists included :-) Cheers
So sorry Jennifer - your comments somehow ended up in our SPAM filter and I only realized that it was stuck there.
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