Former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in recent talks at Oxford University, said that “anything in the intellectual life that gives you permission to ignore is toxic because it seeks to shrink reality...”
This statement seems particularly instructive in light of the reaction of a part of the Kenyan church to the registration of the Atheists in Kenya Society and also in light of related comments on various media from both atheists and Christians.
Both sides seem to be taking positions that give them permission to ignore not just the existence of the other but the weight of the other’s case. Consequently, no real discussion is going on.
As a Christian with a strong desire to reach sceptics with the Gospel, this concerns me greatly.
When the atheists announced the registration of their society, some church leaders called for its deregistration, claiming that Kenya is a Godly country.
Kenya recognises the sovereignty of God in its Constitution and is therefore not a “secular state” in the sense that a country like France is.
But the Constitution also recognises every person’s freedom of conscience and association, giving rise to the legal claim of the atheists.
Perhaps behind this reaction of the church is shock and a fear that recognition of atheism in Kenya will set off a downward spiral that our society and the church would not recover from.
But in an age of information where cultures constantly cross-pollinate and ideas travel globally, sceptical questions about God are unavoidable and must be honestly met.
What these events highlight is that atheism is attractive to some people in Kenya and, however jolting this is to the church, it needs to be faced. The church should not give itself permission to ignore atheists.
To do so would be to ignore some of the people it is called to reach. The church should not only admit the existence of atheism but must also allow itself to hear the weight of the arguments that sceptics are making in order to respond.
For the sake of those who have genuine questions, Christians must go beyond angry or dismissive answers to engaging seriously with atheists and their ideas. The mandate of the church is, after all, to persuade people of the truth of the Gospel.
The Gospel spreads by persuasion, not coercion. It must - for it is an invitation to love and be loved. Rather than ignoring those who doubt, the church can, in the example of Jesus, confidently invite questions about God knowing that the intellectual case for belief in God is sound.
The Bible itself assumes that questions will be asked and challenges Christians to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks... But do this with gentleness and respect"; 1 Peter 3:15.
Atheists too have been giving themselves permission to ignore those who disagree with them, at least intellectually. Many online comments by atheists have tended to dismiss believers in God as irrational or deluded. Some Nobel Prize winners have been Christians and some have been atheists.
Since these people are evidently intelligent, the problem is not rationality or the lack of it. Casting believers in God as irrational or delusional gives atheists permission to ignore what believers have to say and, therefore, the case for God. The real question between theism and atheism is whether or not God exists. Dialogue between both sides makes an honest search for the truth possible.
The issue here is whether atheists in Kenya have a right to be registered and, legally speaking, they do. Being a lawyer, one of the reasons I am a Christian is that God provides a strong philosophical foundation for human rights. We believe that all human beings are equal and worthy of being valued.
But where did we get the idea of equality and inherent value from? Why is the mentally handicapped person as valuable as the productive citizen? Why was Hitler wrong in his diabolical search for a race of supermen?
The Biblical doctrine that human beings are all created in God’s Image has historically provided the foundational thinking for human rights.
The American Declaration of Independence recognises this in the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...”
For both the church and atheists, it is much easier to ignore than to engage. But ignoring something never made it go away. Both sides need to listen to each other.
The imperative to listen, however, is greatest on the church because God loves all people. We do not have permission to ignore.
