Are People Losing Faith in New Atheism? 

In recent years, the cultural conversation around atheism and belief has undergone a significant shift. What questions are people asking today, and is a Christian revival underway?

This article appears in Sharing Jesus, a resource to take the fear out of evangelism and help Christians put their faith into words. Find out more and purchase here.

I still remember the first time a red London bus sailed past me, emblazoned with the words ‘There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ The poster was the closest thing that atheism had ever had to an official advertising campaign in the UK.

The year was 2009. A brash, unapologetic form of non-belief was riding high in culture. ‘New Atheism’ was led by four so-called ‘horsemen’, a set of scientists and public intellectuals including biologist Richard Dawkins, author of the bestselling book The God Delusion, and an instigator of the atheist bus campaign.

At that time, I had already been working in ‘Christian apologetics’ for a few years, presenting the intellectual case for faith by hosting podcasts and radio discussions between believers and atheists on science, reason, and the Bible.

In doing so, I was trying to live out the words of 1 Peter 3:15 - ‘Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the reason for the hope that you have. Yet do this with gentleness and respect.’ The problem was that ‘gentleness and respect’ were often in short supply in the public conversation on faith.

The objections raised by Dawkins and his fellow atheists usually characterised God as a fanciful ‘sky daddy’ and dismissed Christianity as a ‘fairytale’ for those who hadn’t yet joined the adult world. Science and faith were cast as enemies. The Bible was an outdated and immoral book. Religion was not only false but also dangerous.

A Shift in Conversation

However, as the years went on, I noticed a significant change in the conversations. Many of the non-believers I met wanted to distance themselves from the angry tone of New Atheism. Others found that, while New Atheism had tried to tear down God, it had failed to erect anything better in His place. Science and reason are great for some things, but they won’t buy you a meaningful existence.

I also noticed a number of new public intellectuals stepping forward, with a very different set of answers to life’s big questions. Psychologists, historians, and cultural critics began pointing out how much the Western world’s values of equality, dignity, compassion, and progress owe to Christianity and the Bible. These were not religious thinkers, but they were asking, Can we live without the Christian story?

I was also surprised to discover an increasing number of influential writers and thinkers embracing Christianity as adults, many of them having gone through a prolonged period of atheism themselves. Despite the undeniable fact that we inhabit a very post-Christian society, I began to see that there was a surprising rebirth of belief in God underway in many parts of culture.

Most significantly, the questions being asked by the average person on the street were also changing.

In the heyday of New Atheism, most of the questions of non-believers seemed to revolve around whether there was evidence for God, the ‘science vs faith’ debate, and whether religion and the Bible were a force for good or evil. Those remain important issues, but I don’t sense they are the ‘main’ questions being asked today.

Responding to the ‘Meaning Crisis’

Nowadays, issues of meaning, purpose, and identity are at the forefront. I see this happening in the wake of a phenomenon described by psychologists as a ‘meaning crisis’ in the West. A loss of any overarching ‘story’ by which we make sense of life has created an ideological vacuum, especially among younger generations. The new atheists had (rather naively) assumed that science and reason would be enough to fill it. But they weren’t.

Instead, that God-shaped hole has been filled by many other quasi-religious stories that have become ‘sacred’ to those invested in them. They range from progressive gender and sexual ideologies to far-right political conspiracy theories, and everything in between. The resulting ‘culture wars’ threaten to tear society apart and are leaving a lot of exhausted, confused, and depressed people in their wake. Today, rather than asking ‘Does God exist?’, a young person is more likely to ask, ‘What’s the point of my existence?’

A Renewed Openness to Christianity

But there is good news too. I believe the meaning crisis is causing a lot of people to reinvestigate the story that once gave a whole culture its sense of meaning, purpose, and identity - the Christian story. I have encountered a remarkable new openness, even among once-hardline atheists, to the value of Christianity and the Bible.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised.

When it comes to meaning, Christianity offers a story that invests every human with ultimate value and dignity. If we are all made in the image of God and that God came in person to live, die, and be raised for us, then we can know life’s true meaning in the light of God’s love for us.

The search for purpose is also answered by Christian faith. We are not here by accident, and our purpose is not defined by how well (or badly) we fare in the lottery of life. Instead, we are invited into the greatest story ever told, in which our life, however ordinary, is part of a cosmic drama that God is weaving through space and time.

Identity in Christ

And then there’s identity. So many people are looking for identity in so many places today, yet are overwhelmed by the burden of constant self-invention. In Christ, we are offered a new identity that transcends any other label we may attach to ourselves. When we know not just who we are, but whose we are, it brings peace in the midst of storms and hope in the face of despair.

When they arise, responding to the classic questions about evidence for God and the Bible still remains important. But let’s not be caught out by assuming the same questions that were prevalent 20 years ago are the questions being asked today.

Likewise, the answers we give must reflect the search that people are on today: the search for a better story to make sense of their life.
 
Justin Brierley has worked in radio, podcast and video for over two decades and is passionate about creating conversations around faith, science, theology and culture. He is the author and host of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. Justin is married to Lucy, a church minister in Surrey, and they have four amazing children.

This article appears in Sharing Jesus, a resource to take the fear out of evangelism and help Christians put their faith into words. Find out more and purchase here.