The rise of new atheism shows no signs of stopping as proponents of the movement continue to write articles and publish books promoting their views.
Sydney Anglicans have been quick to engage with this thinking through discussion and debate.
The City Bible Forum and Centre for Public Christianity recently brought out Oxford University professor Dr John Lennox to speak on the topic and St Luke's, Miranda examined Dawkins' views as part of their annual Anselm Forum this time last year.
This week we speak to Roy Williams, the Sydney man who turned his later-in-life quest for the truth about God's existence into a secular bestseller.
The background to God, Actually
Roy Williams never set out to write a book.
"In the early stages I was writing an essay to myself. I wanted to distill my reasons for belief for my own benefit. Writing something down with precision is the best way to clarify your thinking," Roy says. "I also wanted to be able to better explain myself to people if they asked me why I was a Christian."
Four years after first putting his thoughts to paper, Roy has now produced a best-seller, with God, Actually (ABC Books) becoming Australia's best-selling religious book in the four weeks to 14 June according to Nielsen BookScan.
Although Roy attended the Sunday school at St Alban's, Lindfield as a young boy, neither he nor his parents were believers.
Skip forward to December 1993, when Roy had just turned 30. His first child, a daughter named Hope, was born and was later baptised at St Andrew's Cathedral.
"This was a turning point for me. Her birth changed me. Having a little girl to care for opened my heart to the power of love in all its forms. I had been a very reserved person up until then," Roy admits.
When Hope was four, Roy and wife Suzanne moved back to the North Shore from the inner west. They were expecting their second child Violet.
"Around this time we decided we should send Hope to Sunday school."
The couple wandered down to their local Presbyterian Church.
"Someone told us the minister didn't like parents dropping their kids off to Sunday school but not staying for the service. As a conformist I stuck around," Roy laughs.
What happened next surprised Roy.
"I was interested from the beginning. I sat and listened intently to the sermons. I picked up the Bible in the pew and just kept on reading."
Roy says he cannot recall a specific moment when he made a commitment to Christ, but from 1998 to 2004, both Roy and Suzanne were extremely active members of their congregation. Roy eventually became an elder.
The big change
However, in late 2004 Roy was diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety disorder " in laymen's terms, a "chronic worrier'.
"Twenty years of practising law at a high level for a person with my physiology and temperament had sent me to the edge. I was in a very bad way and am still recovering. But I now regard the whole experience as a great blessing," Roy reveals.
Roy spent the next 18 months taking the time out. During this period Roy turned back to his essay, which gradually evolved into a book length manuscript. Writing was a form of therapy for him and still is.
Shopping his unsolicited manuscript to a wide range of publishers in 2006 was a challenging year-long ordeal which garnered little success until Roy connected with a literary agent from Brisbane named Margaret Kennedy " a Christian " who was impressed with the chapters she had read.
Atheist books such as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens and other atheist manifestos were coming out in a flood during the time that Roy was editing and revising the manuscript with advice and encouragement from Margaret.
"We decided I should read all of these books and work into my manuscript a response to their main arguments. What started out as my own reasons for belief now incorporated answers to the atheist case and the more common objections to the popular conceptions of Christianity. I have tried to meet head on the arguments against religion in general and Christianity in particular," he says.
Roy regards many of the arguments in the recent glut of atheist books as "straw man' arguments.
"They are attacks on versions of Christianity that are stereotypes or myths. I felt a lot of these books didn't go to the guts of the fundamental questions at issue, or they proceeded from an underlying assumption that we live in a purely material universe. There was never any serious effort to analyse that assumption," he says.
The central truths
Roy says that, except in some of the scientific details, there is "nothing new' about what Dawkins and his ilk are saying.
"They like to think they are groundbreakers and the people who read them and subscribe to their thinking say, "Finally, someone is saying what has never been said before'. But that is a grave mistake because people were saying much the same things in Paul's time 2000 years ago and he was trying to answer them," Roy says.
"The more I read into it the more I realised there was something utterly extraordinary about Christ's life, death and the immediate aftermath. As I started reading Paul's letters, I saw the writing of a man who had been an implacable opponent of Christianity. Not just a sceptic but an enemy. Modern-day sceptics need to read his letters in that light. It was as if Richard Dawkins today suddenly became the world's leading advocate for Christianity," Roy says.
"One thing almost entirely absent from all these atheist books is any decent attempt to come to grips with the history of the early Christians. Their glib answer is that the science proves Christianity is obviously nonsense so there is no need to engage with the history. Of course, one of the unique aspects of Christianity as a religion is that it is pre-eminently historical and can even be tested up to a point using historical methods. And scientific methods too."
And God, Actually is indeed strong on the scientific discussion. The early chapters are devoted to scientific questions about creation, the possibility of other universes, and the unique faculties of the human mind. The incredibly well researched chapters have footnotes going into the hundreds allowing the keen reader to further explore the latest literature and research in these areas.
The big idea
At the beginning of God, Actually the Bible verse 1 Peter 3:15 is printed, defining Roy's main purpose for writing. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."
"Peter clearly regarded it as extremely important that everybody be able to explain their faith. His assumption was that any Christian is capable of influencing somebody. If the only arguments people hear about Christianity come from church leaders or from intellectuals, the gospel won't spread nearly as effectively. People need to hear it from people they can relate to, who speak their own language," Roy says.
So, who is Roy speaking to with God, Actually? There are two main audiences.
"One group is the world I came from. People who are secular, well-educated, left-leaning, white collar, baby boomer. The generation who think deeply about many things, but rarely about Christianity."
"The second group are Christians. I want people to be armed with some arguments so they can fulfil Peter's injunction. I hope the book is a handy resource for evangelism. You might not agree with every one of my arguments, but I hope people find some argument or facts in there useful."
Roy has already received positive feedback, suggesting God, Actually is having the desired effect. The book is already in a second print run.
"The most satisfying thing that has happened to me so far is to get personal letters. I have had a few already from complete strangers who have read my book and have thanked me for some aspect of it. Some say I have helped them understand something better and others say I have strengthened their faith. But I can't say yet that I have received one saying, "you caused me to trust in Jesus'," he says.
"I don't think you can persuade someone to become a Christian. You can only persuade them to take it seriously. That is what I am trying to do."
