{"id":45933,"date":"2007-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-richard-dawkins-on-christian-idea-of-god\/"},"modified":"2007-10-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-29T00:00:00","slug":"atheist-richard-dawkins-on-christian-idea-of-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-richard-dawkins-on-christian-idea-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheist Richard Dawkins on the Christian Idea of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the publication of his book <em>The God Delusion<\/em>, outspoken atheist and Oxford professor Richard Dawkins sat down with the editors of <em>TIME<\/em> magazine to debate the idea of God and science with Francis Collins, a Christian scientist. At the end of the debate, Dawkins concluded:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>My mind is not closed [to the idea of God], as you have occasionally suggested, Francis. My mind is open to the most wonderful range of future possibilities, which I cannot even dream about, nor can you, nor can anybody else. What I am skeptical about is the idea that whatever wonderful revelation does come in the science of the future, it will turn out to be one of the particular historical religions that people happen to have dreamed up.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When we started out, and we were talking about the origins of the universe and the physical constants, I provided what I thought were cogent arguments against a supernatural intelligent designer. But it does seem to me to be a worthy idea. Refutable&mdash;but nevertheless grand and big enough to be worthy of respect.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I don&#39;t see the Olympian gods or Jesus coming down and dying on the Cross as worthy of that grandeur. They strike me as parochial. If there is a God, it&#39;s going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3436,3450,3451,3455,3461,3485,3718,3723,4067,4085,4293,4330,4510,4518,4625,4704,4729,4835,4891,5202],"tax_ctp_topics":[384],"class_list":["post-45933","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-atonement","tax_ctp_tags-attributes-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-authority-of-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-bible","tax_ctp_tags-cross","tax_ctp_tags-crucifixion","tax_ctp_tags-god","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-knowledge","tax_ctp_tags-mystery","tax_ctp_tags-national-bible-week","tax_ctp_tags-perfection-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-pride","tax_ctp_tags-propitiation","tax_ctp_tags-revelation","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-unbelief"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Atheist Richard Dawkins on the Christian Idea of God - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-richard-dawkins-on-christian-idea-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheist Richard Dawkins on the Christian Idea of God - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After the publication of his book The God Delusion, outspoken atheist and Oxford professor Richard Dawkins sat down with the editors of TIME magazine to debate the idea of God and science with Francis Collins, a Christian scientist. 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