I really appreciate biographies. I love to see into people’s lives and hear their own stories. This book is a collection of the accounts of 12 people who share their faith pilgrimages. They are a rather diverse group of individuals but their common trait is that their testimony of following Jesus was significantly influenced by the writings of Richard Dawkins and the other Four Horsemen of New Atheism. I found the book to be thoughtful and was interested in seeing what was (or wasn’t) persuasive to each person in influencing their faith and philosophy. I resonated with some authors more than others and what was compelling to some would not have been compelling to me. Each essay came across as authentic and I highly recommend this book.

The book begins with a preface and introduction by the editors describing what prompted this book, a little of the history of New Atheism, and the growing disillusionment and decline of New Atheism which set the stage for the authors and their faith journeys. The body of the book is 12 chapters, each written by a different author who included the influence of New Atheism on their path to Christianity. Finally, the book concludes with end notes and a section about the editors and authors.

Chapter 1: A New Christian Meets New Atheism by Sy Garte
Garte is a scientist and he says after coming to faith in Jesus Christ, “I did not know any other scientists who were Christians. I wondered if there were any, or if I was some strange, anomalous beast who would eventually go insane from all the contradictions and cognitive dissonance.” p20. Garte grew up in an atheist, Marxist home that valued science, history, and humanism. His study of these, particularly science, was a large part of his spiritual growth, and reading books by New Atheists strengthened his faith since he found their arguments to be poor and often not accurate.

Chapter 2: Wrestling with Life’s Biggest Questions by Sarah Irving-Stonebraker
An atheist historian pursued and achieved her lifelong dream of gaining a PhD and fellowship at Cambridge and Oxford. In her studies, she was confronted with historic information on Christians who studied science as well as a failure by atheists to answer well some of life’s biggest questions. She says, “I spent a lot of time in reflection. I came to the conclusion that atheism could not provide adequate answers to the big questions; it could not make sense of what I saw as a historian and what I experienced of the human predicament of living in a world that does not satisfy our deepest longings.” p58. “I decided that the Bible’s explanations of who God is, who we are, and what life is about were true. I wanted to follow the God who made me, loves me, and died for me.” p58.

Chapter 3: From Dawkins to Christ via William Lane Craig by Peter Byrom
Byrom was a rebellious and carnal university student when one atheist friend became a Christian and another friend gave up his faith to become an atheist. He decided to investigate atheism and the claims of prominent New Atheists including Dawkins. During his research, he encountered William Lane Craig and found his logical syllogisms more sound than the claims of Dawkins and the other atheists. “Dawkins put me on the road to Christian faith (which is not belief without evidence but placing your trust in what the evidence shows you). He shook me out of my apathy and insisted that I follow the evidence where it led. The only twist was, the evidence took me where he (and I, initially) didn’t want it to go, and it transpired that his atheism was not as airtight as he’d claimed.” p85.

Chapter 4: A Winding Path Through New Atheism to Faith by Anikó Albert
Albert was raised in an agnostic family in a Soviet-controlled regime. Her education included “secular exposure to the cultural marks of Christianity.” p89. In college, she was curious about religion and moved to Jamaica after graduation where she taught at a Catholic-run school and even attended Mass occasionally. Later, she moved back to Hungary and then to the US, and, fueled by negative things she saw connected with religion and 9/11, her doubts about Christianity grew. She joined online discussion groups around atheism and read the works of the Four Horsemen. But the more she interacted, the more she saw hypocrisy, illogical arguments, claims that were simply wrong, and data that was cherry-picked or inaccurate. She began to engage with some Christians and attend a Methodist church where she could ask questions and her faith began to grow. “Faith and reason, far from the enemies the New Atheists believe them to be, held hands and led me to the communion table one Sunday.” p103.

Chapter 5: Hearing God Through Enchantment with Nature by Andrew G. Gosler
Studying the cooperation of the greater honeyguide birds and humans in finding bees’ nests for honey and beeswax, Gosler concluded that the presentation of evolution by New Atheists like Dawkins is flawed. Observations and immersion in nature nurtured his faith. He concluded “that ever life hangs by a thread, and that, therefore, all life is sacred and founded not on selfishness but on mutual interdependence which is truth; the spirit of love and peace.” p122.

Chapter 6: An Afrikaner’s Faith Pilgrimage by Johan Erasmus
“(Perhaps one of the strongest arguments against Christianity looks something like this: if God is good, why are Christian movies so bad?)” p125. I really resonated with the way Erasmus sees Christianity so holistically and his reason for belief isn’t reduced to a couple of apologetic arguments. “To think an eight-minute video clip is going to “destroy” a complex worldview is silly. … Perhaps the reason I am so annoyed when Christians fall into this polemic vortex is because I know the frustration I feel when atheists make the same move.” p133. I think this was my favorite chapter.

Chapter 7: Coming to Faith via The God Delusion by Nick Berryman
“For a significant part of my life, I had dismissed religion as incompatible with an intellectual mind. For one, science and religion were in opposition, and I had chosen the side of science.” p143. But once the author began to assess Christianity intellectually, he found it robust and persuasive, especially Jesus himself. The answers Dawkins offered in “The God Delusion” were insufficient by comparison.

Chapter 8: The God Delusion and Probability by Louise Mabille
Mabille grew up thinking “Religious belief was for the slightly backward, and theism was embraced by the bright and inquisitive. Then came The God Delusion.” p160-161. “What bothered me most about The God Delusion, and what contributed most to my eventual turn to Christianity, was that it made enormous claims upon which it then failed to deliver.” p161. Mabille points to statistics and probability claims which ultimately were more convincing in favor of a designer, a mind, behind creation.

Chapter 9: My Egyptian Journey to Faith by Rafik Samuel
Samuel’s father was a Christian preacher and apologist, and a professional psychiatrist. When he was 13 he discovered the Four Horseman of New Atheism and became an apologist for Atheism, arguing with youth leaders at church and convincing his friends too. While watching a debate between Christopher Hitchens and William Lane Craig, he was embarrassed by how poorly his hero, Hitchens, debated, not even engaging with Craig’s actual logical arguments. This was a turning point after which Samuel looked into many Christian intellectuals and found good reasons for Christianity. Most importantly, along the way he fell in love with Jesus.

Chapter 10: From Lukewarm Theism to Committed Faith by Judith R. Babarsky
“Certainly, if Dawkins expected to mount a credible attack on religious, specifically Christian belief, it would not be unreasonable to expect that he would have studied his opponent extensively enough to present the arguments fairly and objectively. The fact that he clearly failed to do so left me with the firm conviction that his was not a credible witness and certainly not scientific.” p195. “Mine was more of an intellectual conversion than anything else. And I’ve often said that I read my way into the faith. It was provoked by a process of reasoning – it most certainly was not an emotional conversion (although I would have welcomed that).” p202.

Chapter 11: From Religion to Agnosticism to Faith in Christ via Dawkins by Waldo Swart
Swart was an Afrikaner Christian from South Africa who felt like the only one of his peers who had questions and doubts about Christianity and the Bible. When his questions were met with shallow, pat answers at church, he looked elsewhere and found better answers in Dawkins and other atheists. He embraced atheism and continued to learn from them until he began having conversations with a friend who was studying theology. To arm himself to argue for atheism better, he decided to study Christianity and other religions. He found compelling reasons for faith and began to notice shortcomings in atheist arguments. “Ironically, it was not a Christian’s belief that convinced me in the end but rather an agnostic’s unrelenting unbelief.” p219.

Chapter 12: Seeking the Truth via New Atheism and Psychedelic Drugs by Ashley Lande
Lande embraced atheism in her rebellious youth and tried various drugs, yoga, New Age practices, meditation, a strict raw vegan diet, and more in order to find truth and satisfaction but instead found despair. When her husband decided to try church, she went too, and there she encountered Jesus. Previously, she had anticipated Hitchen’s book but now she found his ideas unpersuasive and futile. “I only wanted Jesus. I needed Jesus. In a lightning-rod revelation that was pure grace, I finally saw the truth; nothing and no one else would ever do.” p277. “But I could finally sing it with earnestness, holding nothing back; it is well with my soul.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It could have been snarky or belittling toward Dawkins and the atheists whose views these authors rejected but instead was reflective and came across as respectful and authentic. In my own journey, I have asked some of the same questions and sought answers in some of the same places as a few of these authors and found their stories inspiring. I absolutely recommend this book and hope other readers will be encouraged by it too.

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Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity