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An Atheist in a Foxhole

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The email debate between neo-atheist Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson is now completed, all of it archived on Christianity Today’s website.

Throughout the debate Wilson challenged Hitchens as to the foundational basis of his ongoing moral judgments. Hitchens seemed to misunderstand Wilson’s point as being that an atheist couldn’t be moral while Wilson, echoing Romans 2, repeatedly reasserted that, no, the issue is that an atheist cannot account rationally for his morality.

Whatever one thinks of the debate itself, we can all surely agree with Wilson’s final challenge to the curmudgeonly Hitchens:

Christ told His followers to tell everybody about this–about how the world is being moved from the old humanity to the new way of being human. Not only has the world been born again, so must we be born again. The Lord told us specifically to preach this Good News to every creature. He has established his great but welcoming household, and there is room enough for you. Nothing you have ever said or done will be held against you. Everything will be washed and forgiven. There is simple food–bread and wine–on the table. The door is open, and we’ll leave the light on for you.

Only when we see how lost we are, we can find our way again. Only when we bury what’s dead can we experience life again. Only when we lose our religion can we be amazed by grace again.

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About Russell Moore

Russell Moore is Editor in Chief of Christianity Today and is the author of the forthcoming book Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America (Penguin Random House).

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