Richard Dawkins' 'New Atheism' has run its course with early signs of a Christian revival in UK – Murdo Fraser

Christmas brings a message of love, purpose and belonging for all

Christmas is for many of us, as Andy Williams sang, “the most wonderful time of the year”. It is an opportunity to have a proper break from the daily routine, catch up with family and friends, exchange presents and, too often, overindulge in food and drink. It’s a period that we look forward to.

But it is not like that for everyone. For some, Christmas is a sad time, a time to remember loved ones who have been lost in the previous year or when people who are already lonely feel the pangs of isolation ever more acutely.

When the days are at their shortest, and cold and darkness envelop us, it is not surprising that we seek company and festivity to ward off the winter. But for those who lack family and friends, their absence is ever more acute at a time when everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves.

This is where the Christian message of Christmas becomes so relevant. For next Monday doesn’t just mark a Godless celebration of eating, drinking and merriment; it has at its roots the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, God made flesh, who came to Earth to live amongst us and provide us with a living relationship with our Creator. It is that wonderful, inspiring message of hope and light that can dispel even the darkest of misery and suffering.

Three things we all need in life

The principal speaker at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast for Scotland was Rev Nicky Gumbel of Holy Trinity Brompton in London, the founder of the Alpha Course, which has allowed millions of people globally to explore the Christian faith. In his talk to the audience at Prestonfield House, Edinburgh, Rev Gumbel said that everyone is in search of three things in life: they want to be loved, they need to have a purpose, and they want to belong

It is a typically perceptive observation from someone whose evangelistic work has introduced so many people to the fundamentals of Christianity. And, by extension, it is Christianity that provides the answer to all three of these longings. It provides a relationship with a loving God, a purpose in life in following His teachings, and belonging to a family of Christian believers in a local community and worldwide.

Scotland, like so much of the Western world, has seen a decline in organised religion in recent generations – the dramatic fall in the number of worshippers in the Church of Scotland, currently causing a painful process of parish rationalisation, being striking evidence of this phenomenon. At the same time, we see a rise in loneliness, isolation, and mental illness, with individuals feeling that they live purposeless lives. These two trends cannot be unconnected.

We saw during the Covid pandemic lockdowns that the enforced isolation of individuals caused serious negative social consequences in driving up rates of anxiety and concerns around mental health. Human beings are social animals; we require to have regular contact with others. The church has always provided a welcoming environment, with an exercise in collective worship that brings people together. But just with numerous other voluntary societies and gatherings, it has suffered from the disintegration of face-to-face human interactions exacerbated by a period of enforced home restrictions.

Non-believers recognising Christianity’s importance

It would be wrong to think, however, that the position of Christianity in our society is irrecoverable. In his recent book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, writer and broadcaster Justin Brierley details how the New Atheism of Richard Dawkins and others – a phenomenon of the early 21st century – appears to have run its course. Instead, what we see today is much greater openness to the teachings of Christianity, and a rejection of the notion that the church is out of step with modern thinking and is therefore in terminal decline.

Brierley identifies the surprising number of leading thinkers who today are taking the Christian faith seriously, even though they themselves may not be Christians. These include public intellectuals like Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, cultural commentator Douglas Murray, and historian Tom Holland, who share the view that Christianity is the underpinning of our cultural norms, and its loss would be devastating to moral values and civil institutions, including our belief in human rights, that are the foundation of civilised society.

Brierley highlights how these individuals, amongst others, are reading the Bible and accepting its authenticity, leading to the rebirth of a belief in God. This includes not just philosophers and historians, but crucially also scientists, who see no contradiction between belief in a supreme being and the discoveries of science. We may be at the very early stirrings of Christian revival in the UK today, but there is evidence that it is on its way.

There is, across our society, a hunger for meaning and truth in life. As Rev Gumbel identified, people really are looking for a purpose. For those who have turned their backs on Christianity, the void is often filled by other belief systems – not just militant atheism, but other causes such as environmentalism, feminism or nationalism. As the writer GK Chesterton put it, “when men choose not to believe in God, they do not then thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything”.

There will be folk reading this who, like Richard Dawkins, will dismiss it all as outdated nonsense. Yet the dramatic growth of Christianity in South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia cannot go unexplained. There are many millions of people there finding direction, love and purpose in the message of Jesus Christ. Scotland, in line with much of Western society, is the outlier when it comes to interest in Christian teaching.

However you spend your Christmas, take a few moments to reflect on the underlying Christian message of the season of love, purpose and belonging. May I wish you and yours a very happy and peaceful time.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife