A new book, set to overturn the notion of the importance of today's battle between Christians and Atheists, has hit the book shelves of book stores up and down the country. In Tom Holland's book "Dominion - The making of the Western mind" he, as an Atheist, seeks to advocate that the last two millennia in the West have been fashioned almost entirely by Christianity. He has faced a degree of criticism from prominent Atheists but he has successfully rebutted their argument. Indeed, in an interview with self avowed Atheist, Dan Snow, he dismantled any claim by Snow that there were other major Influencers in antiquity. Holland is at pains to set the apostle Paul's letters together with the four Gospels in the position of being the most important narrative to come out of the ancient world. He attributes the basis of Western civilisation, with its emphasis on equal justice for all and compassion for the weak and marginalised, almost entirely on the influence of the Christian Gospel.
There does seem to be a move in the Atheist camp to recognise the fact that, while the God question still remains a step too far, the absolute need for fundamental Christian ethics is something they may have to live with. The question that now, perhaps bubbles to the surface is - Can society that is secular by persuasion, successfully accept the gifts Christianity has to offer while, at the same time, ignoring the giver of those gifts?
Roger Manchester UK
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