The Spectator Speculates on Whether Richard Dawkins has Changed his Mind

In a second debate with John Lennox on October 23rd, it's being reported that Dawkins said: "A serious case could be made for a deistic God." Here is the link.

Melanie Phillips saw the live debate and comments:

This was surely remarkable. Here was the arch-apostle of atheism, whose whole case is based on the assertion that believing in a creator of the universe is no different from believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden, saying that a serious case can be made for the idea that the universe was brought into being by some kind of purposeful force.

She approached him afterwards and asked him "whether he had indeed changed his position and become more open to ideas which lay outside the scientific paradigm." She reports: "He vehemently denied this and expressed horror that he might have given this impression."

I didn't see the debate. Maybe it'll be posted on the web before long. But how can we reconcile what Dawkins said in his book with this admission? In any case, I agree with Dawkins's recent admission. Glad he said it. It's a much more reasonable position to leave his previously held belief that God "almost certainly doesn't exist." But then I'm an agnostic atheist.

Nonetheless, I don't see why this admission does anything to support the Christian case. The Christian must come to grips with the differences between a full blown Christianity and deism. Moving from deism to Christianity is like trying to fly a plane to the moon. It cannot be done. A distant God is no different than none at all.