Richard Dawkins' arguments are "simplistic at best, dishonest at worst", according to a leading apologist for the Christian faith.
Simon Edwards, a speaker for the Zacharias Trust, spoke to Christian Today in response to comments made by the eminent atheist professor in a Q&A on Reddit. In response to a question on "why is the atheist religion so violent?" Dawkins said anyone who thinks atheists are violent don't know what violence means.
"There is no atheist religion. And 'violent'? Did you say 'violent'? Oh yes, I was forgetting. All those atheists beheading people, setting fire to them, cutting off their hands, cutting off their clitorises.
"If you think atheists are violent you don't know what violence means."
However Edwards told Christian Today the rhetoric suggested that "lurking within every religious believer is a potential terrorist and if we get rid of religion, the world will be a safer place.
"But attempting to lump all religious people into the one category is simplistic at best, dishonest at worst. I don't know many thoughtful people who would agree that Osama Bin Laden and Mother Theresa belong in the same moral category of persons simply because they were both religious?"
Edwards went on to say hundreds of millions more deaths had been caused by irreligion than any religious worldview.
"Sixty million perished in China under Mao Zedong and Marxism, for example, while Stalin accounted for more than 15 million lives in Russia. So too, Pol Pot's deadly regime in Cambodia involved a systematic attempt to wipe religion from society. The evidence is clear: states which officially adopt atheism as an ideology end up oppressing people."
Dawkins, an Oxford professor and author of numerous books including The God Delusion, went on to say: "Anyone who believes that what is written in a holy book is true even if the evidence is against it is dangerous."
On this Edwards agreed. "I would agree that blindly accepting anything, anyone or what any book says is an unreasonable and potentially dangerous approach to life. However, when it comes to the Bible and the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is a multitude of historical evidence to support that what it says is true.
"Secondly, it's important to remember that not all religions are the same. To determine whether religion really is the chief motivating factor for violence, we need to ask if those who are causing it are acting in keeping with their worldview or in violation of it?"
Edwards pointed out Jesus had not sought political power and taught followers to "turn the other cheek".
He said: "Yes, violence has been committed in the name of Jesus, however Christians would be the first to hold their hands up and say that violence as a tool is certainly not a true reflection of what Jesus came to say and accomplish. Jesus taught that we should love our neighbour. He even taught that we should love our enemies!"
