The ”New” Frontier of Christian Apologetics in the West
“New atheism” is waning. New ageism, transhumanism, and Islam are waxing.
I was an atheist because it was cool to be an atheist. The new atheists were at their zenith. All my smart friends didn’t believe in God. Christianity was mocked at the dinner table.
Fast forward to my senior year of high school and I had just been baptized into Christ over the summer. Apologetics—especially classic apologetics—played a massive role. I’d never heard any good arguments for God’s existence before. Some of them convinced me. I’m thankful for the emphasis that some Christians had placed on apologetics that led to people being prepared to engage a cradle atheist about the truth of Christianity.
Given my background, I was enamored with the Christian Apologetics Enterprise™️ after becoming a Christian. William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, Sean McDowell, Ravi Zachariahs, Licona and Habermas. You know the names. YouTube videos, books, debates. You name it. I even studied and received a Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics from Liberty University.
I have no scorn for these men or these institutions, or the Christian Apologetics Enterprise™️. They’ve done, and do, some good work.
But I think we’ve been shooting a lot of our arrows at the most obvious target, while more critical and sinister bullseyes lurk in the foreground. I think the apologetics frontier is no longer atheism in particular and the “nones” in general. Times have changed. The horsemen of new atheism are either dead or largely irrelevant and openly mocked. The “new” frontier for Christian apologists in the west isn’t new atheism and secularization. It’s new age spirituality, transhumanism, and Islam.1
Atheism is hard to sustain, culturally speaking. The philosophical equivalent of angsty teenagers and cynical, thrice-divorced day drinkers, atheism can only be appealing for so long. And, historically speaking, atheism is a rather novel phenomenon. At a popular level, the question of whether or not God exists is a handful of centuries old.
The much older, and pertinent question is not whether God exists, but which God exists. Faced with this question, many in the west are opting for answers other than Yahweh and Jesus Christ.
Some are embracing the old demons gods. The gods of paganism and the spirits of witchcraft. A return to native deities: Huitzilopochtli without the constant need for human sacrifice; Thor without the longships. Gaia, crystals, sacred geometry, tarot cards, and witch altars are in. Christianity is out.
Others are answering the question of which God exists by looking inward, and forward. What we have historically conceived of as “God” is made possible through technological advancements. The upcoming mixing of artificial and human intelligences will create the closest thing to “God” the world has ever truly known. At least, that’s what the transhumanists would have us believe. We have a moral necessity to march toward this progress, to embrace this becoming, to augment human nature to transcend human nature. We can take hold of eternal life, we only need to invent the tech first.
Others—a growing portion of the west—are very confident in which God exists. His name is Allah. He shares his glory with no one, and he certainly doesn’t have a son. Mohammed is his prophet. Submit or suffer. Ironically, Islam has spread deeper into the west via anti-racist, progressive immigration policies than it ever was able to with the bloodshed of Ottoman jihad. Mehmed II would be proud.
It seems that the secularization of Europe merely rolled out the red carpet for a new religious majority. The cross is being eclipsed by the crescent. Even one of the supposed horsemen of new atheism had to complain about how Muslim the Christian west was becoming. There are more Muslims in Germany than in Palestine, more Muslims in France than in United Arab Emirates, and more Muslims in the United Kingdom than in Lebanon.2 In Vienna, there are more Muslim children enrolled in elementary schools than Christian children.3 How much longer until the same will be true for L.A., Omaha, New York, or Orlando? With the current administration, it seems unlikely. But with the pendulum swing of U.S. politics, it’s more than possible in the next 50 years.
Are Christians being prepared to engage with the new frontier of witchy family members, transhumanist co-workers, and Muslim neighbors? We need to be able to demonstrate not only that God exists, but that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ exists. We need to be able to answer not only whether, but which.
I am using “new age spirituality” to also refer to neopaganism and witchcraft for the sake of brevity.