Life and Times: 24

(8-10 minutes, easy set-up)

Share the following: Richard Dawkins is a high profile atheist. Before his retirement in 2008, Dawkins served as Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He traces his atheistic views back to his teenage when he decided that the belief that God’s existence could be proven by “argument from design” could not be understood when viewed through the lens of Darwinism. He is outspoken in his beliefs, often using his blog Dwindling in Unbelief to share his views with others. His view of “The God of the Old Testament” is one such belief. In his blog, Dawkins said, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” He then pulled scriptural passages out of context to prove each of these characteristics of the God of the Old Testament. [Adapted from “Richard Dawkins: The God of the Old Testament”, Dec. 3, 2008, Dwindling in UnBelief; “Richard Dawkins: A Biography”, May 1, 2009, faith+evolution, accessed at www.discovery.org/a/10291)

Conclude: Often, people try to separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament. However, Jesus emphasized that He came to fulfill the teachings in the Old Testament through His life, death, and Resurrection. Today’s lesson allows us to consider the relationship Jesus had with God, the one, true God who prepared His followers throughout the Old Testament for the coming of His Son.