The church is to blame for the mess our world is in! So rings the increasingly familiar chant of the “new atheists” (e.g. Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens). No longer is unbelief satisfied with providing a solution to mankind’s problems without an appeal to God. Now God must be done away with. According to these men, the Church and Christian teaching are positive evils that must be eradicated.
In the face of this new and aggressive form of anti-Christian thinking, as well as other less virulent and more ancient forms, Christians must be fore-armed and wisely prepared. We are at war.
In all of our preparation for battle we must remember the Apostle Paul’s caution, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Atheists and Secular Humanists are our neighbors. We are charged to love them. We love them best by showing them clearly that our Christian solution to their problems work better than their unbelieving solutions. As stated above this will take patient and thorough learning. The resources offered here are a good place to start.