THE CITY

Winter 2015
Alister McGrath holds three doctorates from Oxford University,
the first in Molecular Biophysics, the second in Theology, and the
third in Intellectual History. He asks the following question of those
who offer memes as a scientific solution:
[H]as anyone actually seen these things, whether leaping
from brain to brain, or just hanging out? The issue, it must be
noted, has nothing to do with religion. It is whether the meme
can be considered to be a viable scientific hypothesis, when
there is no clear operational definition of a meme, no testable
model for how memes influence culture and why standard
selection models are not adequate, a general tendency to
ignore the sophisticated social science models of information
transfer already in place, and a high degree of circularity in
the explanation of the power of memes. 13
Memes fail with regard to several key criteria by which scientific
theories are judged, a few of which are clarity, simplicity, and
testability. In my opinion, the evidence for belief in God is far better
than the evidence for belief in memes.
CONCLUSION
There is much more that I could say. I could show how Dawkins
and others among the New Atheists make statements about science
that have not come close to being confirmed. Their position is
not so much science as it is scientism. I could point out that when
they lapse into scientism, they sound very much like the religious
fundamentalists they lampoon for having faith, which in their view
is essentially a lack of evidence. I could point out that they regularly
focus on the evils of religion while ignoring the massive amount of
good that has been done by religious people, and saying little or
nothing about the evil that has been done in the name of secular
progress. I could go on.
I recognize that I have not made a positive case for Christianity,
or even for theism. That was not my intention. One cannot do
everything in a brief article such as this. I do hope, however, that
having read my criticisms readers will think long and hard before
buying what the New Atheists are pushing.
13
Alister McGrath, “Opening Remarks,” in The Future of Atheism: Alister McGrath and
Daniel Dennett in Dialogue, ed. Robert B. Stewart (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 31.
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