Justin Brierley is taking note of a remarkable tide turning in Europe; Christianity is coming back.
Brierley is the author of “The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God” and hosts several podcasts, one by the same name. He recently wrote about his observations in The Spectator, noting the rise of young professionals abandoning the “New Atheist” movements and turning to Christ.
The article covers many surprising examples of the revival of the Christian faith, but focuses most clearly on one of Brierly’s fellow authors that, while agnostic, “came to realize he was still essentially Christian in terms of his beliefs about human rights, equality, and freedom.”
Brierley isn’t the only one who’s noticed a resurgence in faith throughout Europe. The amount of adults being baptized in France and Belgium are climbing to new heights. Young Finnish men are reporting higher degrees of faith than ever before. Less babies are baptized now than in the past, but far more young adults are coming to Christ on their own terms than ever before.
While fewer babies are being born into Christianity than in the past, soon enough, those recently-baptized young adults will be having children of their own. The rising Christians are soon to meet the falling atheists as the great leaders of “New Atheism” crumble.
One of the last relevant atheists, Richard Dawkins, recently pointed out that he benefits immensely from Christianity, admitting that the values he’s spent his career trying to tear down are the necessary foundation for the types of societies that atheists like him are able to survive in.
"If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I'd choose Christianity every single time."
Self-proclaimed 'cultural Christian', @RichardDawkins, tells @RachelSJohnson he's 'slightly horrified' to hear Ramadan lights were hung on Oxford Street rather than Easter lights. pic.twitter.com/ZY2ePfpms1
— LBC (@LBC) March 31, 2024
“It’s true that statistically, the number of people who actually believe in Christianity is going down and I’m happy with that, but I would not be happy if, for example, we lost all our cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches. So, I count myself a cultural Christian. I think it would matter if we… substituted any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful,” Dawkins said in an interview with Rachel Johnson broadcast on March 31 on LBC.
Dawkins made this surprisingly humiliating admission in response to the rise of Islam in Britain. As Ramadan decorations replace Easter ones in the streets, Atheists are beginning to realize that they stand upon the foundations they’ve been attempting to chip away.
“I’m not talking about individual Muslims, who, of course, are all quite different, but the doctrines of Islam, the Hadith and the Quran, it’s fundamentally hostile to women, hostile to gays and, I find that I like to live in a culturally Christian country, although I do not believe a single word of the Christian faith,” Dawkins says.
Even agnostics and atheists are beginning to admit that Christianity has a deep value for society as a whole. And with even the staunchest atheists admitting the justice of the Christian faith, the undecided are investigating it for themselves — and many are converting.
“As a Christian I believe things that are dead can come back to life.” Brierley says before quoting G.K. Chesterton: “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
