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Don’t you think that postmodernism and atheist's like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and others have shown that a belief in God and in sin have become intellectually indefensible for thinking people in the academic world?
On the contrary, postmodernism and such atheistic arguments have strengthened my faith and I assume I am a thinking person. I maintain that Christianity is so intellectually tenable in any objective academic arena, that I say – bring your arguments on!
Unfortunately postmodernism supports the false idea that each of us is the arbiter of truth - that truth is what we make it to be rather than an absolute given to us as guidance and a performance standard from the Creator. The idea of tolerance and unity is promoted as a higher good than real, biblical truth. But tolerance in the absence of truth is no virtue; tolerance of those who promote false doctrine has destroyed many churches and denominations from within.
The eighteenth century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau prophetically said that there will come a time when "feelings will be more important than reason and sincerity will trump truth." That time has arrived in our culture and for many of today’s churches.
The word sin is seldom if ever uttered any more from liberal pulpits often affiliated with mainstream denominations. These churches argue that it isn't culturally relevant to personalize sin. If so, then the next step in cultural relevancy would be to remove the cross (which in fact has been done by a very popular television evangelist), as there is no need of a personal savior if sin is only an abstract concept.
Several years ago Christianity Today featured an article about "The New Atheism" of Dawkins, Hitchens and others and how it has revisited the 1960's "God is Dead"movement. It was argued that any talk about God, since it is not verifiable by the five senses, is meaningless nonsense. But this verifiability argument collapses on itself, because that verifiability itself could not be verified.
Today there are counter attacks against this "New Atheism" in Christian philosophy accompanied by a resurgence of books by Tim Keller (The Reason For God), Norman Geisler (Christian Apologetics), Lee Strobel and others. Add to these the increasing interest in natural theology – a branch of theology that seeks to prove God’s existence apart from divine revelation. While few would call them compelling proofs, the traditional arguments for God’s existence are finding intellectual defenders (including me) today.
This is not to say that the death of God movement and atheism in our society are dead and we Christians can merely declare victory and walk away from the battle. After a period of passivity Christianity Today noted that there are signs (especially in our schools and colleges) that "the sleeping giant of atheism has been roused from his dogmatic slumbers and is fighting back."
Because of all this some might think that the resurgence of natural theology and Christian apologetics in our day is a waste of time. They argue that we live in a postmodern culture and so appeals to such arguments are no longer effective. Perhaps Rousseau is right; in today's culture truth is relative and the rational arguments for the truth of theism no longer work. Sincerity and feelings are all that matter.
But neither I nor many others are ready to wave the white flag of surrender in the academic arena because the idea that we live in a postmodern culture is a myth. A postmodern culture is impossible. People are not relativistic in the areas of science, engineering and technology; they are relativistic and pluralistic only in matters of religion and ethics. But that’s not postmodernism; that’s modernism.
We live in a culture that remains modernist – and yes, if we yield our gospel to a postmodern culture, it will be self-defeating. Yes, if we lay aside our best apologetic weapons of logic and evidence, we ensure postmodernism’s triumph over us and Christianity will be reduced to but another voice in a cacophony of competing voices, each sharing its own "truth" and none commending itself as the objective truth about reality.
The gospel is never heard in isolation; it is always heard in one's cultural environment. A person raised in a culture where Christianity is seen as an intellectually viable option will display an openness (more often than not) to the gospel.
Those who would dismiss Christian apologetics because, "no one comes to faith through intellectual arguments" are tragically shortsighted. Although it is true that God must first change the heart of the unbeliever; it is the broader task of Christian apologetics, including natural theology, to help create and sustain an environment in which the gospel can be heard as an intellectually viable option for thinking men and women. Doing so gives people the intellectual permission to believe when their hearts and minds are first moved (as they indeed must be) by God.