Dawkins can't believe his atheist ally has become a Christian. Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains the error of his doubt.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was once a central figure among the so-called "New Atheists." She revealed in a Nov. 11, 2023, op-ed that she had converted to Christianity, both for the meaning it provides as well as for its unifying doctrine, which she wrote can "fortify us against our menacing foes."

Militant atheist Richard Dawkins, her longtime friend and "mentor," penned an open letter to Ali three days later, suggesting the Dutch-American human rights activist, mother, and staunch critic of Islam was insincere about her newfound faith.

"You are no more a Christian than I am," wrote Dawkins. "No, Ayaan, you are not a Christian, you are just a decent human being who mistakenly thinks you need a religion in order to remain so."

It appears Ali's sincerity is just one more thing Dawkins has managed to get wrong.

Ali appeared on stage Saturday with Dawkins for the inaugural Dissident Dialogues conference in New York City, where she identified a number of her past intellectual missteps — apparent missteps Dawkins is alternatively committed to keep making — and made abundantly clear both to the audience and Dawkins that she does, in fact, believe in God, pray, and follow Christ.

The former atheist's profession of faith and admission of past errors electrified the audience, which appeared altogether keen to celebrate both Dawkins' loss of a fellow traveler and Christians' gain of a sister.

Background

Blaze News previously reported that Ali, who lives under a fatwa, was raised Muslim in Somalia. Under what she came to regard as a "nihilistic cult of death," Ali suffered genital mutilation, was denied her artistic loves, and was married off to a distant cousin.

While already chased down the road to apostasy by brutal oppression, the Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on the U.S. helped accelerate Ali's rejection of Islam. Ali's antipathy toward Islam apparently prompted her not only to reject the Muslim faith but "to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed."

Decades later, she recognized that atheism is a "weak and divisive doctrine."

Ali explained last year in an article for UnHerd that she became a Christian in part because the faith equips believers to internally and externally fight the evils of the day — battles atheism is at best useless in but more often than not on the wrong side of.

Quoting the Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton, Ali stressed that "when men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything."

"We can't withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can't explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can't fight woke ideology if we can't defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can't counter Islamism with purely secular tools," wrote Ali. "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."

Ali indicated, however, that Christianity was not simply a sword and a shield for the wars of the age but also a source of ultimate meaning.

"I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive," wrote Ali. "Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

Dawkins loses an ally

Dawkins, now a self-described "Cultural Christian," responded to Ali's profession of faith on Substack with his characteristic disbelief, writing, "Christianity makes factual claims, truth claims that Christians believe, truth claims that define them as Christian. Christians are theists. They believe in a divine father figure who designed the universe, listens to our prayers, is privy to our every thought. You surely don't believe that."

"Do you believe Jesus rose from the grave three days after being placed there? Of course you don’t. Do you believe Jesus was born to a virgin? Certainly not," wrote Dawkins. "Someone of your intelligence does not believe you have an immortal soul, which will survive the decay of your brain. Christians believe in a frightful place called Hell, where the souls of the wicked go after they are dead. Do you believe that? Hell no!"

In his response, the atheist conceded Ali's points that Christianity might have "been the inspiration for some of the greatest art, architecture and music the world has ever known," "is morally superior to Islam," and might be "a powerful weapon" against "Putinism, Islamism, and postmodernish wokery pokery" but suggested that such an understanding does not make one a Christian.

Dawkins further suggested that by embracing Christianity, she had succumbed to "weakness."

In March, Dawkins doubled-down, accusing Ali of being a "Political Christian" and noting, "Let's not agree to differ. Let's agree that we don't really differ."

Soulful showdown

Ali addressed Dawkins' doubts about her faith Saturday, indicated she is far more than just a "Political Christian," and expressed regret for having previously aided militant atheists in their attack on religion, reported UnHerd.

With regards to the sincerity of her belief, Ali made clear that while she regards Christianity as critically important from a secular and political viewpoint, she has connected with the faith on a spiritual level and believes in its supernatural propositions.

"On the personal level, yes, I choose to believe in God. And I think that there, we might say, let's agree to disagree," she said. "I think it's something subjective, and it's a choice and there are things that you see and perceive that a different person cannot perceive."

"I'd say you're coming at this from a place of 'there is nothing,' and what has happened to me is that, I think, I have accepted that there is something," said Ali. "When you accept that there is something, there is a powerful entity, for me, the God that turned me around, I think what the vicar is saying no longer sounds nonsensical."

"It makes a great deal of sense, and not only does it make a great deal of sense, it's also layered with the wisdom of millennia," said the former atheist. "And so, like you, I did mock faith in general, Christianity in particular, but I don't do that anymore, and again, I think that's where humility comes into it."

The former atheist's journey to Christ appears to have not only required great humility but some helpful advice.

"I've come down to my knees to say perhaps those people who have always had faith have something that we who lost faith don't have, and people who have faith also, like the woman who told me, 'You ... fight everything and you've lost hope, you've lost faith. Try it. Pray.' I think just in that one word there is so much wisdom," added Ali.

Dawkins recycled one of his go-to smears, suggesting Christianity is obsessed with sin. Ali didn't buy the atheist's premise.

"I find that Christianity is actually obsessed with love," Ali said, eliciting applause from the audience. "The teaching of Christ as I see it — and again, I'm a brand new Christian — but what I'm finding out, which is the opposite of growing up as a Muslim and the message of Islam, but the message of Christianity of love. It's a message of redemption."

"It's a story of renewal and birth," continued Ali. "And so, Jesus dying and rising again for me symbolizes that story, and in a small way, I felt I had died and was reborn. And that story of redemption and birth, I think makes Christianity actually a very, very powerful story for the human condition, of human existence."

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