"Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." --Bertrand Russell, atheist philosopher, and mathematician "There is no accountability since God does not exist" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB). "The fool has said in his heart [notice it's the heart, not the mind] that there is no God" (cf. Psalm 14, 53:1).
Atheism is a bankrupt faith that cannot be proved and is only believed because of a gut reaction or animosity to God because they don't think He's fair, He didn't give them something they wanted, they see injustice and cannot rationalize it, or justify the ways of God to man, as did Milton in Paradise Lost. Atheism doesn't have a leg to stand on because you cannot prove a universal negative: how would you prove there are no little green men, for example, without being present everywhere and knowing all? Only God knows for sure! And so you would have to be God, quite ironically, to disprove God. Atheists often claim they are good people but have no motive other than selfish ones to be so. But they cannot explain goodness or why there's evil in the world. The biggest obstacle is that most people know there's a God as certainly as the law of cause and effect and see the evidence of a Designer from all the design in the cosmos.
The issues they cite are that they believe science, namely evolution, has undermined the Bible; God is merely a "delusion" or neurosis to be cured; God is the "opiate" of the people (what Marx thought) or anti-depressant; God is a "neurosis" or "projection" like the desire for a "father figure", a la Freudian theory; or that He is unnecessary to explain reality. The cosmos cannot be all there is because there is evidence of intelligence in the universe and this cannot be explained away as random energy or atoms in motion--there's something other than matter/energy! The cosmos had a beginning, and needs a cause or Beginner; because we know that everything in time and space had a beginning, but who began the so-called big bang to begin everything? ( It is a principle of logic that everything that begins to exist has a cause and everything captive to time had a beginning.)
Atheists need to know that they are people of faith also, and really of blind faith because they have no hard evidence that there is no God, they just cannot explain issues that have answers but they refuse to accept. They may be offended by God and have objections but not proof. There's more evidence for God than against Him, but one doesn't need all the answers to believe, even though there is sound evidence to base faith on. Norman Geisler wrote a book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, quite appropriately.
There is an ulterior motive for being an atheist: They don't want accountability, culpability, or responsibility! Just as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God," and Dostoevsky said, "If there is no God, all things are permissible." They want to believe they are mere animals and not in God's image, thus they act like animals by and large not answering to anyone. They want no righteous judge to watch their behavior, and supernatural creator to worship, and no divine lawgiver to obey! How convenient to feign intellectual problems when it's a matter of the heart! The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart!
The knowledge of God can be suppressed or muffled, but not destroyed--atheists live in a state of denial hiding behind smokescreens to muddle the issues or change the subject! Most atheists think of themselves as superior intellectually or as assuming the moral high ground, as they see Christians as hypocrites, but this is not the case because Christianity is defensible in the open marketplace of ideas and in the public square. Atheists do worship something or someone even if they claim to be nonreligious or have no God you can worship yourself or your abilities.
Man is by nature a religious being and must worship something, for we are hard-wired for worship. You can be religious without having a religion too, according to John Dewey! Atheism has even been declared a religion in the high courts. In the final analysis, they want to start with man and explain away God, rather than start with God and explain man! It's similar to the Protagoras, the Greek philosopher, saying, "Man is the measure of all things." Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll find something else to worship
This applies to Christians too because they can become practical atheists, living as if there were no God, despite faith in Him. Dostoevsky was right: "Man has forgotten God." And Will Durant puts it quite bluntly that "the greatest question of our time is whether men can bear to live without God," for in the eyes of many, "God is dead", and man has killed Him, like Nietzsche claimed, or made Him irrelevant and unnecessary. Atheism raises more questions that cannot be answered. It cannot answer life's ultimate questions. One paradox to consider is why so-called militant atheists have such animus toward a God that they don't believe exists, as if they hold a personal grudge--what did God do to them? What we are witnessing is anti-theism or militant atheism whereby they have declared war on people of faith.
In sum, atheism doesn't have all the answers and ignores the obvious evidence given to all, and God says they are without excuse (cf. Rom. 1:20)! No amount of evidence, circumstantial, experiential, or direct, will convince some doubters and skeptics. In the end, one must ask the atheist what evidence is there that there is no God! Christians see evidence everywhere, while they ask where is the evidence there is not God. There's ample evidence to the open-minded and willing, but never enough to convince those who don't want to believe! We can be assured God doesn't believe in atheists!
CAVEAT: WHERE YOU BEGIN HAS A LOT TO DO WITH WHERE YOU'LL END UP! Soli Deo Gloria!
Atheism is a bankrupt faith that cannot be proved and is only believed because of a gut reaction or animosity to God because they don't think He's fair, He didn't give them something they wanted, they see injustice and cannot rationalize it, or justify the ways of God to man, as did Milton in Paradise Lost. Atheism doesn't have a leg to stand on because you cannot prove a universal negative: how would you prove there are no little green men, for example, without being present everywhere and knowing all? Only God knows for sure! And so you would have to be God, quite ironically, to disprove God. Atheists often claim they are good people but have no motive other than selfish ones to be so. But they cannot explain goodness or why there's evil in the world. The biggest obstacle is that most people know there's a God as certainly as the law of cause and effect and see the evidence of a Designer from all the design in the cosmos.
The issues they cite are that they believe science, namely evolution, has undermined the Bible; God is merely a "delusion" or neurosis to be cured; God is the "opiate" of the people (what Marx thought) or anti-depressant; God is a "neurosis" or "projection" like the desire for a "father figure", a la Freudian theory; or that He is unnecessary to explain reality. The cosmos cannot be all there is because there is evidence of intelligence in the universe and this cannot be explained away as random energy or atoms in motion--there's something other than matter/energy! The cosmos had a beginning, and needs a cause or Beginner; because we know that everything in time and space had a beginning, but who began the so-called big bang to begin everything? ( It is a principle of logic that everything that begins to exist has a cause and everything captive to time had a beginning.)
Atheists need to know that they are people of faith also, and really of blind faith because they have no hard evidence that there is no God, they just cannot explain issues that have answers but they refuse to accept. They may be offended by God and have objections but not proof. There's more evidence for God than against Him, but one doesn't need all the answers to believe, even though there is sound evidence to base faith on. Norman Geisler wrote a book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, quite appropriately.
There is an ulterior motive for being an atheist: They don't want accountability, culpability, or responsibility! Just as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God," and Dostoevsky said, "If there is no God, all things are permissible." They want to believe they are mere animals and not in God's image, thus they act like animals by and large not answering to anyone. They want no righteous judge to watch their behavior, and supernatural creator to worship, and no divine lawgiver to obey! How convenient to feign intellectual problems when it's a matter of the heart! The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart!
The knowledge of God can be suppressed or muffled, but not destroyed--atheists live in a state of denial hiding behind smokescreens to muddle the issues or change the subject! Most atheists think of themselves as superior intellectually or as assuming the moral high ground, as they see Christians as hypocrites, but this is not the case because Christianity is defensible in the open marketplace of ideas and in the public square. Atheists do worship something or someone even if they claim to be nonreligious or have no God you can worship yourself or your abilities.
Man is by nature a religious being and must worship something, for we are hard-wired for worship. You can be religious without having a religion too, according to John Dewey! Atheism has even been declared a religion in the high courts. In the final analysis, they want to start with man and explain away God, rather than start with God and explain man! It's similar to the Protagoras, the Greek philosopher, saying, "Man is the measure of all things." Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll find something else to worship
This applies to Christians too because they can become practical atheists, living as if there were no God, despite faith in Him. Dostoevsky was right: "Man has forgotten God." And Will Durant puts it quite bluntly that "the greatest question of our time is whether men can bear to live without God," for in the eyes of many, "God is dead", and man has killed Him, like Nietzsche claimed, or made Him irrelevant and unnecessary. Atheism raises more questions that cannot be answered. It cannot answer life's ultimate questions. One paradox to consider is why so-called militant atheists have such animus toward a God that they don't believe exists, as if they hold a personal grudge--what did God do to them? What we are witnessing is anti-theism or militant atheism whereby they have declared war on people of faith.
In sum, atheism doesn't have all the answers and ignores the obvious evidence given to all, and God says they are without excuse (cf. Rom. 1:20)! No amount of evidence, circumstantial, experiential, or direct, will convince some doubters and skeptics. In the end, one must ask the atheist what evidence is there that there is no God! Christians see evidence everywhere, while they ask where is the evidence there is not God. There's ample evidence to the open-minded and willing, but never enough to convince those who don't want to believe! We can be assured God doesn't believe in atheists!
CAVEAT: WHERE YOU BEGIN HAS A LOT TO DO WITH WHERE YOU'LL END UP! Soli Deo Gloria!
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