World Religions in a Nutshell (19 page)

“
But God shows his anger from Heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.” (Romans 1:18–22, New Living Translation)

The Scriptures tell us that God has given “light” to every man (see John 1:9). This is evident in the fact that only 2 percent of the world’s 6.5 billion inhabitants claim to not believe in God. The problem with the atheist is that he has switched the light off. Our job (with the help of God) is to turn it back on, which we’ll look at later.

To consider the “religious beliefs” of the average atheist, I’ve taken the liberty to ask for input from the atheists who frequent my daily blog, “Atheist Central.”
²⁹
Their beliefs are presented differently than in the other religions, in that I’m letting the atheists speak for themselves about what they believe. I thought it might be helpful for you to hear the very arguments that atheists often use, in case you encounter them in witnessing.

Interspersed with their beliefs, I have included some thoughts (shown in brackets) on how to counter their thinking.

Who Is God?

“
All atheists disbelieve in all gods.”

“
Atheists believe no one has yet provided enough evidence to warrant a belief in god(s) or in the Christian context, God.”
³⁰

“
There is no reason to believe that a supernatural intelligent creator exists.”

[There are billions of reasons to believe in a supernatural intelligent Creator. From the order of DNA, to every atom, to the amazingly designed tiny fleas, to the massive elephants, to the sun and its circuit, to the millions of stars and the entire universe, there is incredible order. If you were walking along a beach and saw words written in the sand that said, “Johnny, make sure you come home at 5:00 p.m. for dinner. See you then. I love you. Mom xxxx,” could you ever believe that the order of the words happened by a random process—an accident? Could you conclude that perhaps the incoming waves left the words in the sand? Only a fool would think so. Their very order, information content, and constructed logic tell you that the message was written by an intelligent mind.]

“
No such thing. There’s no one who had a hand in creating the Universe, us, and who cares what we do with our lives. Just as real as Santa Claus and Zeus.”

“
Gods are what people think up before they understand the world around them. Gods die when answers to these mysteries are discovered and the old ones finally stop teaching the kids the lie.”

“
I don’t believe that such a being exists. While I can’t—and don’t—rule out the possibility, I can say that postulating a God or gods doesn’t usefully explain any observed phenomenon, and so I treat the idea in much the same way that I treat ghosts and fairies. Although, like ghosts and fairies, I can’t rule them out, I think it’s insensible to believe in them without compelling evidence first. After reading widely, I haven’t found Zeus or Apollo or Tûmatauenga or Shiva or Molech convincing, and I don’t find any compelling evidence for YHWH (the Christian God) either...”

[This is a popular philosophy parroted by contemporary atheists, and for those simple folk who don’t see creation as compelling, axiomatic evidence for a Creator, it seems convincing enough. This is because it paints theists as naive simpletons, and atheists as practical and thinking persons, when the opposite is the case.]

“
The closer we look at reality, the less need there is to postulate any being to explain nature. I am personally an ‘agnostic atheist,’ meaning that I do not and cannot rule out the possibility of a creator underlying the laws of nature themselves, but I find the likelihood of the existence of any such being to be astronomically small.”

“
There is none. That is to say, there was no ‘intelligence’ that created the universe, no source of good and evil beyond humanity itself, no supernatural all-powerful force with a will.”

“
An idea that is meant to be mainly a safety blanket, a guarantee of our ‘specialness,’ a way to cope with the unknown. That is not to say that God exists. I don’t think he does in any tangible or meaningful sense, other than inside the collective imaginations of human beings of one creed or another. Which, in short, doesn’t affect reality at all.”

“
One might suppose that at least atheists would have a uniform opinion on the God (to wit: there isn’t One). The trouble is, since there’s no authority to regulate who can call himself an atheist, that can excommunicate atheists, you get cases like the recent Pew Forum poll that found that 6% of self-described atheists believe in a personal God, and another 12% believe in an impersonal God...If there’s one thing that I would expect to unite atheists, it’s an attitude that it’s not up to them to prove that there is no God. They don’t see atheism as comparable to believing there is no gold in China; they see it more as believing that there are no dragons in China, and would insist that the burden of proof is on you to actually provide evidence for either Chinese dragons or God, not on them to check under every sofa cushion and rock in China to make sure that no dragon is hiding there.”

[The “burden of proof” is a favorite defense among modern atheists. It means that he can sit back as judge, and require the Christian to provide “credible” evidence. If the Christian doesn’t provide proof, he feels completely exonerated in his belief that God doesn’t exist. Yet, the judge is no judge at all. He’s a devious criminal demanding “evidence” when creation is staring him in the face.]

“
There probably aren’t any gods or deities.”

Who Is Jesus?

“
Whether Jesus existed or not we may never know. I have mixed opinions on the subject. If he did exist then I think he was probably a very good teacher, who had interesting philosophies. If he claimed to be the Son of God then I would think he was mentally unstable, and probably got a load of followers the same way modern day ‘messiahs’ like Michael Travesser
³¹
do.”

“
Atheism, by definition, lacks an opinion on the subject of Jesus other than rejecting the notion that he is a god.”

“
A radical Jewish rabbi that may or may not have lived around 2,000 years ago. If he did live, he was human, probably had a wife and children. His influence was great, and he had a few followers at first. After his death, his fellowship grew, and his followers eventually couldn’t fathom that a man was responsible for their teachings and they deified him by removing passages from their texts that retained his humanity, and emphasizing passages that deified him.”

“
Mostly mythological.”

“
I believe someone existed at some point with that name, was Jewish, and had a following. Whether he did anything in the New Testament is a different thing.”

[Most people have no idea that the entire Bible is about one person—Jesus of Nazareth. It speaks of Him from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation. It tells us that He created all things, including the eyes you are using to see these words, the lungs that are breathing in the oxygen He created, to feed the brain that He made so you can process them (see John 1:1–3). Of course, He hasn’t always been known as Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible tells us that He is God, eternally preexistent before the “incarnation.” He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). He created a body for Himself and became a man to suffer and die for the sin of the world.

Consider how the New Testament exalts Jesus of Nazareth. It calls Him “Lord” an incredible 618 times. He is the One to whom all humanity will one day bow the knee. He is called the “Christ” an amazing 543 times, and at times He is referred to as “Christ Jesus.” This is because “Christ” (“Messiah,” or “anointed one”) is a title rather than a name. We do the same thing with our presidents, in using the title “President” before the name of the person in that position.

He is called “Son of Man” 84 times, because He truly was a Man who had the ability to feel pain, experience thirst, and know the torment of fear. He is called “Son of God” 37 times, because He was truly God is human form, manifesting His authority over His creation by walking on water, stilling storms, healing disease, and conquering death.

There has never been anyone like Jesus of Nazareth. Listen to what Philip Schaff said of Him: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”]