Professed atheists don’t believe in Christianity – or that God even exists. Well, I don’t believe in Atheism – or that an atheist even exists. It requires more cognitive dissonance than I think anyone can authentically muster. It takes far more faith to believe in nothing than something since something cannot come from nothing. When a scientist manages to create even a speck of dust or maybe a bush out of thin air, it will be credible that a genuine atheist walks the earth. When a 15 megapixel camera constructs itself, whereas the human eye is 576 megapixels, then maybe someone can reasonably deny a Creator. When we discover that a classic novel wrote itself and the letters formed themselves into beautiful prose, like the miles of DNA strands that miraculously form each individual’s unique physiological signature, then Atheism has a leg to stand on.
Constructing the illusion that there is no God takes a tremendous amount of hard work. It’s not easy to convince yourself that you hold a belief that, in the core of your being, you actually don’t. The empirical and experiential evidence for God is too overwhelming – in the complexity and synchronicity of creation, the birth of a baby, the heat from the sun, feelings of love, multi-layered immune systems…and our very existence. More importantly, just as almost everyone knows who their parents are, deep down we all know who our heavenly Father is. Our Father instilled in us a spiritual and moral compass that points directly back to Himself. The innate, undeniable connection we have with a parent persists even more strongly with the Lord.
The only question is the level of denial, distraction, pursuits and reeducation required to disavow our Father and designate as a spiritual orphan. It took a two-decade coordinated campaign by politicians, media and Hollywood to sell the delusion fueling America’s demise – the untenable belief that humans are inherently good, ironically defying all we see in politics, TV and movies. Not coincidentally, buying the lie that human nature is good in combination with pretending there is no God means we can be entrusted with unbridled autonomy to determine “truth”. The term “atheist” is therefore also a misnomer for “Nones” (claiming no religion) and the now “enlightened” (claiming ownership of truth) because they do worship a supreme being – Self.
Why People Reject Jesus
Human nature’s desire to sin without conscience or consequence is what causes avowed atheists to cling to the impossible and to dismiss the undeniable. When logic, observation and subconscious fail to prevail, we inevitably realize that only the spiritual can break through the spiritual. The battle against sinful human nature is a supernatural one, won only by the power and intervention of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing in this world will sway someone resolutely determined to live without any externally imposed constraints. Only Jesus can inject the eternal to interrupt the ultimate objective of those firmly entrenched in the temporal – the pursuit of happiness. The great awakening for the spiritually dead is often a realization that the world can never offer what it never had – joy, peace and contentment. We can only pray that after living their “truth”, consuming their fill or enduring enough hardship they discover before it’s too late that meaning and fulfillment are not found on this planet without Christ. Unfortunately, instead of resignation and reform many so-called atheists turn to medication and materialism to blunt the trauma of traveling a road to nowhere.
Secular leaders stand to gain by keeping citizens, constituents and customers from Christianity. There is a choreographed agenda driving the concurrent movements to foster the delusion of mankind’s goodness and the illusion that there is no God. Governments have difficulty controlling those who abide by a different set of laws. Companies find it challenging to sell products when buyers are not self-centered and greedy. Universities cannot indoctrinate minds in their worldly philosophies if students subscribe to a faith that contradicts their “facts”. Media has trouble generating ad revenue when potential viewers resist human nature and refuse to watch news and shows filled with sex and violence. As we have already seen in most other nations, those influencers are conspiring today in America to discredit Christianity and applaud “atheists” for the purpose of maximizing power and profits through the following progression…
- Pursuing Happiness – The process begins innocently enough, at least so it seems, by championing equality, justice and unity for all
- Redirecting Faith – Rescue the oppressed, print dollars and heal diseases, positioning leaders as savior to make people forget they once cried out to God for help
- Garnering Trust – Portray all who came before as evil, revising history to label Christians as oppressors and secular society as now free from the shackles of religion
- Establishing Control – Human nature always betrays (undeserved) trust in human nature, but by the time an unsuspecting nation knows it has been deceived, it’s too late and the liberties promised in a post-Christian society are quickly reversed
So the powerful and prosperous do what they can to eradicate Christian faith and values, despite all the experiences and observations (of God’s handiwork) to the contrary. Yet because God does exist, the arguments against Christianity and excuses for not believing are trite and fragile. Those uneducated in science bet their lives on it. Those pointing to hypocrisy in the church fully grasp their own. Those who say they’ve tried church and it wasn’t for them blame God for man’s faults. Those refusing to acknowledge the need for a Savior do their best to shut off their God-given consciences to hide their guilt and shame. Those unable to wrap their finite minds around the invisible cannot prove God does not exist but require Christians to prove that He does. Those who cannot conceive of a God who would let bad things happen to good people mistakenly see themselves as good. Those viewing religion as a matter of personal preference forget that man cannot turn God into something He is not.
God is who God is. Conforming Him to our image does not actually alter Him. Nor does any degree of disbelief make God cease to be. Denying Him does not disintegrate Him. Ignoring Him won’t make Him ignore us. Christianity is unique in that we have seen God. We know exactly who the Lord is. Jesus came to dispel any misconceptions and expose the fatal flaw in every other religion – the aspiration to ascend up to God through good works or “inner divinity” when God had to descend down to save helpless and fallen humanity.
Despite efforts to discredit Christianity, there is a desire to know God lurking below the surface of all “atheists”. For example, many regularly attend “church” on this blog’s Facebook page, commenting passionately on topics they profess to care nothing about. The anger apparent in their tone conveys a past, profound disappointment with something God either did or did not do for them. Now they feel compelled to restate their patented arguments to confirm their tenuous, unfounded convictions – uncertain of their veracity yet likely certain of the severe consequences of being wrong.
How Should Christians Respond?
Armed with the knowledge that there are no atheists, what should churches and Christians do differently to reach “Nones”? Understanding the real “lay of the land” should close the gap in our minds between “us” and “them” – and prompt us to action! All nonbelievers stand on the verge of belief – their misplaced confidence in strawman excuses and concerted efforts to silence God’s promptings leave their resolve hanging by a thread. They are far more receptive on the inside than they appear to be on the outside. Many will abandon the vagaries of relativism in favor of absolute truth if Christians abandon ineffective evangelism in favor of Jesus’ methods…
- Be Different, Not Distant – Reopen lines of communication through humble confession and accountability, preemptively dismantling the superiority complexes maintained by many Christians and supposed “atheists”
- Be Caring, Not Critical – Through extraordinary acts of kindness and fighting on the front lines for justice, debunk secular characterizations of Christians as “oppressors”
- Be Bold, Not Bashful – “Atheists” are more willing to listen and engage in discussion with Christians than some may think, more aware of their sin than they care to admit
- Be Opportunistic, Not Oblivious – Don’t miss chances to fan the flames of doubt that creep in when “atheists” observe creation, wrestle with their conscience, and face mortality
- Be Exponential, Not Expedient – Replace attractional church services with disciple-making, conceding that efforts to appeal to “atheists” alienated them, providing fodder to mock Christians rather than equipping believers to go out to those who would never step into a sanctuary
- Be Patient, Not Panicked – Persist in prayer, care and share because the hopelessness of being a cosmic accident with no purpose may eventually open the door to the Gospel
- Be Faithful, Not Flustered – Relax and know the outcome of dropping seeds on hard ground do not depend on us; only God can cause them to grow if that’s His will
With America in its penultimate stage, if the rise and fall of historical superpowers is any guide, then society will continue to turn away from God and toward decadence, dependence and division. The good news is there is hope because no matter what anyone says, there’s no such thing as an atheist.
It’s Your Turn
Do you agree that in the inner recesses of our beings and in observing the outer world around us, it is impossible for an individual made in the image of God to truly believe He does not exist?
16 Responses
Amazing article . You have seemed.to touch all the bases . I believe you were God inspired.to write this , so so much truth . I hope every.believer has a chance to read this . It will inspire them that much more to carry on the Great Commission . God blesses and please keep writing .
Jim,
“How Should Christians Respond” is excellent application for implementation. It prompts us to #reimagineEVANGELISM… #reimagineCHURCH…
Theologically, I believe every person has the “image” of God but I also believe awareness of that presence/reality has been corrupted beyond recognition without the work of the Spirit:
Ephesians 2:1 And his fullness fills you, even though you were once like CORPSES,[literal translation] dead in your sins and offenses. 2 It wasn’t that long ago that you lived in the religion, customs, and values of this world, obeying the dark ruler of the earthly realm who fills the atmosphere with his authority, and works diligently in the hearts of those who are disobedient to the truth of God. 3 The CORRUPTION that WAS IN US FROM BIRTH was expressed through the deeds and desires of our self-life. We lived by whatever natural cravings and thoughts our minds dictated, living as rebellious children subject to God’s wrath like everyone else.”
Maybe the reality is that one can be an “atheist” (believes a God does not exist) but no one is a non-Theist, because like it or not, God is all around you and wants to be alive within you.
Your turn…
Phil
Discipleship.Network
Such a useless article. No atheists believe in nothing, or that something can come from nothing. (Even Krauss’ book, “A universe from nothing” was referring to a quantum environment and not a philosophical nothing, and it was mainly the publisher’s decision to use a provocative title to boost sales.) No atheist ever says this; it’s a strawman that only apologists pass around to each other and preach to their fellow Christians about atheists, because it’s an easy argument to knock down. Stop saying atheists think “the universe came from nothing.”
Wherever the universe came from, it very likely wasn’t from a god. That’s what I think. That’s it. There are literally an infinite number of non-god possibilities that we can speculate about, all of which if true would be sufficient to cause our universe to exist. All of them have equal supporting evidence, namely NONE, including the god explanation.
Until there is reliable objective evidence that supports one of these explanations to the exclusion of all the others, I have no inclination to accept, believe, or promote any of these hypothetical explanations.
No cognitive dissonance. No faith. No claims or facts about any fundamental nature of reality that I have to defend or believe. I can also have joy, peace, and contentment because those are emotions and humans are capable of feeling emotions.
Atheists simply don’t need a belief in god to get by, like many Christians who have been indoctrinated to feel worthless and wretched without a god, and so we are free to see the irrationality of such beliefs for what they are. There are no questions we aren’t allowed to ask, that will cause us to be disowned or ostracized. We’re free to follow our doubts, and we don’t need ontological certainty about the universe. We don’t need an ultimate answer for everything. We believe things once there is sufficient evidence to warrant those beliefs, and until that time we are comfortable admitting that no one seems to know the answer yet. This really isn’t complicated.
Yes, the artificial crutches you need to support your self-worth are explained by the dogma designed to make you feel crippled and provide those fake crutches. Atheism does not provide those crutches, because it’s not supposed to, and in fact we’re pointing out that your crutches aren’t needed and your legs are actually working fine.
I think that it is far easier to believe that the universe came from “nothing” than to believe that some super intelligent being with the power to create the universe came from nothing. And don’t try to feed me that crap about God existing before time began because I could say the same thing about the forces that created the Big Bang. I also find it impossible to believe that such a being, if it existed, would have a mentality that required his creations to either worship it or burn in Hell. On the other hand, that type of God serves as a perfect tool for the psychological enslavement of the masses. If a human father required his child to worship him, a vast majority of people would assume that that person was crazy and attempt to remove the child from his custody.
You loaded the question by saying “an individual made in the image of God” but with or without that, of course atheists can and do believe God does not exist, it is their title and the theists have only as much validity to claim that they do actually believe in God as atheists have to claim that theists actually do not believe in God.
You shouldn’t mock Christians like this, dear writer. No Christian is actually this stupid or this inclined to straw manning. It’s really unfair to pretend they don’t believe in atheists. I much preferred the bit where you ‘encouraged’ them to be opportunistic, since that’s actually quite plausible. Overall, I kinda liked the article, but you’re really just picking the low hanging fruit at this point. If I may make a suggestion, your next argument could be about how we’re all descended from Hoenir, Lodur (AKA Loki,according to some) and Odin, as the good book says, which are either two unknown characters and Odin, or all Odin, as a really early example of the Trinity I look forward to your bold piece!
He has dogmatic belief system rooted in the super natural without out any evidence ,even if one coat with the odd scientific facts is not a convicting argument for god and Christianity. There extraordinary amount of evidence for evolutionary process over millions of years , to explain the development of eye/vision in mammals, without an out need for a fine tuning “creator”. The author is using the God of gaps to fill in for lack of knowledge. He is generally operating from a motivational reasoning, looking for “evidence that confirm his firmly his entrench beliefs to support unquestionable faith (without the need of critical reasoning/evidence to do so ). He want at all cost to have a simple explanation to that create certainty, as in human image of of just universe; when human s are” special because they are create in god,s image” instead just being just another animal . It clear he is a christian nationalist wanting America to be theorist state(fascism American style)His denial of the existence is almost like Putin’s refusal to believe accept Unkainians as not Russians. The so called Christian god sent people forever for not believing or knowing him regards of the quality of their lives. This perfect all knowing, all powerful, ever present who create an cruel imperfect world to condemned most of human creatures to hell, because their refuse his” perfect love”. There is no shortage of example of historical Christian institutional violence ( ask the the First nations peoples in regards to Residential schools/ Reservations systems in Canada and the U.S.; murder them on mass ,destroying their cultural and their religions to steal their lands ; with the promise of “saving their Souls”All this done in the name of Christian white supremacy base on American Exceptlonalism . I would not be surpise for that he is patiently waiting the”Rapture” to finally “fix the world for him and fellow christians.I am in general agreement with my fellow Atheist he does not know anything about a Atheism or the variety of atheists ( as there is no clear evidence of a God or Gods is one definition).He greatly offend by the idea.that atheists might exit, so in his mind can’t!
I’m an atheist you can’t say I’m not. Being an atheist is not claiming there is no such things as gods. You don’t accept other gods I just go one step further. You are an atheist when it comes to other gods. Yet I don’t believe your claim that there is your god. Could you please show me evidence that yours is real. Please don’t go to “for the bible tells me so” it is just a book to me. If you just look in the dictionary you would quickly see that your definition is wrong. You can argue from a definition that no one uses but that is just useless. So from the dictionary “a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.” Why did you use a definition that no one uses.
I’m amazed that someone could spend so much time constructing an article detailing how hard it is to not believe in a higher power of any kind. In fact it is extremely easy to not believe in any higher power. The main point I gathered was we are born believing in something sort of higher power. Which is very ignorant in and of itself. I can’t even begin to believe in a higher power I see zero evidence of a higher power ever waking moment. You may continue to believe in your fairytales while I will remain firmly here in reality.
DO NOT WORRY THERE WILL BE NO ATHEISTS IN HEAVEN!!!
According to the author of this article,…”something cannot come from nothing”. If that statement is correct, where did the god come from? Gods cannot come from nothing? Even even the most humble and insignificant organisms such as a god have to be created.
Imagine your walking along the beach and you see a little god sitting in the sand humming a Metallica song…Surely that god just didn’t appear out of nothing? No it had a designer, and if that god had a designer, so did that god, and that god, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum.
As you can see this explains nothing.
I’m an atheist because no one has ever shown me verifiable proof of their god(s) existence.