I don’t believe in god, at least the god that the atheists of today claim that Christians believe in. I recently had a conversation with a coworker where the topic of Christianity came up. When the conversation moved from what he is studying in college to him wanting to open a strip club and talking about his experiences in strip clubs, the conversation shifted.
I politely expressed to him that that was where I had to ask where the conversation was going, and he responded by saying, “Oh yeah, I forgot that you don’t do that stuff because you’re married.” I took him a little further and said, “It’s not merely because I’m married and I want to honor my wife that I don’t want to talk about your experiences with these unfortunate girls. Its because I love Jesus. He is better than all of that, and strip clubs don’t honor Him. You see, He knows what’s best for us, and I trust Him and obey what he commands of me for my good and for His glory.” After a brief confused look he said, “That’s right… You guys don’t like gay people either.” I realized how skewed his understanding of Christianity was, and I said, “No, James (not his real name). Jesus loves those people too. I have three friends who are Christians who wrestle with same-sex attraction, and I love them like brothers. Homosexuality is wrong, but that doesn’t mean that I hate them.”
Recent Happenings
This last week a Mike Aus, who was the pastor at Theophilus Church in Katy, Texas, made a statement that shocked his congregation and resulted in the dissolving of his church. He “came out” and said that he no longer believed in God. He then joined up with a group called the Clergy Project, which is an organization for pastors who have denounced their faith in God and is spearheaded by Richard Dawkins. When I saw their website with greetings from both Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett (two of the biggest advocates of the New Atheism) it broke my heart.
Are Christians Atheists?
History tells us that when Christianity was just beginning in Rome Christians were being persecuted, tried, and executed due to their “Atheism.” You see, the Romans believed that Christians were atheists because they refused to worship Caesar as god, which was customary. They then persecuted them for their beliefs. Christians were looked at as atheists because they didn’t worship a false god. Their’s was a religion that was built around this idea of Caesar as god.
What Does Atheism Know About Religion and Christianity?
Atheists are vehemently against any man-made religion, and so am I. Religions of this sort promote violence and do nothing of any value for their adherents or humankind in general. Many atheists claim that Christianity is a religion that promotes violence. This just demonstrates their ignorance of the Scriptures. Christianity, number one, is not a religion. Religion tells us that we obey God in order to gain His acceptance, but Christianity (and only Christianity) tells us that God loves us, therefore, we obey. Its a completely different idea that sets Christianity apart from any religion.
Along with this, adherents of atheism stake claim to reason. They believe that reason will lead you to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist. This is simply not the case. If you were to look merely at one argument amongst a myriad of arguments for the existence of God you would see that the most plausible conclusion is that God exists. For example, the cosmological argument demonstrates that there must have been a First Cause for everything. Translation: given Cause and Effect, you can track back every effect back to a cause. If you were to track it back far enough, there would have been an uncaused cause that set everything into motion. This starting point, or Unmoved Mover as Aristotle put it, is most logically a metaphysically necessary being (an uncaused being outside of the physical world), whom we call God. Also, faith, strictly defined, is to believe in something based upon evidence or good reasons and to put your trust in that thing. So, from one “atheist” to another, I’d encourage you to truly employ your reason and see where it takes you. I think you’ll find that the evidence points you to a loving creator who we can wholeheartedly put our faith in.
Question: What questions make it hard for you to trust in the existence of God?