”Why Believe in God?” - Chapter 2 of Know Why You Believe

Know Why You Believe
By K. Scott Oliphant

“Why Believe in God?” – Chapter 2

The New Atheism

• Recent Resurgence
  
  • Richard Dawkins
  • Christopher Hitchens
  • Sam Harris
  • Daniel Dennett
• Hostile and “Evangelistic”
• Religion is “Destructive.”

Reasons

• Reasons to Not Believe
  
  • Religious Abuses and Evils
    
    • Worst possible caricatures
    • Argument is not about religion per se but about the adherents of that religion.
    • Must distinguish between what Christianity is and what Christians do.
  • A skewed view of God based on a distorted reading of Scripture.
    
    • Reflects more the bias of the reader than a legitimate, fair reading of the Bible.
  • All the things that are wrong and all the suffering in the world.
    
    • If all the wrong in the world proves that everything is random and meaningless, then why is it so evil to believe in God?
• Reasons to Believe
  
  • “Agreement of the People” argument
    
    • 75% of people believe in a god.
    • Has been the dominant belief of people through the centuries
    • Not a sufficient proof, but does point to something deeper.
  • “Internal” Reasons
    
    • There is a reason why most people throughout time have believed in deity.
    • There is in every person a “sense of deity.”
    • “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” Rom 1:19
    • We know God through general revelation.
    • Our sin is direct rebellion against our Creator, because we know him.
    • Because of this knowledge, we are without excuse.
    • This knowledge is continually suppressed by sinful humanity.
    • These truths help to explain why there is a general agreement of the people
    • regarding the existence of deity.
    • The false deities that people have worshiped are evidence of the suppression and distortion of the basic knowledge of God available to us in conscience and nature.
  • “External” Reasons
    
    • God’s revelation in and through creation is always and everywhere both “internal” and “external.”
      
      • “Internal” revelation is that which God “implants” in us that speaks to our consciences.
      • “External” revelation is that which God is showing us through the world that we experience every day.
    • God’s revelation is in all creation, inside of us and outside of us.
    • This general revelation gives strength to so-called “proofs” for God’s existence.
      
      • Cosmological argument – argument from cause and effect.
        
        • The world is the “effect,” and God is the eternal “first cause.”
        • An atheist will not make the connection between this argument and the general revelation of God, because they have suppressed that knowledge.
        • It is easier and “more free” to believe in an uncaused universe than to believe in an uncaused God to whom we are accountable.
      • Ontological Argument – argument of necessary being
        
        • Our existence is limited and dependent, so there must be a being who is infinite and independent.
      • Teleological Argument – argument of design and purpose
        
        • The intricate design of the universe points to a master designer.
      • All of these “external” reasons for God testify of his existence. They ought to be obvious to everyone.
      • But sin clouds, distorts, and hides the obvious. Sinners distort and suppress the knowledge of God and reasonable arguments for his being.
      • How can the blind see?

Digging Deeper

• What is the root cause of the denial of God and a rejection of reasonable arguments for his existence?
• The atheist opts for a blind faith in an uncaused universe rather than a reasonable faith in a personal Creator God because the atheist does not want there to be a God.
• The “internal” and “external” reasons for God will not alone change the mind of an atheist because deep down they don’t want there to be a God.
• They have libertarian reasons for rejecting the existence of God that are stronger than any compelling arguments.

Responses

• So what do we do if the problem is in what people want rather than what they think?
• Atheistic arguments are inherently contradictory.
  
  • They argue that religion poisons everything because it tries to influence everyone. But aren’t atheists trying to influence others?
  • If everything that exists is by chance and meaningless, how do we determine good and bad?
  • Why is it a bad thing for Christians to seek to evangelize others? By what standard?
  • Why is opposition to evolution bad? Their strong defense of evolution proves that things do have meaning, which undercuts their belief in a meaningless universe.
  • What makes evolution “better” than religion and creationism if everything is morally indifferent and neutral?

Conclusion

• No matter how articulate and educated the denial of God is, the diagnosis is always the same.
• The unbeliever lives as if there is no God, and deep down they don’t want there to be a God.
• Unbelief is not due to a lack of evidence but to an inward rebellion.
• The only thing powerful enough to change the rebellion of the human heart, which itself is enslaved to sin, is the truth of God in the gospel.
• The sinful chains that bind the heart must be broken. Only the gospel can do that.
• We make our appeal to unbelievers based on the shared truth that all humanity has access to in conscience and in nature.
• We show how Christianity helps us to see everything else more clearly. It illumines the world and provides it meaning and purpose.