When we consider the dichotomy between faith in God and the lack of faith that is the fundamental premise of atheism, we discover several polarizing perspectives. While believers in God exhibit a reverence and love for Him, many atheists harbor a deep hatred for an entity they claim does not exist.
Atheists often portray Christians as unintelligent, primitive thinkers who are brainwashed by religion and unable to accept the intellectual reasoning of the scientific theory that suggests all things are the result of random, natural processes. Interestingly, they accept “through faith” that science is correct despite evidence to the contrary. Science has proven itself fallible and scientists are just as susceptible to error as anyone.
A common argument of atheists is that they can only accept testable and provable theories, which illustrates a narrowmindedness that brims with hypocrisy. Belief in the theories of the big bang and evolution, for example, require the acceptance of untestable and unprovable proxies.
The number of missing links in biology, the quantum leaps in chemistry required to spontaneously originate life, or the laws of physics that have to be broken by the big bang, are indicative of the astronomical remoteness of the possibility the universe is the result of random chance. The speculative nature of these scientific explanations for the existence and origin of life amount to an inescapable amount of faith that exceeds by far the faith required to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Suppressing Truth While Promoting Untruth
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-23, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who supress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God has been made plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…”
Paul goes on to say that people who do not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God show contempt to Him by rejecting Him. Most atheists assert that there is no God. While claiming to be open minded, they absolve themselves from any responsibility and insist that believers supply the burden of proof for God’s existence.
The dilemma for atheists is that while one cannot provide scientific proof of God’s existence, one cannot provide scientific proof He doesn’t exist either. Scientific methodology by its own admittance cannot prove or disprove anything that cannot be tested in a natural setting or lab. Since God is supernatural, He is outside of the scope of the scientific method.
Astronomical Improbabilities
Can it be coincidence that something exploded from nothing in an event we call the Big Bang and suddenly all this rock and stardust appeared, where before there was nothing? That the sun formed from nothing, as did the rest of the planets, and they just happened to be spinning at just the right speed, in just the right orbits, at just the right distance from the sun to support life on earth?
Did serendipity dictate that our solar system include a huge planet like Jupiter with an enormous gravitational pull that intercepts the biggest earthbound meteors, so they don’t destroy earth? That water that is essential for life, is only found on earth and here it is found in abundance (70% of the earth is covered by water)? That our atmosphere has just the right amount of oxygen to support life and that the earth is the only place with an atmosphere? That photosynthesis and plants exist to recycle the carbon dioxide that we breathe out and turn it back into oxygen for us to breathe in?
How did over one million species evolve in pairs of males and females, each with fully functioning reproductive organs, appear simultaneously in the same vicinity to facilitate meeting and mating to propagate and yet leave no signs (prior to the Cambrian explosion) of how they did it? Despite an abundance of exploration, paleontologists have never uncovered a missing link or a fossil of a half-evolved life form, nor has macro-evolution ever been observed in the natural world.
Why are fossils so perfectly preserved if they supposedly took millions of years to form? The fact that there are no signs of decay and fossils of fish in the process of eating other fish have been found, points to a sudden, catastrophic global event like the flood of Noah (see The Flood That Happened, Sept 10, 2022), not millions of years of fossilization.
What science does tell us is the probability of a universe developing that can support life, through random chance, is so incredibly infinitesimal that it’s practically impossible. The laws of nature and the initial parameters at the beginning of the universe had to be precisely balanced for life to exist. And the chances are so unlikely of this happening due to chance alone, that something or someone must have tuned the universe for life.
The explosive force of the Big Bang would have had to be within one part in ten to the power of sixty for life to be possible. If the Big Bang would have been just the slightest bit weaker, gravity would have caused the universe to collapse back on itself almost immediately. But if it had been just the slightest bit stronger, particles would have dispersed quickly and completely to the point they could not be measured. To put this into perspective, this probability could be compared to firing a bullet towards the other side of the universe, 20 billion light-years away, and having the accuracy to hit a one-inch target.
The laws of nature reflect the influence of intellectual design. The odds of all the functional proteins necessary for life forming in one place by natural processes, to create a spontaneous cell, is less than one in ten to the 40,000th power. So life could not have “just happened.” No matter how much time evolutionists want to attached to the “theory,” it simply isn’t plausible. The pragmatic inference is that God created everything.
Ascertaining Truth Requires Impartiality
In order to discover truth, one must be open to the truth that exists. Honest debate requires us to overcome our presuppositions and objectively evaluate the evidence that is available.
The question of God’s existence is both metaphysical and empirical in nature. While God is outside of the laws of nature (in fact He created them and controls them), He is also interacting with them. This panentheistic view is illogical for skeptics who either perceive God as a creator/spectator or an immaterial force which is part of all things. At the same time, however, God exercises extreme restraint from infringing upon the freedom of choice bestowed upon mankind, allowing us to fully experience our freedom, even to the point of denying His existence.
Atheists often argue that a loving God could never allow so much evil in the world. They will surmise that if evil and suffering exist, God must not exist. However, in order to distinguish between good and evil, some moral standard must exist, therefore, we are forced to consider the source of the moral standard. The Bible attributes the source of our moral standard to God.
If evolution is assumed to be true, the existence of a moral standard is nonsensical since we would be nothing more than evolved animals competing for food, space and the right to reproduce and propagate the species. Morality sets humanity apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and exemplifies our status of being created in God’s image.
Since people have intrinsic dignity and worth, they have the ability to value themselves and subsequently value others as well. If we believe that humans have value, it follows that all things have value. Morality is an objective code given to humanity by God, who created people and understands our value infinitely more than we do ourselves.
Evil is a reflection of the heart of man, not the heart of God. In order to be perfect and just, God created man with the freedom of choice. If He didn’t, mankind would not be able to love freely, have compassion freely, honor God freely and recognize evil thereby freely choosing to do good. The contrast between good and evil is as stark as day and night.
John 3:19-21 tells us, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
The dichotomy between belief and unbelief is both profound and extreme. Atheists demand proof of the existence of God yet evidence surrounds us. Unwilling to see the forest for the trees, they resort to promoting a delusion that life began without God and attempt to rationalize their presuppositions with science. The Bible says, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” (1 Corinthians 3:19a).
