Question on Atheism

Follow us on the web

Subscribe to the Diocese's Email List

Join to receive messages from His Grace and event reminders or update your information.

home › resources › literature › Question on Atheism

Question Submitted to the Diocese:

(a) What is the belief system of an atheist regarding God?
(b) How should a Christian approach and teach an atheist about the One True God?
(c) What scientific evidence supports the existence of God?

Response:
The question of what an atheist says about God is at once rather simple and rather complex. The simple part of it is that the atheist says that there is no God and the only thing that absolutely exists is matter. Popular atheist Madalyn O'Hair describes atheism in these words:

We atheists try to find some basis of rational thinking on which we can base our actions and our beliefs, and we have it...[the] philosophy of materialism....Essentially, materialism's philosophy holds that nothing exists but natural phenomena....There are no supernatural forces, no supernatural entities such as gods....We atheists believe that nature simply exists. Matter is. Material is.

It should be emphasized that whether a person calls himself an atheist, agnostic, materialist, or what not, this is his basic belief.

Many atheists also try to "soften" their denial of God by saying that God is simply unprovable, that there can never really be any scientific evidence against Him, but then again none really for Him. Therefore, the question of God would best be dropped altogether while we go on trying to live reasonably good lives. But such people are only playing games. For those who try to soften their denial of God by claims of His simple unknowability are usually trying to avoid either the social stigma that comes with the label "atheist," or else the real-life ramifications of their denial.

In the one case, a person typically identifies himself as not an atheist but an "agnostic," tells us about how the word is Greek, and that it means that since God is unknowable (whether He exists or not), that person is freed from worrying about Him. He thus grants himself a dispensation from religious belief and at the same time avoids the taunt of being branded an "atheist."

In the other case, a person softens his denial in order to avoid having to defend the ramifications of the belief that the only thing that really exists is matter. Because if matter is all that really is, then things like morals and manners and rules and limits must of necessity all be fake. But if that were true, then that atheist would have no problem with thieves raiding his house, or strangers opening his mail, or paying double the actual cost of an automobile, or being insulted in public, or any such thing. But, of course, there is no doubt that he would be angered by all of these things-violations of safety, privacy, fairness, and politeness-qualities which would have no meaning in a universe that was God-less.

The complex part of the question is why atheists choose not to believe. Contrary to common conception, atheism has very little to do with logic; seldom is it a purely intellectual choice. Experience shows that the majority of atheists is so and become hardened in their opinions because of some sort of dominating sinful behavior in their lives. When you talk to an agnostic and he tells you that Christian morals are arbitrary and unnecessary, it is very likely because he is hooked on obscene language or sexual sin or alcoholism or anger or something of that nature. Or when an atheist tells you that the Christian teaching of humility does no good but to chain down human potential, he is most likely himself a slave of arrogance. And if accepting God would mean having to abandon all of one's favorite sins, as well as admitting that one has been wrong for many, many years, then it is often just easier to stay an atheist. Conversion seems to pose an extreme "hassle" for nonbelievers, an unwelcome destabilization of life's routine; just as repentance sometimes poses too great a "hassle" for wayward Christians.

There is also the difficulty of faith. Faith has a special importance in religion because it is sometimes the only thing that will allow a person to transcend his own sphere of sense perception in his life experience. After a person has lived for 20 years, around 95% of his knowledge of the world has been gained through his five physical senses. He has learned about trees, music, perfumes, sweets, and so on through direct confirmation by his senses; and so he becomes so dependent on them that he gets into the habit of accepting only those things learned through sense experience as having a definite, hard reality. The other 5% of his knowledge comes indirectly through teaching. He is taught about China, Napoleon, dinosaurs, atoms, and other such things that simply cannot be detected by the senses. And so they take on somewhat of a secondary reality to him; they are in a way mystical things. They are taken more by faith than by proof.

So when an atheist says he disbelieves in God because he has "no confirming evidence," he is merely expressing the fact that he has lived so long gaining definite knowledge through his five senses, that moving to a definite knowledge of God (using faith) is simply outside his realm of experience. He cannot imagine how it would be done. He is simply an unwavering devotee to his senses.

So the next question that arises is, once you have met a hard-bitten atheist, how do you convince him that God exists? There is a sad truth that must be faced: in most cases you simply will not be able to convince him. You may read every "proof of God" that you can find, all the way from Aristotle's First Mover to Thomas Aquinas' Five Proofs to modern books on the subject; but when you lay all such theories out to the atheist standing before you-no matter how logical and convincing they are-he will have an automatic rejection mechanism in his head that will be able to find fault with every single one of your proofs. This is not to say that such proofs are useless. They are useful and beneficial when used in their proper place. But the point here is that since he has from the outset decided that God does not exist, all such proofs will turn out simply not good enough for him-especially if he must rearrange the shape of his whole life in order to accept them.

So what is the only really effective means of convincing an atheist that God is present? By showing forth the type of life that has been transformed by His touch. When an atheist sees the unmistakable marks of Christian compassion in your life, forgiveness, generosity, honesty, nobility, faith-such things that the world is for the most part devoid of-he will begin to inquire into the source of these virtues. And once he finds that the source is Christianity, he very likely will begin taking the Christian religion seriously. Conversely, if all he sees in you is the same old nature and the same worldly behavior that he sees in his secular colleagues, your efforts to change him will be completely in vain.

Once he sees that your life is drastically different, "set apart" from the rest of the unbelieving throngs, then and only then will there be sowed in his heart the tiny seed of potential faith. And of course, the life you lead should never be Christ-like just to convince an atheist you know. Your life should be Christ-like precisely because Christ has taken hold of your heart before ever meeting the atheist: you have to be Christ's servant the very start.