On Atheism

Where did it all start?

When I was younger I used to call myself an atheist. But there was one thing that always stumped me: Where did the Big Bang come from? Well it seems there’s an explanation for that. Apparently it has been observed that particles occasionally pop into existence and then shortly disappear as a result of quantum energy fluctuations. But where did that quantum energy come from? Heck, where did time and space come from? No matter how much scientists discover, this question will always remain: “But what was before that?”. I’m not necessarily supporting creationism either, because I’m not sure how the world was created. The Bible isn’t meant to be a textbook. I’m simply pointing out that there are holes in every creation theory, so whatever you believe about how the world was made, you must take a leap of faith.

You might ask, “But why explain it away with ‘God did it’ instead of trying to find a scientific explanation?” Again, I don’t think anyone can really know how the world was made, but nor am I suggesting that we do away with scientific investigation. Science and Christianity are not mutually exclusive. Just because we have a “natural” cause for the world doesn’t mean there is no “deliberate” cause. For example, if you ask why the water is boiling, then a scientist could easily explain to you why water boils. That is the physical cause. However, the deliberate cause is that grandma wanted a cup of tea. Why God created the world is because it was good to do so. How he created the world is a question I’ll leave to the scientists.

Logic

There are certain things which aren’t bound by time and space. They are transcendant. Some examples are numbers, ideals, or logic. If you can understand this, you can understand how God is transcedant.

The Gospel of John calls God the “Logos”, which is the Greek word from which “logic” is derived from. It means “word”, “discourse”, or “reason”. According to Wikipedia is related to the Ancient Greek word “lego”, which literally translates to “I say”. God speaks things into existence. He says, and it is so. “Let there be light” is one of His most famous sayings. In fact, “logos” is rendered as “word” in our English Bibles. “Logos” is also related to the Latin word “lex” (lit. “law”), and God is the law. He literally is the law. He created it and it is Him. God is perfect, He is the thing which we all strive for. Some of us just don’t know it.

Morality

God is the definition of good. There is no good without God (Matthew 19:17). Why would anybody be moral without God? Correct answer: they wouldn’t. The concept of objective morality doesn’t exist without God.

To an athiest, morality is defined by survival/self-interest. This means that in situations where standard Christian morality has no effect, or negative effect, on their self-interest, then they would abandon it. If you maintain that it’s wrong to do wrong, even when it negatively impacts your survival, then there must be some higher moral standard which you are appealing to.

We were created for Him

We were created to worship God. As a result, we literally cannot live without worshipping something. If we reject God, then we are worshipping something else. Even devoted atheists worship the god of nature or fortune. They adhere to the law of the jungle, following a kind of morality that is determined by the necessities of survival. The classical philosophers were more explicit about their worship of “Nature”, but it’s no different these days. Everyone has a worldview, and a worldview requires a defined sovereign being, even if that sovereign being is themself.

Finis

Whatever you believe, you believe it by faith. But if you don’t believe in God, you are wrong. God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the higher moral standard. Whether we worship Him, or something else, we are still worshipping something. Just make sure that something is Good.

Afterword

How Do I Know Jesus is God?

There have been few successful “prophets” throughout history who have claimed to be God. This is because as soon as they made such a claim, they would be considered a lunatic. However, unlike false prophets, Jesus wasn’t striving to be popular. He was striving to speak the truth.

All of the apostles saw Jesus perform amazing miracles. All but one of them suffered painful gruesome deaths. Would you be crucified upside down or boiled alive for something you knew was a lie?

God is Not Angry

Actually, I couldn’t tell you whether God is angry or not because I don’t know. I do know that He didn’t kill His Son out of anger. A lot of Protestants seem to talk as if there was some sort of heavenly bank account of wrath, and God got to vent His anger on Jesus, which somehow made God not angry at us anymore or something. But that doesn’t make any sense. Richard Dawkins amusingly summarizes the whole thing as “divine child abuse”. However, that is not what happened. God has always extended His grace to sinners, even before Jesus was crucified. Jesus came along to create a new covenant, because we had misinterpreted the old one. He came to show us what a perfect life was meant to look like. He came to show us that death is not to be feared.

Does God “send” people to Hell?

No.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ObXauowei3A

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