Why I Am Not An Atheist!

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by Spencer D Gear

 

A.W. Tozer wrote that “what we believe about God is the most important thing about us.”[1] Philosopher, Mortimer Adler, agreed: “More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question.”[2]

I am not an atheist or an agnostic for at least two reasons:

First, take a look at the world around us! There is such incredible order and design in the universe. If we were nearer to the sun we would fry, but we’d freeze to death if we were further away.

When I examine how human life is sustained, I am amazed. Plants produce oxygen which human beings need. We produce carbon dioxide which plants need.

What about human reproduction? How are fingers, legs, hair, skin, blood and brains formed?

Atheism leaves me cold amongst such grandeur in our world.

Second, when I look at human beings, I see two opposites. There are incredible beauty and good will among us.

Australians give multiple millions of dollars every year to help the starving and oppressed. Others have left lucrative trades and professions to go to war-torn and destitute countries. What about the hospitals that have been built and staffed? Welfare agencies, both government and private, that make life easier for the hurting?

But there is another side: frustration, apathy, violence, nastiness, ugliness. And yet in the midst of this mess, people have a cry for meaning and purpose, for love, freedom, forgiveness, hope, even a cry for God.

I notice society is on the skids. I have met people sucked into the sexual freedom philosophy whose lives are in ruins. In over 25 years of counselling, I have never yet met a person who jumped into bed with as many people as he/she wanted and ended up saying this is the great life with no negative consequences.

George Bernard Shaw, atheist, writer and the brains behind My Fair Lady wrote,

“The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. I believed it once. In its name I helped destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”[3]

Atheism is powerless. When did you last hear somebody proclaim, “I have become an atheist and it has revolutionised my life. I was an alcoholic who abused my wife and now I have become the ideal man.” Atheism doesn’t have that power.

God does! There are hundreds in this city who can declare, “If anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

With confidence, God can say: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 53:1).

Notes:


[1] In Paul Little, Know What You Believe.ย  Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1970, p. 25.

[2] Mortimer Adler, Great Books of the Western World, ed. Robert Maynard Hutching, vol. 2.ย  Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952, p. 561.ย  Quoted in Paul Little, Know Why You Believe.ย  Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1987, p. 21.

[3] G. B. Shaw, Too True to be Good.ย  Constable & Co.ย  Quoted in Stephen Gaukroger, It Makes Sense. London: Scripture Union, 1989, p. 9.

 

Copyright (c) 2013 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 7 October 2015.

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