OnTaking Atheism Seriously (Part 1)

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Jun 30,2009, 11:51AM

OnTaking Atheism Seriously (Part 1)

Christians think many things of atheism. But from my experience most Christians do not think atheism is intellectually serious. The main reason, it would seem, derives from certain conclusions drawn from scripture, most significantly from Romans 1:

"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 people 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." (20-21)

In this passage Paul seems to say that all human beings know there is a God, and so the extent to which they reject belief in God reflects a refusal to submit to the God they already know exists.

Let's back up to verse 18: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness...." This is the group that is being specifically discussed in verses 20-21, a group of godless and wicked human beings. So the question: is someone who affirms the proposition "There is no God" de facto godless and wicked?

Imagine a young man named Hans who is born in Germany in 1925. Hans grows up in an insular, intolerant Lutheran church through which he comes to associate "God" with dead orthodoxy, legalism, and racism ... particularly against the Jews.

On Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) Hans sees the neighborhood synagogue burned to the ground and a number of Jews, including some trusted friends, beaten in the streets (even children and grandmothers) and then deported to concentration camps. That Sunday Hans' pastor preaches a blazing sermon on the righteous judgment of God against the Jews.

Over the next several years Hans witnesses Germany descend into an orgy of genocidal violence with the widespread support of the Lutheran church. For all Hans can see, the Third Reich and Christianity are inextricably linked. This leaves Hans deeply conflicted. He wants to believe there is a God, but the only God he has known is one that approves the slaughter of grandmothers and toddlers.

Finally, in 1944 he meets a group of anti-Nazi insurgents who have renounced belief in God altogether. After deep reflection Hans tentatively concludes with the members of this group that there is no God. And he vows to fight the demonic oppression of the Third Reich alongside them so that he may save as many Jews as he can.

Hans is now an atheist. That is, he believes the proposition "There is no God." Is he therefore one of those Paul denounces as godless and wicked?

OnTaking Atheism Seriously (Part 1)

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Most recent comments

1.July 10,2009, 1:55PM

RD Rauser, that is very good, and I think that you are going to find a much more fruitful disscussion if you go that path.

I was simply commenting about what the article (and the comments below) was actually about, which was Christianity being presented in a bad way and people rejecting it as a result. Your comment, although true in that it's a better way of doing things, isn't related in the same way, and is another topic entirely.

--Drakim

2.July 03,2009, 5:10PM

Drakim,

You said that some reject Christianity because they find it repulsive. Such subjective responses are not that interesting to me however. I prefer to engage with those who reject Christianity for rational, evidential grounds. That gives me an objective ground on which to have a dialogue.

--RD Rauser

3.July 03,2009, 11:12AM

I can't tell you how wrong this idea of "atheists know there is a god but deny it" is. I have no such knowledge. And the sad fact is that the Nazi Party *was* inspired by Christian thought: Martin Luther's insane rants against the Jewish people, as well as other ludicrous spiritual claims that hearkened to a mythical Germanic past. Nor do atheists claim "There is no god." We simply don't believe theists' claims that there is one, that they know what it wants, and that what it wants is "good."

--Will E.

4.July 01,2009, 2:42PM

Have you ever considered that many atheists perhaps reject Christianity not because it's presented in the wrong way, but because they find the very concept of Christianity repulsing?

tpique1 nails my objections pretty perfectly. He presents a world-view where humanity is at the very deepest levels utterly corrupt and wicked. We are all evil and deserve the worst! He claims that not a single action of good has been our own doing, but Jesus. "We are all wicked."

--Drakim

5.June 30,2009, 11:38PM

"So the question: is someone who affirms the proposition "There is no God" de facto godless and wicked?"

Most rational atheists hold that proposition provisionally, citing the lack of good reason to accept the positive claim that a god exists. Certainly that makes them godless (but then so are all humans from the atheist point of view since a god is probably non-existent), but it would be both ignorant and dishonest to label them "wicked," which is defined as "deviation from morality" by Webster.

--ylooshi

6.June 30,2009, 10:34PM

Very challenging thought RD. I've often wondered, if someone rejects Jesus through a gross misrepresentation of who he was, what he did for us and what he taught... who is more culpable on judgment day? The "Christian" who taught hate and murder and evil, or the "atheist" who rejected Christ based on what the Christian taught. Perhaps the atheist is using his intrinsic knowledge of God as described in Romans 1 in his rejection of this type of Christian teaching. We prayerfully hope that those who rejected Christ due to how he was represented have opportunity to know the real Jesus as shown in the Bible.

--Discerning?

7.June 30,2009, 5:38PM

When I say we are all godless and wicked. I am referring of course to the pre-salvation experience.

--tpique1

8.June 30,2009, 5:37PM

We are all godless and wicked. The only "goodness" we can ever claim to possess is not based on any of our own doing. It is only because Christ inhabits us. The Bible says that the wrath of God abides upon the wicked. It is only when Jesus Christ becomes a shield to block us from that wrath that we can even remotely claim goodness. Because it isn't our goodness that is seen, but Christ's in us. The Bible says the heart is desperately wicked. Notice it doesn't specify any particular heart but lumps us all into the mix. We are all wicked.

So yes, to answer your question, young Hans is indeed wicked, not because of his stance on the "God question" but because he fails to walk in the light of his conscience and the testimony of God written on his heart. He is without excuse. As are we all.

--tpique1

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