my friend, the friendly atheist, wanted to ask you guys a question:
What are the biggest obstacles you have to becoming an atheist?
I know you’re not trying to become atheists, but I guess I’m looking for things like “Something must have created the Universe, and if God didn’t do it, then what?” or “Atheists have no meaning in their life”… something that’s NOT “I believe what the Bible says.”
i’m curious, too…
Comments
70 responses to “why aren’t you an atheist?”
Im not sure if I understand the distinction between the statement examples. Yet it seems as though you don’t want anything… personal?
a blade of grass. that i don’t need batteries/electricity for my body to keep moving. that there are millions of balls of fire floating in the universe. and mind boggling… the first atom. to all of it…. how? man? higher power?
interesting question… i’m not one because some wonderful person presented the gospel to me and i followed the conviction on my heart to RESPONDING that I BELIEVE. by the way, let me say THANK YOU HOLY SPIRIT for doing your JOB. lol…
The biggest obstacle I have to becoming an atheist?
I’ve been there before. I rejected the idea of God completely for a season of my life, embracing wholly the idea that our top scientists, biologists, and cosmologists could explain our origin completely. I embraced the philosophical idea that all meaning in my life was that which I, myself, ascribed to it. I could live with the idea that this life was all there was.
Then something happened… something I really can’t explain. I heard the gospel message preached and it suddenly made sense to me… for reasons I can’t explain yet today other than to say, “I believe”. I knew the preacher was talking just to me. I suddenly knew that sin was real, and not just some man-made set of societal rules for “proper” behavior. I knew I stood in a precarious position because of my sin, separated eternally from a holy and righteous God, and there was nothing I could do about it in and of myself. I knew that the message that Christ came to die for my sins… to atone for that which I myself could not… I knew it was true. I was forced to confront the fact that I was wrong about every belief I had come to hold precious.
It rocked my world totally, this… faith. I couldn’t do anything but believe.
You see… I couldn’t go back if I wanted to.
I’m not an atheist because I value Freedom:
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have the freedom to have wonderful, deep and abiding peace. I have the freedom to have peace in the thick of adversity, peace in the midst of conflict, peace in the face of opposition, peace beneath the weight of every burden. I have the freedom to lie down and sleep in peace knowing that the Creator of the Universe provides for my safety.
Besides all that, I have freedom to experience joy. I have found that, no matter what the circumstance, no matter how filled with gloom the prospect, no matter how discouraging or disconcerting the difficulty – I can nevertheless tap that reservoir of joy which God has placed into every human heart that has come to Him through Christ. The assurance of His pardon, His power, His presence in every scene of life, has emptied my life of gloom and sadness and filled it with a high and holy gladness. Jesus came to earth to proclaim, in part, a religion of joy. Wherever He went, throughout His earthly life, He brought joy to the sorrowing, cheer to the downcast, and gladness to those who were sitting in the shadow of death. His earthly ministry restored joy to human hearts which had been languishing in the shackles of sin and sadness. He came to do that for me! Jesus says to His followers, “These things I have spoken to you that My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.” Jesus has given me a joy that is so deep, so firm, so sure that the trials of life are but as the ripples on the surface of the sea.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from worry. I have freedom to be filled with passion for the most worthy cause on earth, that of furthering the kingdom of God. I have freedom from slavery to sin, freedom to obey my Creator, freedom to have patience in the face of frustration, freedom to know the will of God, and freedom from guilt.
Besides all that, I have freedom to become more spiritual than any seeker of worldly spirituality, for my soul, encased in this earthly shell is now the residence of God?s Holy Spirit. He uplifts my troubled soul. He is my unfailing comforter. He corrects me. He counsels me. He is my teacher who sanctifies me. I thank the Spirit of the Living God for the assurance He brings me on a daily basis. He brings me blessed and holy quietness. He revives me with life and with power. He cleanses and renews me. He bends me and remakes me. He gives me faith and I live an abundant life because of that faith. I am so very thankful for the Holy Spirit, for He has kindled a flame of sacred love in this once cold, cold heart of mine.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to know that God is pleased with me, freedom to sacrifice for others without feeling used, freedom to have a clear conscience, freedom to actually become a good person in the eyes of God, freedom from bitterness, freedom to be gentle toward those who are hostile toward me. I have freedom to submit to others from a position of inner strength and confidence, and I have the freedom to not only experience grace from God, but the freedom to extend that grace to others.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to love others, freedom to take a one-down position and not lose one iota of value or worth, freedom from anxiety, freedom from the fear of death, freedom from the fear of other people, freedom from the fear of anything that life wants to bring my way. I have the freedom to serve Jesus, freedom to be kind toward those who are not kind toward me, and freedom to do the right thing even when I?m strongly tempted to do the wrong thing.
Besides all that, I have freedom to have an inexhaustible Source of spiritual and moral power. By simply trusting Jesus, He has promised me pardon for my sin, peace for my soul, strength in the hour of trouble, courage in the face of difficulty, power in the moment of temptation – and I receive this pardon, peace, and power simply by trusting that He will keep His promise.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from resentments, freedom to look forward to eternity, freedom to become a man of integrity, freedom from self-centeredness, and freedom to be thankful, wonderfully, wonderfully thankful. I have the freedom to admit that everything that I have is from God and from Him alone, freedom from the need to be rich, freedom to be wronged without it becoming a big deal and I have found the freedom to learn and to grow into Christ-likeness in every single situation.
Besides all that, I have the freedom to hope. The New Testament is filled with messages of hope. I have “the hope of the gospel,” “the hope of the promise,” “the hope of His calling,” “the hope which is laid up for me in heaven,” “our hope of glory,” “hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,” “that blessed hope,” “the hope of eternal life,” “the full assurance of hope,” “the hope we have as an anchor,” “a lively hope” and on and on it goes. This is not some pious wish, but a hope in the sense of a sure confidence. The Christian?s hope, since it is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ is a hope of which I am not ashamed, a hope that is as sure as Jesus Christ Himself is sure. The future holds for me more good that I cold ever hope for.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from my past, freedom from anger, freedom from seeking self-worth in possessions, freedom from the need for popularity, and freedom to love and to be loved without reservation or self-protection.
Besides all that, I have freedom to experience new mercies from God every single day. They are countless, constant, and sure. They greet me in the morning and gladden my heart at noon. They follow me into the shades of night. Because of God?s mercies, there is never a sorrow that I experience that Jesus does not come into with His presence, power and comfort. Neither is there a burden that He doesn?t bear. Jesus? mercies shall follow me all the days of my life; they endure forever and ever.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to admit that I need to change, freedom to revel in the new song of righteousness, freedom from the need for power, freedom from spiritual darkness, freedom to first identify and then to have healthy, kind, generous, and loving friends. I have freedom from shame, freedom from having to be ?right,? and the freedom to trade the lessor and unstable god of self-esteem, for the glorious and solid provision of Christ-esteem. Besides all that, I have genuine happiness. Not happiness as the world understands it, based on one pleasure inducing event after another. No, I have the real deal, because there is only one place where we find real happiness, and that is down at the feet of the crucified Saviour, because only there can we be freed from our sins.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to know the difference between life-giving and life-destroying behaviours, freedom from insecurity, freedom to not feel constrained by the rules of our society, freedom to have a life of meaning and context and purpose, freedom to know the difference between right and wrong, freedom to rejoice in being alive, freedom from the trap of bigotry, freedom from greed, freedom from envy and freedom to come to God with boldness and confidence because I?m shielded by His mercy and grace.
Besides all that, I have been given the freedom to know, to really know the person of Truth. He has revealed to me truth about God, truth about man, truth about life, truth about death, truth about myself, truth about heaven and the truth about hell. Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to know what it?s like to have enough no matter the circumstance, freedom to find pure rest for my soul, freedom to know with certainty that because of my faith, every morning I can put on the breast-plate of God?s approval and to know that God will never leave me or give up on me.
Besides all that, I have freedom to have God either lighten my burden to match my strength, or increase my strength to match the burden. And without fail I have received His strength: strength to stand in the midst of the storm, strength to outlast the bombardment of pain, strength to bear the burden of the cross, strength to resist the onslaught of sin – or having fallen, to tread the path of the prodigal back to the Father?s house and to be assured of full and free forgiveness. These victories are by no means mine. Left to myself, to my own puny powers of resistance or endurance, I will fall short every single time. “Not that I am sufficient in myself, but my sufficiency is of God.”
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from making huge life-decision mistakes, freedom to have a good marriage, freedom from confusion and second guessing, freedom from pride, freedom to give justice, but not to seek it, and I have the freedom to understand that all the good that happens in my life is like a stream that is leading me directly back to the Source. Besides all that, I have freedom to be a brand new creation. His power has displaced hate with love, sorrow with joy, relational war with peace. His power took this man who was morally rotten and transformed me into a trophy of grace. Halleluiah – God be praised!
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from condemnation, freedom to have mercy lavished upon me, freedom from fake and shallow friendships, freedom to NOT say, “Lord, come into my life and change my pain,” but, “Lord, come into my pain and change me.” I have freedom to suffer with and for Jesus, and freedom to forgive.
Besides all that, I have freedom from judgment. He has blotted out my wrongs. He has cleansed me from sin. He is only interested in my broken and contrite heart and today I can praise God because Calvary covers all my sins, past, present, and future. How amazing! How incredible! How wonderful!
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom from the need to achieve, freedom to look forward to tomorrow, freedom from God?s wrath, freedom from putting me first, freedom from the need for position, freedom from the feeling of alienation, freedom to be bathed in the soothing warmth of God?s enormous Love, freedom from dependence on false gods, freedom to have patience in the midst of suffering, and I have the freedom to become more than a conqueror.
Besides all that, I have the freedom to know Who to thank when I?m grateful, for every good and perfect gift is from God. He is the righteous One. I celebrate His glory. I acknowledge His sovereignty. I rejoice and sing the wonders of His grace. How great is my Lord and my Saviour!
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to inherit all of God?s riches, freedom to understand the Gospel message, freedom to know that I?m a disciple that Jesus loves. Great God of wonders, I proclaim your majesty! I exalt your deity! Your eyes are upon the righteous. Your ears are open to their cry. You are near to those whose hearts are breaking. You save those who have a contrite spirit. You are perfect in power, in love, and in purity. May You alone be exalted!
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have freedom to have total assurance in God?s promises for forgiveness, for strength and for eternity. Is faith in this God, as the world sees it, a crutch? Yes, and more than that. Jesus is my stretcher, my chariot, my sole support in each and every circumstance. After all, to what would we look to for help if not to that which is stronger than ourselves? Jesus has tested me and I now know that in every scene of life – in joy and sorrow, in success and failure, in health and in sickness, in moments of crisis when all lesser gods give way, I have trusted Jesus and have found that He is able to carry both me and my burden and bring me safely to the other side. With Paul and with believers of all ages I can say: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him until the Day when He returns.” I and all other Christians have the Divine assurance of comfort in sorrow, strength in sickness, solace in bereavement, help in distress, and ultimate triumph in the midst of dire calamity. And this assurance is signed and sealed in the blood of the Son of God Himself. The world has known no higher guarantee.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have the freedom to do something valuable until my dying breath, freedom to not only accept, but to enjoy my weaknesses, and I have the freedom to give away my time, my money and my self.
Because of my relationship with Jesus, I have the freedom to counter my culture, and the freedom to find contentment in every single situation. This contentment comes from knowing beyond any doubt that, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” “My God will supply ALL my needs.”
Finally, because of my relationship with Jesus, I have the freedom to say to life,
“Rain on, I will not drown, for I am standing on higher ground!”
None of these freedoms were mine prior to my healed relationship with Jesus. I was like a ship in the middle of the ocean with no navigational system. I could go any direction I chose, but I had no idea how to find a safe harbour for my soul. Do I experience all of these freedoms at all times with perfect regularity? No. But this I know. While I?m not who I should be. And I?m not who I?m going to be. Thanks to God alone, I?m not who I used to be.
And that is why I’m not an atheist
The universe is simply way too amazing to be a coincidence.
Also I cannot deal with the determinism that comes with atheism. In other words, everything we do or say is simply a function of brain chemistry and we have no moral responsibility if there is no god. (Scott Adams calls us moist robots) It seems to me that even atheists know that we are morally responsible to someone
Wow, that’s a hefty response a few people north of me. I wish I wasn’t so impatient- it’s probably good stuff.
I’m not an atheist (any more) because of all that pesky apologetics proof. Oh and then that massive life transformation that happened is pretty difficult to explain if there wasn’t a new heart thing happening.
Oh and Louie Giglio. If he gets off the train, I’ll probably bail out too.
Im not an atheist and never will be because God has proven himself to be faithful to me. Little things, big things. God’s mercy in keeping me alive, God’s provision to supply all my needs, God keeps his promises. He has proved himself to me. There is no doubt that God is in charge of my life and the lives of all who live and ever lived on this earth. Experiencing God’s faithfulness, his love, his grace, his mercy all keep me following him. Because I know there is nothing greater than what he offers me. I read Psalm 139 this morning and was once again reminded that every day is a gift, and that God is in control: (v16) “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
simple – prove to me that there’s no God
oh and i forgot – if i were an atheist then no more big giver’s banwuats
I was an atheist for years. I told my friend that if God really existed, he’d prove himself to me. And he did.
It took a long time and I thought I’d “won” but when my guard was down, he showed me everything he’d spent my lifetime preparing me for.
I was a borderline atheist for a few years. I guess I was more agnostic — “maybe there is, maybe there isn’t and I don’t care either way” sort of thing.
I am not an atheist because there is no hope in that. None. There is no purpose in life at all. Only questions and weak answers to our existence.
Plus God grabbed hold of me and my heart is wrapped around his little finger so to speak. There is nothing like being in love with God. And no one will understand that until they are also in love with God.
Hope. Purpose. Love. Eternal peace.
That’s my top four list that kept me from deciding to become an atheist. Instead, I decided to follow Christ. There is no love like that which Christ has shown. None.
I have trouble imagining things just happening.
I have seen too many births. To realize that a baby came from 2 things that were no bigger than a pinhead.
I hear things like stars we see are really dying stars that we see multi-years later. (sorry I don’t know my astronomy like some do to be more specific) :)
I see people cry, laugh, emote, desire something more than they have inside even before they are conscious of God.
I read about the resurrection of Jesus, the most attested to fact in history.
I see order and chaos almost in a juxtaposition and yet things still hold together. The planets, the suns, the universe, that which we see/don’t see and yet all things function as they are supposed to. When they don’t chaos happens. I know this is a wrong argument to use but I am convinced that if God chose to remove His finger from the order all would be chaos and destruction and devastation.
Life would be a train wreck if there was no good to offset the bad.
what holds me back from becoming an athiest? I want to write a really good answer. One filled with scripture and such, but then that would go against the “I believe what the Bible says” stipulation…
I can’t explain it because it’s supernatural. Spiritual. Not subject to the boundaries of an explanation. Through God’s choice (this would be the unexplainable part), His Spirit pursued me, helped me see and provided a way to respond to him.
Sounds so foolish and mystical…weird even. The Bible does talk about that part too. Of course my faith in God sounds foolish. It does even to me sometimes and I very deeply believe Him.
I guess I would say I’ve had too much of a personal encounter with God for me to believe it wasn’t all real.
I am not an atheist because whether I believe in God or not doesn’t matter. He is and always will be. I am grateful though that I do believe because I really want to hang out with Jesus. It’s what I put all my hope in.
For instance, if one day all of a sudden I decide I know longer believe, it doesn’t make Him any less real. He is still I AM.
Friendly Atheist –
I don’t think I could say anything that CS Lewis (an atheist that turned into a believer) didn’t say better. I recommend “Mere Christianity” to anyone that is an atheist or just seeking to understand how we could believe in any “higher power”, and from there they can at least see why we do believe. From that point, they are free to continue making their own decision. It’s a question that could never be answered simply. That’s why Lewis wrote the book. Hope that helps!
– Friendly Believer :)
Scientists keep trying to convince me that this universe was born out of chaos.
However, I see order to all things created as they fall into chaos (entropy). I see mathematics everywhere. Pure randomness is not possible.
There has to be a source for the order.
Too many things have happened in my life “coincidentally” that looking back on I realize a pattern, a direction, a trajectory emerged – and I cannot intellectually and honestly claim I had anything to do with it. It would be harder for me to believe these events were “accidents” or “natural occurrences” than to believe that I was created by One that has a plan bigger than I could ever dream for my life. It is easier to believe in a Supernatural God than random chance for me.
I would see no reason to continue living.
Sure, I believe “making the world a better place” for our future is a worthy cause but is it truly worth all the trouble? For a bunch of selfish people, that unselfish goal seems pretty strange.
What other reason would there be to live?
Because it takes way more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a Christian. (smile!)
Why am I not an atheist?
Honestly, I’ve tried – or at least I’ve thought about it. After all my friends, all my own doctrines, all my thoughts and everything else let me down, it seemed like it was all a wash. But He didn’t let me down. He didn’t go anywhere. It would be like denying the people who are around me every day – they’re there, and they let me down. He’s there, and when they did He didn’t.
“Trying to be an atheist” would be like me shutting off the only solid in my life. I can’t think of anything more insane.
The biggest obstacles to me becoming an athiest:
1. Because there has to be an answer to the “why?” Science has been quick to tell us “how”….how the world was created, how we evolve, how we’re born, how we die, how we laugh, how we dream, how our emotions work, how a man and woman create a new life…how, how, how. But science cannot answer the “why.” Why was the world created? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we laugh? Why do we dream? Why do we have emotions? Why two genders? Why man and woman? etc…. To be an athiest, I would have to assume there is no “why”…only “how.” And human beings are wired to want the “why.” From the time my children were old enough to utter the word, they have hounded me with that question about every subject under the sun. Man needs to know “why,” not just “how.” I believe God wired man with a profound hunger for the “why” so we would seek Him out.
2. Because sheer logic tells me that it is statistically impossible for all of the precision of the world (despite its elements of chaos) to have occurred by accident. I could put the world’s fastest, most advanced, precise computer in front of you – one capable of astronomical calculations and advanced programming. If I were to suggest that millions of years ago some random particles collided in space and over time, through no creative influence or intelligent design, those particles evolved into that complex computer, would you believe it? Of course not. A thing of such advanced precision must have been MADE by someone, you sould say. Yet, I am amazed how many people are so ready to believe that about a far more complex, complicated and advanced “computer”….MAN. The human body, for example, has to maintain a blood pH level between 7.35 to 7.45. Too much higher or lower than that (we’re talking fractions here), and you’re dead. Random evolution? I don’t think so.
3. Because something deep inside me tells me that there is more to me than bones, tissue, and cellular processes. There is an essence in every human being and it transcends the physical body. If you don’t believe me, you haven’t sat vigil next to the body of a loved one who has died. To believe that you just stop “being” because your biological functions have ceased is just out of synch with what we see behind the eyes of every person we know. There is just something in each of us that goes beyond biology.
My biggest obstacle is that it would be exceptionally difficult to not believe in someone that I have had such an intimate relationship with for virtually my entire life. It would be very similar to deciding that, say, I no longer believe that my mother exists or ever has, despite the fact that she’s an active part of my life and always has been. The splendor of Creation and the sheer complexity of if would be a close second… it takes someone beyond the most intelligent person we could even image to design all this!
I was present at the birth of our children, but mostly because being an atheist is too easy.
Anyone can say all this just happened and so we can do whatever the heck we want because nothing matters. It takes true character – teeth gritting, white knuckled, faith-full character – to live a life believing there’s a God.
I’m not an atheist because I used to be an atheist.
If not for God, I’m quite convinced that I’d be dead by now. I was drinking myself into oblivion many years ago… I cried out to God and he saved my life. If it ended there, that would have been enough, but he keeps showing his greatness day after day.
Love. Love is why I am not an atheist. Because for the first time in my life, I have experience real, true, perfect love. It’s powerful, life changing, and amazing. God opened my heart. And I never want to close it.
Sometimes, when I have nothing else to lean on, I go back to that silly thing we all learned in Philosophy 101. Pascal’s wager. And I think, okay, if I continue to beleive and there really is NOT a God, oh well, nothing lost. But if I don’t beleive and it turns out that I am wrong, that there IS a God, then I am screwed. It seems safer to bet on there being a God. I wish I had a more spiritual answer.
being an atheist seems very lonely…
Atheism’s account of things that matter most to me is inadequate. On materialist grounds, truth, love, justice, and beauty are not real things, because they are non-physical. Or, they are simply terms we assign to what are really material processes.
Atheism is the philosophy of “nothing-but”s. Love is nothing but genes at work, justice is nothing but a meme for cooperative-community-survival, and truth is ultimately unimportant, since your version and mine are both at the bottom, nothing but a chemical reaction. We may disagree, but (nod to Doug Wilson) we’re just two bottles of soda fizzing on the counter, so who cares?
That is what I find unbelievable.
I’ve thought before about why I am a Christian and the answer is simply because I can hear, feel, and see God…hear Him speak to me, feel Him move in my heart, and see Him move in situations. If it weren’t for those things, it would be harder for me to believe that the Bible is true…I’m a logical person who likes for things to make sense and there is a lot about the Bible and Christianity that don’t make sense to me. But, being able to feel God totally surpasses the logistics and makes me believe wholeheartedly Is that how you spell that? :).
The many theories that claim that there is no Creator do not explain where all of the stuff that was not divinely created came from. And that is why I am not an atheist. Their rules defy their own rules.
I really think it takes a million times more faith to not believe in God than it does to believe in Him. Now you might not believe in the Judeo Christian God but to say that everything we see came from absolutely nothing and formed into people is amazing.
A while back I was led to ponder the question myself and started on a little excursion in the blog world that I let die. It was really just for me but if anyone wants to look you are more than welcome.
http://doesgodhavetheanswer.spaces.live.com/
Make sure you start reading at the bottom and work your way up to the top and by all means listen to the Victor Wooten video.
because i can see God’s hand at work in my life and in the lives around me…thanks to Him i can be at peace when my life is anything but peaceful…because when my wife and i “weren’t able to” have children, we were blessed with the most beautiful daughter, that only God could create!!!
I am not an aetheist because before I believed, I felt so lost and hopeless. Belief brought about transformation, along with a peace and knowing. I couldn’t be an aetheist today even if God really ticked me off, because I cannot un-know what I know. The experience has been too powerful and today I cannot imagine life any other way.
I don’t want to be God.
I don’t want ‘you’ to be God, either.
Jesus has done way to much in my life for me to leave Him.
Why Im not an atheist…
Im not an atheist because God called me…of course, but when you really look at it all……most religions are just so easy. This life I was called to is not. If it wasnt true why would I bother? why would I want to give part of my income that i could use other place and ways? why would I want to try and love my enemies? why would I want to help people? I know people that are going to hell too. I dont want that. If i didnt believe and believed what I wanted everyone would go to heaven. why would I want to be persecuted and laughed at for reading the Bible?
I could go on forever, but I think you get the point. Its just too hard and yet so rewarding and life giving to not be true and thats why I believe
One of the biggest things for me is that a long time ago, I decided that if there was nothing more to this life after it’s over, then what’s the purpose?
i want to know my life will go on, and that i won’t just end up with 6 feet worth of dirt on me.
Jesus Christ offered that. Not only that, He offered it with payment paid-in-full.
My biggest obstacle to becoming an atheist is that there’s nothing to gain by being correct.
I’m not an atheist because…
If this is all there is, then I quit.
Note: Don’t worry about me. I’m not an atheist (I don’t quit)
1. I am alive
2. Christ within me
Mike
I went through a period of unbelief where I very seriously considered it. God was not present in my life in any real sense at that time, and contrary to what most churchy people would counsel, it wasn’t because I moved. What I found when I couldn’t believe was that I also couldn’t not believe. I just…couldn’t.
Hope and love (in reverse order). I wasn’t able to achieve that until I found a real relationship with the Holy One.
When God gets a hold of you……there is no other answer…. HE determines it….
I love that about Him…
The truth….
brad – exactly!!!!
The thought that everything happening in this world is doing so without a Grand Master watching over it and intervening is frightening to me.
I can watch and enjoy LOST on tv because I know that even with all the questions, twists, and turns that the show brings, the writers have a plan and it is all coming together in the end. If there was no plan, and no one in control, the show would be a waste of time.
I feel the same way about our existence. not that life would be a waste of time if I was an athiest…I guess I would just feel so hopeless that there might not be a great ending to our story.
Where does that deep sense of justice (that we all seem to have within us) come from if there’s no Creator? I don’t see how something like that could evolve.
that is a good question.
honestly, i cannot fathom the idea of choosing to reject the existence of God. even before i accepted the life and salvation of Christ in 2000, i would have acknowledged the existence of a Creator.
so…the reasons are many, but here are just two for sake of space: there is no eternal hope for atheists; and, i find it incomprehensible that a person would argue that the majesty of the universe and earth is a result of chance.
i hope the “friendly atheist” will encounter the love of Christ…
Psalms 34:8 — open your eyes and see how good God is
Philippians 3:10 — know Christ and experience the mighty power
How can you see a new born baby or the beauty of fall colors or the like and not believe in creation?
My own testimony, like being on the witness stand, is that I have seen God being good to me and to so many other people, and I have experienced what it is to love someone unconditionally and have peace beyond what I would know without Him.
There is nothing like getting alone, reading Scripture or being in a rough situation and having this sense that I am not alone. It is real peace in the middle of war.
That is what keeps me from being an atheist.
louie giglio shaken, not stirred, with the Word….hands down
the reason i am not an atheist is because i can’t possibly see the reason for living if there’s nothing Greater for us than what we have on earth. this is one messed-up place, full of pain and hard times — but the belief in something greater… gets me through and through that belief, God has become more real than the air I breathe each and every day.
Hope.
Being an atheist seems hopeless to me.
What these people said.
And this: I’m sure they exist, but I’ve never actually met a purely logical atheist. I don’t mean they aren’t logical or smart ? they often are. What I mean is that when you probe for their personal reasons for being one, I have (so far) always been able to help them trace their “faith” to a crisis of belief that’s highly emotional in nature. A disappointment, a hardship, a tragedy of some sort that left them feeling that to believe in a God who just let that happen was too painful, that they’d rather believe there was no one out there instead of someone that just “dropped the ball,” so to speak.
The problem is, that’s a decision, not a logical construct. A faith decision, in fact. And in these cases at least, their response is avoiding the why question with an easy out.
Second: It’s an innate human trait to want to be off the hook for what God says we’re accountable for: Our actions, thoughts, words, what we do with our lives. In this way, atheism is like going with gravity, swimming with the stream: A worldview that says I can do what I want, that none of this truly matters so why not find my own way? Sounds great. Ish. I ask you: What would possess millions of people that would make them swim upstream and seek accountability, unless (like the salmon) swimming upstream really is the key to our survival?
Honestly,
I examine my life and see God’s hand every step of the way. Faithful in every moment, every heartache has meaning, every questioned is answered or left unanswered in just the perfect way. All stuff WAY WAY WAY out side of my control or manipulative thinking.
And I heard Jay Mohr the comedian once say… “Even if just one of the millions and millions of ghost stories are true, that means they’re real.”
So I say, even if just one of the billions and billions of testimonies of God is real, then He is real. And He is, and knowing him is the perfect operating system for all the other questions I have about things I don’t understand.
Peace to you Friendly Athiest!
Because LOVE could not exist if God did not exist.
Ask yourself, how could inorganic matter that came from nothing and random chance,(miracle 1), formed to become organic matter (miracle 2), and we are the end product of that random chance process (miracle 3), and then that matter figured out LOVE and moral oughts (miracle 4) ….. and nothing in the above statements can be proven by the known physical sciences (fact).
Now consider JESUS….
For Scripture says: for God so LOVED the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.
We can either accept or reject the claims of Jesus. It is a choice!
The miracle of my children. The complex reproductive system, the forming of our children. Seeing them from their first few weeks via sonogram and watching them grow over the months to watching them poke and prod through my wife’s stomach as they would try to move around, to now holding them in our arms…that didn’t just happen, it didn’t just form together from mush…a loving God formed me and my family and it is so clear to see. Now being the father God’s allowed me to be, I understand the love of my God as my father so much more. There is no way I can now deny he exists…I see him through his creation (my children) and in the other creations around me, whether it be other people or nature. It took careful thought and planning, a genius, a God.
i watched the doctor pull my children from my wife’s womb (c-section). seeing the kids take their first breath. hearing that first cry. watching them grow.
there’s a lot more to it than these examples, but right now they are what sticks out in my mind.
Detail and diversity.
I tried being an athiest, I just stunk at it. I liked Jesus and there was just no denying it. He was either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. Things have happened in my life, where I have literally felt the presence of God (sitting with a dying friend) that have convinced me that He is indeed Lord.
I recommend the book, “The Language of God” by Francis Collins.
Why am I not an atheist?
Because when my life was in chaos, I prayed and in response received peace – peace that surpasses understanding. It wasn’t of this world and convinced me there is a God. Nothing has been so compelling since to convince me otherwise.
Because when I’ve tried, at my darkest moments, to let go of God, He wouldn’t let go of me.
No matter how deep you try to dig your way around or out of God, He’s still there.
Because I was elected.
Mike
i cant do it on my own. i cant do it with out Him. i have been down that road before trying to work everything out on my own. it failed miserably and i was never satisfied..jumping from one temporary high to the next.
I’m not an atheist because my experiences confirm what the arguments affirm: God exists.
The biggest obstacle I have to becoming an atheist is seeing the evidence of death. I did not believe in God for a common reason — the problem of pain and evil in the world. If God existed, how could He allow so many horrific things to happen?
Then, a person I knew well died. When I saw his body lying in the coffin, I was shocked by the realization that the body wasn’t the person. I knew there was more to him than the husk I saw. I first began to entertain the idea that something eternal existed in each person . . . and something eternal had to have an eternal Source.
Another six years went by while I examined different faiths, and decided that the redemptive account of Christ on earth offered the best answers for suffering, and also for the unlikely but common experience of sacrificial love I’ve witnessed.
What are you planning to do with the answers people have given? Just curious . . .
Well….my biggest obstacle to becoming an atheist would have to be that I love Jesus. That sort of sounds funny…but I just want to answer the question correctly.
I just love Him. He’s wonderful. I know it sounds a little silly but it’s true. If I was consider becoming an atheist…it would be to lose someone I love and someone who loves me. I just wouldn’t want to.
There are the obvious generic answers that follow along the same suit as ?Something must have created the Universe, and if God didn?t do it, then what?? or ?Atheists have no meaning in their life? which are totally legitimate answers but can often sound clich? or not reason enough to believe. Everything must have a beginning but from a beginning there must be more reason “at lest it answers that question for me” answers.
So I shan’t give a lecture. All I can tell you is that once you get love of Jesus, when your heart connects with the image of Jesus on cross in the knowledge of who He is and how great His love is instead of it just looking like just a religious icon, when you experience what it is to live as one set free from the guilt and shame of sin, when you know that Jesus rose from the grave and in doing so offers us life and realise how totally, completely, individually, unconditionally (by unconditionally I mean without restraint) you are loved, you don’t want to turn your back on it. In fact, you really only want more of that love. In a world so starved for love, I can’t image living without Him
I am sorry if the church (and I do love the church but we are broken people too) lead you to believe that Jesus wasn’t all about loving you. That, perhaps the church looked to you like a religious group of well meaning people who had to find something to cling on to because the world is too ugly to deal with….
It’s just that Jesus is so beautiful to me, the life He gives so good, I just wouldn’t want to lose Him, even if I was promised a trouble free life, the cost of losing Jesus’ love would be to great.
My biggest obstacle to becoming an Atheist is that I tried it for a decade. I believe on a long enough timeline, it stops making sense.
My background in Atheism: http://www
peace|dewde
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