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Part Three
Religions
Chapter XI
The Atheist and Agnostic
Often a person is an atheist or skeptic because he has observed the many inconsistencies in the various Christian denominations.
Things like the dark ages, the “holy” wars of the Crusades, the superstition and anti-intellectual climate that have surrounded much of Christendom, the critical attitudes of pseudo-pious people who consider themselves Christians, have all played a part in abetting skepticism and unbelief.
Therefore, when you witness to a skeptical person, you will often find that you can agree with many things he is unhappy about in the organized religions he is rejecting.
It is important to be kind, courteous, and in every way maintain high standards as you deal with skeptics, because naturally they will be looking for any reason they can find to uphold their disregard for Christianity. Let them see that a person who has really accepted Christ as his Saviour is NOT a hypocrite but is a person who is sincerely trying to live a life that is honest before God and man … not, of course, to be saved, but because he is saved.
God
“The fool said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). More people will fit into the category of an agnostic than that of an atheist.
While the atheist has convinced himself that there is no God, the agnostic doesn’t know if there is a God and doesn’t know if anyone can really know there is a God. Many college students today wonder about the existence and reality of a personal God.
These people need to see that we don’t believe in God just because our parents do, our church does, or because it is “nice” to believe in God, but because we are convinced God is real, alive, and vitally interested in us.
Below are reasons we believe in God:
1. Creation requires a Creator. The owner of a wrist watch knows there was a creator of that wrist watch. Intelligence, thought, and effort were required to make the watch.
Our magnificent bodies, our complex world, our immense, orderly universe, are all evidences of a Creator. It took intelligence, thought, and effort to make us and the world we find ourselves in.
There are LAWS governing our universe—laws of gravity, motion, seasons, tides, wind circuits, etc. These laws presuppose a LawGIVER. Our universe has design and had to have a Designer.
2. The Bible had to be written by God. Further in this chapter we shall mention reasons why we know the Bible is the Word of God. It is impossible for the Bible to have been written by man alone. The very fact that the Bible is written as it is proves that there had to have been a higher intelligence guiding the writers. Because we know there is a God, we can see the logic and reasonableness of God’s writing the Bible. But conversely, because we know the Bible, we can prove there is a God who wrote it.
3. A person who doesn’t believe in God will have to face the problem of trying to substantiate a negative. This particular negative would be impossible to prove. Here is why.
How can a person prove there is no God? Has this person been everywhere within and without the universe? If there is somewhere he has not been, God might be there. Does this person know everything? If there is something he does not know, that something might be God.
4. Thousands of Christians testify that they know God, that they talk to God, and He hears their prayers and proves it by ANSWERING their prayers.
Usually the person who is atheistic or agnostic also tends to feel that he is scientific. To such a person you might point out that no true scientist would reject the testimony of thousands of people that a certain Person exists, has the highest form of intelligence and personality, and loves people tremendously. Certainly, such marvelous claims compel the HONEST skeptic to make a thorough investigation into the matter and not to come to any hasty conclusion that there is no God.
It has been said that when it comes to God and the Bible, an honest skeptic will not be a skeptic very long because after investigation into the matter he will no longer be a skeptic.
To those who don’t believe in God or who think God is dead, let me say, “My God is alive! Sorry about yours!”
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