8 Absurd Things Atheists Must Believe Before Breakfast (Part 3) - Creation Studies Institute
8 Absurd Things Atheists Must Believe Before Breakfast (Part 3)
8 Absurd Things Atheists Must Believe Before Breakfast Part 3
You are sometimes left with the impression that each person gets to decide for themselves. Well why not? If there is no unmoving standard of right and wrong (God), then each certainly decides for oneself. “That may be true for you, but not for me. Who made you the judge?”
What is the solution? Isn’t it the overwhelming scientific consensus that God does not exist? Sadly, many scientists and educators think that way. On the other hand, large numbers of contemporary scientists and educators have a robust belief in God, and their transformed lives attest to that reality.
The longer our life investment in these standards, the more difficult it can become to cut our losses. We’re then likely to operate more from resolve than rationality. In this state of affairs, we may resolutely resist the logic of God’s certain existence. So then, is there a factual basis for belief in God? We’re betting our lives on the answers. Before that, let’s consider a few questions:
I believe you will come up empty on those quests because of the impossibility of proving a negative. The universe is large. How can you know that nowhere in the vastness of space does God not exist? Shrink the quest down to size. You might be able to prove that there is not a spider in the room. You could make a careful and meticulous search and cover the entire area. But spiders come in various sizes. And you could not know for sure that one of the little ones did not scoot past while your attention was focused in the other direction.
So, is it rationally defensible to declare that God does not exist? “Okay,” you say, “Even if it is granted that God may, or even probably does exist, why should we believe in a talking snake?”
Well, not everyone. In fact, there are three powerful lines of reasoning for the open-minded. The evidence weighs heavily toward the factual basis for Eden’s existence. The law of causality, or the relationship of cause and effect, states that outcomes tend to be in a proportional relationship to the causes. For example, a firecracker produces a firecracker-size effect. A hand grenade, a blockbuster bomb, and a thermonuclear device each produce effects proportional to their size, force, and power.
So when we find a universal effect, it would logically follow there is a universal cause. An undisputed truth is that everybody and everything dies. Why? It all goes back to the Garden of Eden and the Snake — Satan, the enemy of life. Tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in research to learn why we age and how we can live longer. And yet we all die. Why? Scripture testifies “In the day you eat thereof, you shall die.” Snake said, “You will not surely die.” All of us know that is universally untrue.
A part of being human is to be self-centered. Can you name even a single problem facing the culture today that is not, in some way, a result of selfishness? We have broken homes, children abandoned by their mothers and fathers, crime, corruption in government, environmental outrages and wars. The list goes on.
“What lie?” Snake (Satan) said. “What we want for ourselves, what we choose is better, and to be preferred, compared to whatever God wants for us.” The charge against God is, “He is not good.” We have all, at one time or another believed the lie and, often, still do. Perhaps that is the rest of the explanation of why we resist, often with monumental resolve, the evidence of God’s existence. And this very declaring of our independence gives us a false sense of empowerment, self determination and control.
Of course, we are not in control in any real sense, as we realize when we buckle up in an airplane. In fact, there is very little we can exercise autonomy over. Unless you are independently wealthy, you have limited choices over where you live and work. You do not get to choose the family you are born into, nor the century or culture. You do not get to choose your gender, your body type, I.Q., temperament, personality, nor coloring. The most important choices we get to make are decisions about whether or not to believe the lie.
Further, there is almost nothing you have that you can hang on to. You cannot be sure you will keep your eyesight, your hearing, your mental capacity, your health, your job, your spouse or your mobility. The one thing you are able to retain is that standing between you and the life for which you were made. Your will. In this, you are sovereign. You can continue in your declaration of independence from God. You can spend your entire life in this state of rebellion and take your last breath and die—unsurrendered to God.
It is believing the Snake that has brought us to the hurting place in which the world now exists.
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