DOES GOD BELIEVE IN ATHEISTS?
Psalm 19.1-6
S: Atheism
C: Rational belief in God
Pr: THE ARGUMENTS FOR GOD DEMAND EXAMINATION.
Type: Proposition
The ____ argument for God is…
I. CAUSE
II. DESIGN
III. MORAL
IV. SPIRITUAL
V. WITNESSES
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Acknowledge it takes faith to be an atheist.
• Acknowledge that God has given adequate evidence.
• Acknowledge that science is not the only way to obtain knowledge.
• Find God and believe.
Version: ESV
RMBC 18 November 07 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday, we were introduced to a group called the “new atheists.”
Though there are many, these three, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens, stand out because they have written best sellers over the past three years.
These new atheists are nothing less than evangelistic, and are, in a way, militant.
They will not let anyone off the hook simply because they are not neutral regarding theism.
They condemn not just belief in God, but respect for belief in God.
Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil.
A battle has been joined to wipe religion off the map.
Not all atheists agree with the tone of these “new atheists.”
An atheist and Associate Professor from Georgetown University Jacques Berlinerblau questions, “Can an atheist or agnostic discuss any aspect of religion for more than 30 seconds without referring to religious people as imbeciles, extremists, mental deficiencies, fascists, enemies of the common good…(or) irrationalists?”
Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens seemingly cannot.
But I do not question why.
It makes sense to me.
For…
1. Loyal Darwinists understand the implications of their belief.
They understand that…
1.1 There is no God.
ILL Evolution (S)
As Richard Dawkins puts it…
any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything, comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution.
And as a result of the “fact” there is no God…
1.2 There is no life after death.
1.3 There is no foundation for morality.
1.4 There is no purpose to life.
ILL Proof (H)
There was a philosophy professor teaching a course and he warned the class he was going to give them a test. When the day came, he entered the classroom, wordlessly placed his chair on the table and, turning to the blackboard, wrote, “Prove to me this chair does not exist.”
Most of the nervous students began intently scribbling out long dissertations. But one member of the class wrote down just two words, and then handed his paper to the teacher.
The professor had to smile when he read the student’s answer: “What chair?”
I think that is often what happens when a determined atheist is asked to…
2. Consider the evidence (Psalm 19.1-6).
Consider the evidence.
And when that is encouraged, the atheist says, “What evidence?”
But the psalmist says…
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat. (NIV)
Consider this…
ILL Creation (S)
Did you know this vast galaxy we live in is spinning at a speed of 490,000 miles an hour but even at that speed it would take 200 million years to make one rotation?
Did you know there are over 1 billion galaxies just like ours in the universe?
Did you know astronomers have found a wall of stars 40 billion light years long, 20 billion light years wide and 10 billion light years deep and, 1 light year is equivalent to a trillion miles; and they can’t see past it!?
Did you know the sun is 93 million miles away; yet if the earth was any closer we would burn up; and if were any further away life just could not exist?
ILL Creation (S)
Sir Isaac Newton said,
“This most elegant system of suns and planets could only arise from the purpose and sovereignty of an intelligent and mighty being. He rules them all as the Sovereign Lord of all things.”
If you come today as one who does not believe in God, or you are just not sure, please understand that I come to our topic today from a Christian worldview.
I consider it my task today to persuade you in this regard.
I want you to understand this.
It is my hope that you will honestly consider the evidence.
But I do want to say that…
3. There are no absolute proofs.
And I believe there is reason for this, which we will consider later.
But at this point in time, let’s be honest.
We could probably discuss this back and forth all day, and not get any further than we were in the beginning.
There will always be something more to say.
But I do believe this…
4. THE ARGUMENTS FOR GOD DEMAND EXAMINATION.
As I mentioned just a moment ago, I do not believe we can prove God, but I think that we can make a reasonable argument for His existence.
There is so much in this regard that requires thoughtful attention.
If you have a hostile skepticism, you are not likely to understand these lines of reasoning properly.
You certainly can be skeptical, but if you become hostile, you will not be able to think straight through the emotion.
But if you come with integrity – that is with an honest, open mind – and give due diligence to the matter, this just might make sense to you.
OUR STUDY:
Often, when the arguments for and against the existence of God are made, the one making the argument acts like he/she was the first to think of it.
The new atheists come across this way fairly consistently, but they are just rewording the same argument.
The truth is, over the centuries, Christians have dug deeply into the questions of life.
They have long examined these questions with seriousness and care.
Today, we will consider five of these arguments that demand examination.
The first is…
1. What is the cause of the natural world?
ILL Creation (S)
In his book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking retells an old story that has become part of philosophic folklore:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said:
"What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You’re very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it’s turtles all the way down!"
This is a humorous illustration of the concept of infinite regression.
It is the idea that there is no cause.
It just is.
But to many, this is not only a most unsatisfying answer, it also does not make sense.
It is why Thomas Aquinas developed further the idea of the First Cause, that was previously argued by Plato and Aristotle.
According to the concept of First Cause, our universe being finite, contingent and dependent, had a definitive beginning, that was caused by an infinite, uncaused Cause.
Theists believe that an infinite Being, one who had no beginning, explains our existence.
Atheists believe that an infinite chain of events explains our existence.
The difference between the two is that the theist acknowledges that he has looked beyond natural explanations to the supernatural.
The atheist still claims to be looking for a natural, material explanation.
Yet what is infinite transcends the finite, material world.
May I suggest that in positing an infinite regression, the naturalist unwittingly suggests an eternal entity.
ILL Creation (S)
Think of the chain of causation in the universe as represented by a series of dominoes falling. Each domino that topples over is itself knocked over by another domino. The dominoes have been arranged so that, when the first one falls, it knocks over the second one, and so on. The trail of dominoes may be extremely long, but it cannot go on forever, because the whole process is only triggered by the fall of the first domino. If the first domino isn’t toppled, then the second and third and fourth ones aren’t going to fall either. Moreover, the first domino isn’t going to topple itself. It relies on some agent outside the series of falling dominos to knock it over.
This brings us to the second question…
2. Where did the design of the world come from?
The human body is an amazing complex matter, isn’t it?
ILL Design (H)
Comedian Bob Hope once said, “Today my heart beat 103,369 times, my blood traveled 168 million miles, I breathed 23,400 times, I inhaled 438 cubic feet of air, I ate 3 pounds of food, drank 2.9 pounds of liquid, I perspired 1.43 pints, I gave off 85.3 degrees of heat, I generated 450 tons of energy, I spoke 4,800 words, I moved 750 major muscles, my nails grew .01714 inches, and I exercised 7 million brain cells.
Boy, I’m tired!"
ILL Design (S)
One of the most amazing designs in the universe is human birth. The human heart is divided into different chambers. This is to separate the pure and impure blood. One side handles the blood after it receives oxygen from the lungs and the other side handles the impure blood on its way back to the lungs. If blood were to flow through from one side to the other, we would die.
But in an unborn infant, the division between the different chambers isn’t necessary because it gets its blood from the mother and it is all pure. So there is a passage from one side of the heart to the other. And the moment a child is born, there is a muscle that contracts and closes that passage. This is the ONLY time in our lives that muscle is ever used. Let me ask you a question – How many millions of years do you suppose it took for that muscle to evolve?
But let’s keep going…there’s more…
ILL Design (S)
The human eye works by some 40 different parts functioning together. If one of these is not present, the eye will serve no purpose. Each of these 40 parts has its own individual structure. For instance, the retinal membrane at the back of the eye is made up of 11 different layers. One of these layers is the blood vein network, as seen under a microscope. This layer, which has the most intricate vein network in the body, meets the oxygen needs of the retinal cells that interpret light, and thus distinguish 6 million different colors. Each of the other layers has a distinct function. Evolutionists are unable to account for the development of such a complex organ.
Even Charles Darwin struggled with the eye. In a section in The Origin of Species called "Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication” says:
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”
Now don’t think Darwin gave up on trying to explain this according to his theory, but to me…
Over and over again, our world speaks of design…
And design, logically, speaks of intelligence.
It is that simple.
This is why, again, the psalmist declares:
The heavens declare the glory of God…
Let’s turn to physics…
One of the most striking discoveries of modern science have been the laws and constants of physics.
The numbers that govern the operation of the universe unexpectedly conspire in an extraordinary way to make the universe suitable for life.
In other words, the universe is fine-tuned in a way that defies mere chance.
ILL Design (S)
Physicist Paul Davies states:
"The very success of the scientific method depends upon the fact that the physical world operates according to rational principles which can therefore be discerned through rational enquiry. Logically, the universe does not have to be in this way. We could conceive of a cosmos where chaos reigns. In place of the orderly and regimented behavior of matter and energy one would have arbitrary and haphazard activity. Stable structures like atoms or people or stars could not exist. The real world is not this way. It is ordered and complex. Is that not itself an astonishing fact at which to marvel?"
Now we come to the third question…
3. Where did humanity derive its morality?
Where has our morality come from?
Why do we think the way we do?
Why do we act the way we do?
If we have just evolved, what’s the accounting for morality and justice in this world?
If we had just evolved, we have no right to cry out against evil and injustice.
Its just nature, it’s the way we’ve evolved.
It is survival of the fittest!
ILL Morality (S)
You may remember the story of Jeffery Dahmers who killed 17 men, and ate them! In a statement during his imprisonment (before he was murdered) said, "If man is a product of blind chance and there is no God and there is no meaning to life then who are you to tell me what is right and wrong?"
Yet, every one of us would agree that Dahmers’ acts were very evil.
We all have a sense of right and wrong, don’t we?
We may not always agree on what is right or wrong, but we all believe that there are things that are right or wrong.
So where does that come from?
The moral argument says that every time we argue over right and wrong we end up appealing to a higher law that everyone is aware of, holds to, and is not free to arbitrarily change.
Right and wrong imply a higher standard or law.
Because the Moral Law transcends (rises above) humanity, this universal law requires a universal lawgiver.
This, we argue is God Himself.
The fourth question is…
4. Why is humanity so spiritual?
Every culture is religious.
Just like every culture has morality, so every culture has religion.
It seems that every person, in some way or form, claims a spirituality.
It most often shows up at a time of difficulty and stress, when we are faced with life and death issues.
We end up looking for something more.
Where does that come from?
The philosopher Pascal called this the “God-shaped vacuum” that is inside of each one of us.
ILL Existence (S)
Near the end of atheist’s Jean Paul Sartre’s life, he told his friend Pierre Victor: “I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured.”
In short, Sartre was identifying something that was deep inside him, something that I would argue was God-given.
He was finally being open to the creative hand of God in his life.
The final question is…
5. Why do so many give testimony of their belief in God?
Many have accused Christians of an irrational faith.
But when Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, people noticed that, compared to the squalor and general hopelessness of Rome, Christians lived a profoundly different, more hopeful life.
This difference made conversion to Christianity a rational choice.
The Christian faith has been investigated for 2000 years and it has not been demonstrated to be false.
It has persisted through criticisms from within the Christian faith community and from others outside that community.
It has endured because generation after generation have found joy and fulfillment through it.
CHALLENGE:
ILL Evolution (S)
Richard Dawkins was recently asked “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?”
“I believe, but I cannot prove, that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all ‘design’ anywhere in the universe is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection.”
www.edge.org
To shorten that statement, he says, “I believe that all life is the product of Darwinian natural selection.”
What is profound about this statement is the two words, “I believe,” for it is a statement of faith.
He cannot prove it, but he believes it.
That is faith.
Faith!
Faith is what Dawkins describes in his book The God Delusion as the “process of not thinking.”
So my challenge to you today is…
1. Do you have enough faith to be an atheist?
Atheism is a belief system.
It is a belief system that believes that God does not exist.
It is a belief system that informs people how to live without being dependent on the concept of God.
It takes faith to be an atheist.
Make no mistake about it.
There are faith assumptions that atheistic Darwinists, in particular, make.
If you are one, you believe that…
• the world exists in an ordered, knowable nature.
• our sense and intellect are reliable in discovering truth.
• there is a uniformity in nature from the past to future (the “laws” of nature stay the same).
But what I like about this rationale is that I believe in it too.
And I believe this thinking presupposes God’s existence.
The assumptions demand order, logic, design and truth.
These assumptions require a reasonable universe.
Yet, the atheist tries, at the same time, to deny that the reason behind the reasonable universe exists.
It makes Norman Geisler conclude that…
“Darwinism borrows from the theistic worldview in order to make its own view intelligible.”
You see, if there is anyone that has a faith that is not rational, it is not the theist, it is the atheist.
ILL Atheism (S)
Bertrand Russell, a renowned atheistic philosopher, was once asked: “Suppose you have been wrong about the existence of God … . Having denied God’s existence all your life, what would you say to … Him?”
Russell is said to have answered without a moment’s hesitation: “Well, I would go up to Him, and I would say, ‘You didn’t give us enough evidence.’”
This brings me to the second challenge …
2. Can you demand more evidence from God?
If there is a God, can we proudly demand that He behave as we would wish?
It is a statement of pride.
It is a statement that He owes us.
It is a statement that we end up viewing ourselves deserving of an answer.
But there is a different view…
ILL Science (S)
Albert Einstein once said:
“Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble."
Frankly, if you conclude there is a God, humility is the only way to go.
It would be unreasonable to possess any other approach.
The third question is…
3. Is science the only way to obtain knowledge?
The naturalist believes that the scientific method is the only accurate way of obtaining knowledge.
It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.
What is interesting to me is that though the atheist believes that it is unreasonable to presuppose God’s existence because he cannot be tested by the scientific method, he/she may not be so willing to test that same reasoning against other matters.
For example, is it rational to believe that other people have minds?
After all, there is scarcely more material evidence that other people have minds, as distinct from brains, than there is for God’s existence.
If you believe it is rational, you once again return to faith of sorts.
I wonder if a mistake has not been made when we have set up the scientific method as an absolute, as the only way to obtain knowledge.
For how would it ever be possible to prove the spiritual, if it exists, when the only way to test it is by the material, which by definition, it is not?
You see, there seems to be something “soulish” about us that reaches beyond the material and natural.
We may be doing ourselves a disservice if we think the scientific method is the only way to obtain knowledge.
So here is the essence of what I believe when it comes to the spiritual realm…
4. God believes in us and has given us the ability to find Him (Jeremiah 29.13-14; Matthew 7.7).
God believes in atheists!
God says to each one of us…
…when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord…
…seek, and you will find…
You can search for God…and be successful.
God can be observed.
God can be understood.
You see, God reveals Himself to people who are looking for Him.
He does not hide.
But neither does He force Himself on those who don’t want to see the evidence.
He doesn’t overwhelm people who are not interested.
So, where are you in all of this?
Are you willing to examine the evidence?
Are you willing to seek and find?
BENEDICTION:
Thanksgiving Eve
Pilgrimage
Available after the postlude for prayer, counsel, or if you just want to talk…
Seek God today…no matter who you are…no matter where you are spiritually…for when you do, there is good news…He will be found!...seek and you will find!
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Croft, Randy Believing in a God I Cannot See
Ferguson, Danny Why Do You Believe in God?
Gallagher, Frank Once an Atheist
Seel, Anthony The God Delusion?
Vaughan, Aubrey Does God Believe in Atheists?
Westacott, Michael He Exists!
Other Sources:
Carattini, Jill. Know Your Foundation. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, 16 November 2005. Accessed 17 November 2005. Available from http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=1029.
Colson, Charles. A Rational Belief. Christian Post, 13 October 2007. Accessed 27 October 2007. Available from http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071013/29687_A_Rational_Belief.htm.
D’Souza, Dinesh. Who Made God? tothesource, 8 November 2006. Accessed 13 November 2006. Available from www.tothesource.org/11_8_2006/11_8_2006.htm.
Geisler, Norman, and Frank Turek. I Don’t Have Enough to Be an Atheist. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004.
McAllister, Stuart. "You Didn’t Give Us Enough Evidence". Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, 30 November 2001. Accessed 15 November 2007. Available from http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=220.
Robinson, Daniel N. Standing Room Only. 24 October 2007. Accessed 29 October 2007. Available from http://www.tothesource.org/10_23_2007/10_23_2007.htm.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points toward God. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.
