Dear Atheist, I am going to be entirely honest with you right from the start and tell you that I dont believe you exist. By that, I do not mean you are not physically in existence. Clearly someone pressed the “send” button” to transfer the letter I found in my e-mail box this morning that reports to have come from you. I see no reason to question its authenticity.
What I mean is that I dont believe you are a true atheist. I dont just say that about you though, I say that about every professing atheist. That is because, from my worldview as a Bible believing Christian, the God who has clearly revealed Himself both through this natural order and in Scripture has told us:
Romans 1: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools…
God does not believe that genuine atheists exist. He has made the truth of His existence known to you and you are suppressing this knowledge with all the mental gymnastics you can muster from a heart in defiance of Him. Actually, that leads me to my first question:
(1) Why do you spend so much time on the internet and in every other possible venue seeking to spew out hatred for a God you say you dont believe in? If he does not exist, why do you seem to hate Him so much?
(2) In your evolutionary material worldview, where all things came from minute particles of matter exploding, can you please explain where personality comes from? For instance, if all there ever was was rock, which rock decided to expand itself to think, to choose, to like, to dislike – and how exactly did it do that?
(Just telling you right up front, if your answer is “matter, if given a whole lot of time developed personality ” you will have lost me. Something without personality cannot develop personality whether left to itself for 5 minutes or 5 billion years. If you then say that science has yet to observe this but I am sure it will, once again you will have lost me. Science has not only never observed it, but it defies all its basic premises. You are merely hoping for something and that is not dealing with the present reality we all have to deal with, the data currently available to us).
(3) You seem hell bent (pardon the expression) on tearing down the God of the Bible suggesting He does not live according to His own standards of goodness. You say that if He is ultimately reponsible for all that is and all that happens in this world, this raises serious questions about His goodness. But may I ask, where are you even getting the concept of good? Aren’t you having to borrow from my worldview to even find such a thing as moral goodness? How can there be moral goodness in an atheistic worldview? Aren’t you left with only moral preferences – you prefer to eat nicely at a restaurant today rather than go on a genicidal run to exterminate all people from Iceland, but in your system, those who choose the latter are merely those with a different preference for the day. There is no right and wrong when ultimately there is no one to answer to. And if you say that society at large comes up with morality, then nothing is fixed, because society (if we mean by that, what most people in a society think) changes its view regularly (slavery was one considered acceptable in America, and now obviously is not).
As one man observed, “what makes your moral standard more than a subjective opinion or personal preference? What makes it truly binding or obligatory? Why can’t I just ignore it? Won’t our end be the same (death and the grave) either way?”
(4) Why not be a full blown, out in the open, militant racist? If all we are is grown up germs (in an evolutionary/atheistic framework) who cares if black grown up germs or white ones, sit at the back of the bus. We get rid of germs in the sink, why not get rid of grown up germs in our neighborhood?
You realize that because there is an ultimate law giver who has made His will known and to whom all of us in every culture is accountable, I know WHY such a thing is wrong, but where in your system can you say any of this slaughter of people of a different color is morally “wrong”?
(5) I have asked where you get morality. Now I ask you what it is. If everything ultimately must be explained by the laws of physics and chemistry, help me understand what a morality is (does it have mass, occupy space, hold a charge, have wavelength)?
(6) I know you believe in morality because you accuse God of not being moral enough, so please tell me, how did matter, energy, time and chance result in a set of objective morality? As one man asked so well, “Did the big bang really spew forth “love your enemy?” If so, you have to help me understand that.”
For my part, I believe there is no moral “good” apart from the God you say you dont believe in, and whose character you question.
I look forward to receiving your reply.
Sincerely,
John Samson
“Suppose the first American astronauts to walk on the moon had brought back, along with moon rocks, an oblong black box that appeared from the outside to have been crafted by machines. Suppose further that, when opened, the box contained the workings of a camera: it had parts that functioned like the lens, shutter, and other components of a camera. Obviously, such an object would excite enormous and justifiable curiosity about how it came to be. It is hard to imagine any skeptic’s gaining respect by maintaining that the principle of sufficient reason did not apply to such an object. Equally absurd would be efforts to explain the box in terms of chance, natural forces. The very nature of the object pointed to its having been made by an intelligent being. The human mind properly balks at the suggestion that a cameralike object was produced by chance, natural forces. But then how much more should we reject claims that something far more intricate, such as the human eye, resulted from anything less than an intelligent being.” Ronald Nash, Faith and Reason (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994, p. 135.)
