Answers From a Christian

Why I Am Not an Atheist, Agnostic, or Deist

Atheism. I will say, there have been times when I have seriously considered it. All religions come to a point, and I mean ALL religions, where a person has to just take some things by faith. And I know there will be someone who will say there religion has no faith at all, but if you do, I will say, you're only fooling yourself. All religions eventually reach the point where the evidence is not there and one must have trust in God.

As a person who loves logic, at times, atheism has had its appeal. There is the good God, evil world dilemma, which, Lord willing, I shall talk about another time. There is also, though, things like evolution and other scientific evidence against the Bible. There is the idea of religion causing so many problems on earth. What about the emptiness some find in religion or seemingly unanswered prayers or natural disasters? Don't these disprove God?

After reading though, I have concluded that atheism is an idea so utterly ridiculous that I can not believe I ever contemplated it at all. (No, I'm not saying all atheists are ridiculous or stupid or anything like that. Many are quite intelligent.) What I'm saying is that the idea of atheism itself, at its core, is utterly flawed.

Let's take the universe and all it's complexity. I'll humor the modern atheist and say, for total theories sake, not personal belief, but theory, that evolution and the big bang are true, exactly as scientists say. Again, not personal belief, but as theory. So, the world formed over billions of years in a complex way, evolving, quite miraculously in literally impossible odds to be the complex and orderly world we have now. Even though there are "flaws" in the world, the total symmetry and order in the systems created, whether it be the biological compatibility, perfect placement of the planets, water cycle, etc. The total order of the world seems odd to have come about on its own. ESPECIALLY if things evolved. If things slowly changed over time, there must have been some universal law that ordered it to evolve that way or let things know how to evolve. The idea that the world exists at all, is giant proof of the existence of God, even if evolution happened exactly as it is said to have. Who created these "laws" that keep the world in balance? Where did the very first materials appear? To assume must be no god, is equally as bad as assuming there must be a god. We must be open to both possibilities, and as much as people try to point out the world has issues in scientific structure, you gotta admit it was put together expertly well to all just be a freak accident with no planning and just is. That takes just as much faith as saying there is God, more I would think.

Now, all this being examined, I will admit that this does not prove that the Christian God is true. The idea of god is merely that there is an ultimately powerful being responsible for the creation of our universe. Looking at the order, the idea that someone somewhere made the universe makes sense, even if this someone were not the Christian God, whether it be some kind of force, Allah, Zeus, some evil and sadistic god, or even some god that never bothered to contact us. The idea that there is some ultimate creator of the world that is so perfectly put in place just makes sense.

What about evil then? Doesn't evil and pain mean there is no God? The idea that God allowing evil or even being evil does not mean He does not exist any more than the idea that an evil king means a king must not exist. No, I am NOT saying I think God is evil, I am just saying that even if a lot of evil happens in this world, it does not mean God is not real. It means we do not understand the nature of God or do not understand the nature of evil. It does not disprove Gods existence though.

So, the question becomes, if there is a supreme being in the universe over all, has He revealed Himself to us? This leads into why I do not believe Deism (the idea that God is real yet has not intervened on earth) is not true. I believe there are three core reasons why. Keep in mind that the following paragraphs are being written with the assumption that God exists. They are not justification of God existing, but justification of God contacting humanity.

First, there is a longing in the human heart to have a sort of relationship with God. According to Wikipedia, 93% of the world believes there is a god or at least a possibility. Religion is man's attempts to get to God and have some kind of a relationship. Even children of atheists that I have talked to, almost every single one tells me that regardless of what they were told by well meaning parents, they KNOW there is a God of some kind, that there must be. It is as inbred in us as the desire for food and water is. I do not think this desire would be placed in unless God wanted to contact us.

Second, there is a sense of morality. If God did not truly care about the world, I do not believe He would have given us the ability to do good and know right from wrong. Our understanding is darkened, often by our own personal desires, prejudices, and biases, but most humans have very similar moral standards i.e. murder is wrong, adultery is wrong. Even these though may be tainted. The idea that there is this universal right and wrong that often matches the New Testament's despite how people are raised though, is very interesting and seems a bit coincidental to me.

Third, there is a lot of power in religions that evidences that there is clear spiritual power on earth. Sane people do claim to see things like ghosts and demons. People predict the future. People perform supernatural miracles. Whether these individual incidences are the work of God or Satan is debatable, but it is all too clear that there is spiritual power on this earth, allowed and even at times done by God.

In conclusion, the idea that there must be a personal God in the universe, regardless of how you think the universe was created, is a very logical and clear one. It is bounded to the hearts and minds of human beings to seek after and serve this God, whoever He may be. The question then becomes, who is this God? How do I know which of the gods spread out before me is real?