Belief in God was once taken for granted by many,
but now, not so much.
In fact, a breed of “militant atheists” has
arisen, inspired by the likes of evolutionist
Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens.
Such atheists claim to hold the high ground in
terms of intellect and reasoning, saying that
only the ignorant or foolish would continue to
believe in God in the modern era.
Today, we’ll look at three common objections that
atheists make concerning the existence of God, and
we’ll put them to the test.
So join us for today’s episode of Tomorrow’s World,
"When Atheists Attack!"
♪
Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we
help you make sense of your world through the
pages of the Bible.
Today, we're going to address three common
objections atheists give concerning belief in God.
We’re also going to give you an opportunity to
request our free resource
“The Real God: Proofs and Promises.”
Be sure to note the contact information you might need to
get your free copy when it appears on your screen.
An atheist is someone who believes there is no
God--as distinct from theists, who believe there
is a God, and agnostics, who are uncertain one way
or the other.
Of course, God’s opinion about atheists is made
plain in the Bible, as in Psalm 14:1, where He
inspired King David to write,
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
God liked that statement so much, He had it
essentially repeated in Psalm 53.
Still, God’s take on their lack of wisdom has not
deterred some.
In the early 2000s, the so-called "New Atheism"
hit--championed by biologist Richard Dawkins,
author Christopher Hitchens, neuroscientist
Sam Harris, and philosopher Daniel
Dennett--or as some have called them, the “Four
Horsemen” of New Atheism.
But in reality, the only thing “new” about the “New
Atheism” was the attitude: more militant, more
aggressive--but otherwise presenting the same old
questions as the old atheism.
And we should highlight here at the start:
Questions are good.
We should ask questions.
But when we do, we need to be open to the
answers--even if they aren’t the answers we were
expecting or the answers we wanted.
And we should be willing to put those answers to
the test--especially in a day and age like ours, a
period prophetically described in the Bible as
a time when “truth is fallen in the street”
and convincing lies are far
easier to come by.
So, what do you do when an atheist comes to you with
questions?
Well, frankly, you should evaluate the scenario
first.
Sometimes someone doesn’t really want answers--they're
just looking to “score points,” and even if you
answer their question, it goes in one ear and out
the other.
Yet, we should be able to answer, and the Apostle
Peter encouraged Christians in the first
century to make sure they were ready to do so, to
the best of their ability.
In chapter 3 and verse 15 of his first letter, Peter
writes that we should
“sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be
ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason
for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear....”
And, really, being ready for
that defense is not just for the sake of your inquisitor.
You need to know, for yourself, that God exists,
that He is real, and that He is involved in both
world affairs and your life.
So--how do you answer when someone questions your
faith in God?
For the rest of today’s program, we’re going to
tackle three common questions atheists ask.
Here’s the first: “If God made everything, who made God?”
We’re starting with this one, because it is a quick one.
Someone who asks this is making a classic category
error.
The world around us--all the matter, space, and
energy--had a beginning.
Both the most up-to-date science and most rational
lines of inquiry agree: The universe and all the
matter, space, time, and energy that is in it had
to have a beginning--whether that
beginning was the famous Big Bang or something
else.
And, having a beginning, it had to have a cause of
some sort.
But God has no beginning.
He is not among the things that are “made”--and
having no beginning, He requires no creator.
The Bible makes the distinction in these
categories plain in John chapter 1 and verse 3.
Speaking there of the pre-incarnate Jesus
Christ, through whom the Father created all things,
John writes,
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was
made that was made.”
There are those things that are made, and then there is God, who
existed before and apart from those things.
The world around us--matter, space, time,
and energy--had a beginning, and, therefore,
has to have a cause--a reason for it to come into
existence.
And I like to quote from Julie Andrews’ character Maria
in The Sound of Music on this point: “Nothing comes
from nothing.
Nothing ever could.”
Therefore, there must be a cause for the universe that
exists apart from the universe’s matter, space, time,
and energy--a timeless
cause that precedes all matter, space, and energy.
And God fits that description--and asking what
made Him is to misunderstand what and who God is. We’ll jump
into the next two questions in just a moment.
First, I want to give you an opportunity
to request today’s free offer,
“The Real God: Proofs and Promises.”
The forces in today’s world that want
you to doubt in the existence of God, His care
for you, and His plans for you are many.
You need to prove for yourself that He is real.
As the late Roderick Meredith used to say on
this program, you need to know--and know that you
know--that the Eternal God is very real.
And you need to know the promises He holds out to
you.
Take this time to request your free copy of
“The Real God: Proofs and Promises,” and I’ll be
right back to address what you should say when
evolution inevitably rears its head.
You don’t want to miss it.
For today’s free offer call...
Or go to...
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will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
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World magazine.
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Welcome back.
In the previous part of today’s program, we
addressed the question,
“If God made everything, who made God?”
We can summarize the answer: “No one.
Unlike the physical universe, God is eternal
and had no beginning.” The person who asks
misunderstands, or misrepresents, what the
word “God” even means.
In fact, you could add, “Without something fitting
God’s description, there would be no universe at
all.” That last point is important, because
sometimes atheists accuse believers of hiding behind
a “God of the Gaps”--that is, claiming that
believers only use “gaps” in scientific knowledge as
evidence that God exists, but that, as those “gaps”
are filled, the evidence for God supposedly evaporates.
You could imagine this as saying that someone
ignorant of how the water cycle works on earth might
believe that a divine being just creates rain
from nothing and, thus, rain becomes a “proof” that God
exists.
Then, when scientists discover the water cycle,
that “proof” evaporates, like a shallow puddle on
the sidewalk on a hot day.
It is the “God of the Gaps” fallacy that many
atheists have in mind when they ask the following
question: “Why do we need God if evolution explains
everything?”
After all, evolution is the reigning scientific
dogma of the day and is considered by many to be
one of the crowning achievements of science
and human reasoning.
So, if evolution really does explain everything,
why do we need God?
In answering this question, we need to
recognize at least three mistakes revealed by the
question.
First, the theory of evolution doesn’t explain
“everything.” The origin of the universe, the laws
of physics and mathematics,
consciousness, objective morality--the list of
things for which a transcendent God remains
the best explanation is long.
When they say “everything,” they usually
mean evolution explains life.
And I can understand why someone would be sensitive
about this.
The existence of life on planet earth definitely
demands some sort of explanation.
But does evolution explain it?
That is the questioner’s second mistake.
The theory of evolution is far from sufficient to
explain the wondrous variety of life we see on
earth, let alone the origin of that life.
Finally, when we take an honest look at the
complexity of life--its interwoven systems of
dependence,
the collection of complicated organs and
nerve networks that must work together in a
mind-bogglingly coordinated way...
the abstract coding and error-checking systems of
DNA--again, when we take an honest look at
life’s complexity, we find that the current theory of
evolution is far from able to explain that
coordinated complexity.
In fact, the idea that evolutionary theory does
currently explain all of these things is generally
a facade, and there is currently a great deal of
debate about how to address the theory’s
persistent shortcomings.
The UK newspaper The Guardian recently reported
on the turmoil in the evolutionary sciences:
“Strange as it sounds, scientists still do not
know the answers to some of the most basic
questions about how life on Earth evolved.
Take eyes, for instance.
Where do they come from, exactly?
The usual explanation of how we got these
stupendously complex organs rests upon the
theory of natural selection.”
Then, after
summarizing the usual evolutionary tale of the
gradual development of the eye, the article
continues: “This is the basic story of evolution,
as recounted in countless textbooks and pop-science
bestsellers.
The problem, according to a growing number of
scientists, is that it is absurdly crude and
misleading.” “For one thing, it starts midway
through the story, taking for granted the existence
of light-sensitive cells, lenses and irises, without
explaining where they came from in the first place.
Nor does it adequately explain how such delicate
and easily disrupted components meshed together
to form a single organ.
And it isn't just eyes that the traditional
theory struggles with.
“The first eye, the first wing, the first placenta.
How they emerge.
Explaining these is the foundational motivation of
evolutionary biology,” says Armin Moczek, a
biologist at Indiana University.
“And yet, we still do not have a good answer.
This classic idea of gradual change, one happy
accident at a time, has so far fallen flat.””
In fact, one could go so far as to say that, if
random mutation and natural selection really
did create all life on earth, then evolution
would have to be evidence that God does exist,
because all of the giant, coordinated, improbable
leaps evolution would have to take would require a
Divine Being to help it along.
It seems that, to prop up their own faith,
evolutionists tend to depend on their own “God
of the Gaps.” Or, perhaps, their “Darwin of
the Gaps.” In actuality, the complexity of life
positively and forcefully argues for an intelligent
source behind its creation.
Only intelligence has ever been observed to be able
to create such complicated,
purpose-oriented structures as what we see
within even the simplest of lifeforms.
Appealing to God’s existence and agency as an
explanation for life is not hiding behind a “God
of the Gaps.” Quite the contrary--the intelligent
design present in all life is positive evidence for
the existence of intelligence behind life.
If the atheist wants to avoid the conclusion that
God exists, evolution is not a sufficient hiding
place.
Maybe the third question we are going to cover
today will do the trick.
It is, after all, one of the most popular questions
many atheists ask.
And we’ll cover it next.
Before that, let me pause to give you another
opportunity to request today’s free resource,
“The Real God: Proofs and Promises.”
This booklet covers seven
different approaches to proving for yourself that
the God described in the Bible is very real and
very involved with the world around you--and the
future that is now rushing toward us.
Take a moment to request your copy, and I’ll be
right back to explain one of the oldest and most
popular atheist attacks and what you need to know
to defend against it.
Don’t go away.
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
Call now!
Or go to...
Welcome back.
In the first part of today’s program, we
addressed the question, “If God made everything,
who made God?”
We can summarize the answer: “No one.
Unlike the physical universe, God is eternal
and had no beginning.” In fact, something fitting
God’s description is needed even to have a
universe to begin with.
Then, in the last segment, we tackled the question,
“Why do we need God if evolution explains
everything?”
And we noted that “Evolution doesn’t explain
everything and, in fact, fails even to explain what
it is supposed to: life.” Frankly, believing all the
claims of evolutionists takes more faith than
believing in a Creator.
But the third common attack you might hear from
an atheist neighbor or acquaintance comes with an
emotional wallop, which is often the source of its
strength: “How can God be good if there is so much
evil in the world?”
Of course, history certainly records many
great evils--the Holocaust inflicted on the Jews, the
Soviet starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s,
and chattel slavery in the pre-Civil War American
South are just a few examples.
And for many of our viewers, the presence of
evil in the world hits home in a personal way.
Many of you have been robbed, assaulted, or
abused.
There is no getting around it--our world is filled
with evil.
But if so, the atheist asks, how can God be good?
After all, why would a good God allow such
things?
Is He too weak to stop it?
Or is He just unaware that evil things happen?
If so, then He isn’t really “God.” And yet, if He's
all-powerful and all-knowing, and yet He does
nothing, then they claim He isn’t “good,” and
therefore isn’t really “God” that way, either.
They claim this dilemma simply means there is no
all-seeing, all-powerful, good God to begin with.
So, what do we make of this?
Well, it’s interesting how quick people are to put
the blame on God for mankind’s evil--and,
frankly, that is exactly what the devil would want
us to do.
It is interesting that when Adam and Eve first sinned
by disobeying God and eating from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first thing they
both did was try to pass the buck.
After God asks them about it, we read their
responses in Genesis 3:
“Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You
gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What
is this you have done?’
The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I
ate.’”
So, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the devil.
In fact, if you look more closely, Adam blamed God.
Note, he said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me”.
And to this day, people continue to blame God for
the evil mankind is responsible for.
Consider the evils we mentioned earlier, the
Holocaust, the cruelty of the Soviets, and
slavery--or, for that matter, robberies,
assaults, or abuses.
Those are evil actions inflicted by human beings.
And the blame for them should lie with those
human beings.
Still, the question remains, why does God
allow such human beings to commit evil?
Part of that answer is founded upon the need for
humans to have free will--which must include
the ability to choose to do the wrong thing.
God’s purpose for us requires growing in
character--specifically, learning to possess God’s
own character--to choose the right over the wrong.
And growing in character requires the ability to
make choices--free-will choices, which includes
the possibility of choosing evil and causing
suffering, along with the possibility of choosing
the good and to endure suffering.
When you understand the purpose of God, you come
to understand that the eternal good that God is
producing through His plan of developing His own
righteous character in human beings is of such
reality-altering significance, that it will
outweigh all the evil mankind has ever committed
or experienced.
In fact, the Apostle Paul says just that in Romans 8
and verse 18...
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the
creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons
of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not
willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in
hope; because the creation itself also will be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Notice--the current sufferings we
experience aren’t even worthy to be compared to
the glory to come.
In fact, notice too that Paul says that creation
itself is suffering and will be delivered in that
day to come.
One of the curses of mankind’s sin in the
Garden of Eden was that we removed God as the
caretaker of creation, as if we can do it all
ourselves without Him.
God explains to Adam in Genesis 3, verses 17
through 19 that creation will no longer be
accommodating to man in any special way but will
go its own course.
Mankind needs to learn the full lesson that we need
God, and that attempting to build a world without
Him leads only to suffering--as we are then
left vulnerable to the afflictions of nature, our
own evils, and the twistings and persecutions
of the devil.
If you’re a parent, you understand what God is
doing, if you think about it.
How many times must parents allow a child to
experience a taste of the results of their own bad
choices before they know the lesson will sink in?
Well, in God’s case, He's not just teaching one
child, but literally all of humanity--and the lessons
need to make an impact for eternity.
The stakes of these lessons could not possibly
be higher.
Yet we have God’s promise that, at the time of
restoration of all things, the glory that is revealed
in the children of God will far outshine any evil
that has ever been committed and any
suffering that has ever been experienced such that
they will not even come to mind any more, forever.
We should all pray that time comes quickly.
So, to summarize an answer to this third attack,
“Evil in the world is a consequence of man’s free
will.
Yet God is using our choices to achieve an
eternal good that will far outweigh any suffering
mankind has ever experienced.”
Before we conclude, allow me to take one more moment to
recommend to you our free resource today,
“The Real God: Proofs and Promises.”
This free, easy to understand booklet lays out for you
seven different ways you can come to understand
that the God of the Bible really does exist and really
does have a plan and a purpose for your life.
You need to strengthen your faith in God by
understanding that faith is supported by the facts.
This free item will not only give you proofs for
God’s existence--it will also make plain to you His
promises about your future.
Request your free copy during this break, and
I’ll be right back to explain real, practical
steps you can begin taking right now to personally
strengthen yourself for the times when atheists
attack.
For today’s free offer call...
Or go to...
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you’re calling for the first time, you will also
receive a free annual subscription to Tomorrow's
World magazine.
Ten inspiring issues discussing news, science,
and modern culture will help you make sense of
your world from *a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow’s World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
Call now!
Or go to...
My friends, I do hope you will get today’s free
booklet, “The Real God: Proofs and Promises.” The
fact is, we are living in an increasingly skeptical
world in which God is being effectively shoved
into a corner as the movers and shakers of society
seek to create a civilization that pretends
He does not exist.
Faith in God is under continued and sustained
assault.
Today’s free resource--which will be
sent to anyone who asks for it today, with no
strings attached whatsoever--will highlight
for you seven different approaches you can take to
prove for yourself that God exists...
Not just to know that God exists, but to know that
you know God exists.
But before we leave you, I’d like to highlight one
of the proofs in this resource for you to
consider as you wait for your copy to arrive: The
way of life that God teaches in the Bible
works.
It’s actually the seventh proof we'll detail in the
booklet.
If you will seek to know the God of the Bible and
will be willing to set aside your own
preconceived ideas, your own selfish desires and
outlook, and embrace the way of life Jesus
Christ commands of those who follow Him, you can
become convinced and convicted of the reality
of the God who inspired that Bible.
You will increasingly begin to see in your life,
day by day, the fruit of your choices, and that
fruit will become one of the most powerful proofs
of God’s existence you could ever hope to
possess.
And it can strengthen you in a way few things can
and enable you to stand strong and tall whenever
atheists attack.
Just as God challenges us in Malachi 3:10 to put Him
to the test by obeying Him, I challenge you today
to do the same.
You won’t regret it.
I hope you'll take me up on that challenge--just
like I hope you will get today’s free offer.
and I hope you will come back next week.
When you do, you will find Gerald Weston, Richard
Ames, Rod McNair, and I right here waiting for
you, ready to share with you the hope of the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God, the prophetic end-time
warnings of the Bible, and the life-changing
teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Until next time, take care.
For today’s free offer call...
Or go to...
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow’s World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
The preceding program is
produced by the Living Church of God.